Page 1 of Velvet Chains

Chapter One: Kieran

Iwas obsessed with her.

With the way she wrinkled her nose when she was thinking hard. With the freckles on her nose and around her mouth. With the mole at the hollow of her throat.

With the way her finger curled around the trigger of the gun as she pushed it against my chest.

I wanted to tear it from her hand and tell her to stop this madness. I wanted to press her against the wall and kiss her until her lips hurt. I wanted to tell her that she occupied my every waking thought, and that I couldn’t be angry at her—because the idea of anger when it came to Ruby Marquez felt so foreign it bordered on silly.

But I did none of those things.

I waited, arms by my side, and watched her wrestle with whether or not she should pull the trigger. I waited because I had to—because I needed to know what she would choose.

And then the doorbell rang again.

“Do you think our daughter forgot something else?” I asked, just to see her lips tremble. Just to watch the panic in her eyes turn into fury.

“Mydaughter,” she snapped. “Rosie is my daughter, Callahan. Not yours.”

A key turned in the front lock downstairs.

“Ruby? Where are you?” a voice, distant and vaguely familiar, called. “I came as soon as I could. I brought coffee. I assumed, from your message, this was the kind of conversation that needed coffee.”

I dropped my voice. “Don’t you want to put your gun away before your lawyer friend comes up here and catches you in flagrante?”

“I won’t shoot him,” Ruby said, her voice surprisingly steady. She smelled like sex and coconut and blood.

“Will you shoot me?”

Her gaze snapped up to look at me, her hand shaky.

She didn’t answer me. Her mouth hung open, and I watched the ridges of her lips, the way the shadows of the blinds played on her skin.

God, she was pretty. I would’ve looked at her for so long. I could’ve looked at her forever.

I took a step closer, slow enough that she could stop me if she really wanted to. The gun dug against my skin, the barrel hard against my bone.

“Will you shoot me, Rubes?” I asked, quieter this time. “Because if you don’t, I’m not leaving.”

She blinked. Once. Twice.

Her grip faltered.

And then her hand dropped.

The gun didn’t hit the floor, it didn’t go off—but it lowered low enough that I could see the pulse hammering in her throat. She was shaking, but she didn’t look away from me.

“Just because I don’t shoot you right now doesn’t mean it isn’t going to happen.”

“I can’t wait to see that, sweetheart,” I said, voice steady.

Downstairs, the rustle of a coat being hung, the creak of floorboards, Alek’s voice calling again.

“Ruby? Everything okay?”

“Answer him,” I said, letting my lips ghost against her ear. She shuddered at our proximity, leaning in even though I was certain she wanted to strangle me. “He’s worried about you.”

“Up here!” Ruby replied. “Did you run into Rosie and Julian on your way out?”