No Escape From War (Trouble for Hire #1) - Cynthia Eden Page 0,36
so close to her, when he wanted her more than anything else in the world? Torture. “Please. Look at me.”
Her long lashes slowly lifted.
“I am sorry.” He could see pain in her eyes, and he hated it. “I didn’t want you running, and I had to keep the cops involved because if I didn’t, Lynn threatened to take you into custody.” The same way she’d threatened earlier. “Keeping you safe is my number one priority. Hurting you wasn’t part of my plan. It was never part of it.”
“You didn’t give me forty-eight hours. You said you would, but you didn’t.” Her lower lip trembled. “I thought we were a team.”
“We are. I will keep working with you. We are going to stop him.” There were tears gleaming in her eyes, and they made him want to promise her anything—everything—if he could just get those tears to vanish. “I will not let Dylan hurt you. I would kill anyone who threatened you.”
“Don’t say things like that.”
Right. He was supposed to keep the darker part of himself separate from her. He’d done that before. Tried to push down who he really was because he’d wanted her so badly. In the end, he’d still lost her because others had known his weakness. “I’m a primitive kind of guy, Rose. A bastard. An asshole. I’m jealous and possessive—especially where you are concerned. When I got that pic of you and Dylan, it took all of my self-control not to immediately kick his ass.” A long exhale. “And now, knowing that he might be behind all of this…knowing that he might try to hurt you…” She needed to understand this. “If he comes at you, I will stop him. No one hurts you on my watch. No one.”
“But you hurt me, War.”
“God, baby…” Pain and guilt knifed through him. “I am so sorry.” Hurting you isn’t what I want. What I want…it is you. He wanted her back in his life. In his bed. He wanted her to look at him and smile. He didn’t want to have her gaze cut away because she couldn’t stand to see him. And when she did peer at him, War didn’t want to find tears in her eyes. “I hate it when you cry.”
“I’m not crying.”
“No, of course not.” He saw a tear leak down her cheek. “What can I do? How can I fix this?”
She took a step back. “Maybe we weren’t meant to be fixed.”
Bullshit. They were worth fighting for. She was. “I don’t have other secrets. I’m not keeping anything else from you. You can ask me anything—from here on out—and I will tell you exactly what you want to know.”
Shaking her head, she turned for the bedroom door once again. “I don’t believe that.”
“No?” He was desperate. “Try me. Fire any question at me. See what I say. Judge for yourself if I’m telling the truth or not.”
Her gaze darted to him.
His head cocked to the right.
“Game on,” she murmured.
War wasn’t sure what she meant by that.
“Fine.” Her hands went to her hips. “What did you think that first time when we met in your bar? You were all smooth and seductive. Was I another in a long line of pickups? Do you use the same routine on us all? Drop that oh-so-dramatic line of, ‘I’ve been waiting for the night when you’d walk into my bar…’ to all the ladies who catch your eye?”
He forced his jaw to unclench. She wanted honesty. He would give it to her. “I only used that with you, and it wasn’t a line. I meant what I said.”
“You’d been waiting for me?” Her tone mocked him. “You didn’t even know me. How can you wait for someone you don’t know?”
“Because, baby, I watched you every night on the news. I had the biggest crush of my life—on you. When you walked into my bar, there was no way I was going to let you leave without at least trying for a shot with you. My hands were sweaty. My heart was about to burst out of my chest. I felt like a freaking sixteen-year-old kid on his first date, but nothing was going to stop me from talking to you.”
Surprise had her lips parting.
“Got more questions?” He motioned toward her. “Ask away.”
“You wouldn’t let me in.”
His brow furrowed. “I let you in my home. My bar. Hell, I gave you keys to both places.” Keys she still had.