another criminal doing what criminals did in the Point.
I was prepared to serve hard time, prepared to watch my life drift by while I stared out through iron bars, but then Titus did some something that shocked us both. He called the district attorney, who promptly turned me over to the state’s attorney general. He begrudgingly explained what kind of info I had on Novak’s operation to the higher-ups, and the next thing I knew I was in a fancy office getting offered a deal if I agreed to testify in the case against the remaining members of Novak’s gang in the federal case. They offered me Witness Protection, offered me a way out, and I couldn’t jump on it fast enough. Titus might hate me and it was obvious what I had done repulsed him, but regardless, he saved me, and I pretty much knew I was going to love him forever for that. I hadn’t seen much good in my life and yet there was a whole big heap of it wrapped up in a towering package of dark masculinity and brooding gorgeousness that couldn’t even look me in the eye anymore.
And now he needed me. Which meant he was going to have to look at me, and maybe, just maybe he could see past all the things I had done and all ways that he couldn’t tolerate me. It was wishful thinking on my part, but after being so close to him yesterday in the office, after breathing him in and watching those sky-blue eyes heat up and cool off with everything he was feeling, I couldn’t stop the longing from crawling all over me. It was so heavy and thick it had kept me up all night. How I had convinced myself Conner was an acceptable substitute for the force of nature that was Titus King was beyond me. One man was a legitimate wonder of this world; the other was a cheap plastic trinket that fell apart as soon as you got it home.
So there I was in the dingy bathroom of the horrible motel room looking at myself in a mirror that was so cracked and so foggy with age that I could hardly see my own face, worrying about how I was going to look when Titus showed up at my door any minute. I knew it didn’t matter. He would never see me the same way I saw him even if there was an undeniable pull between the two of us. However, my vanity and my own need to be my best around him still had me fiddling with my hair and trying to fix my face with the meager supplies I had stashed in my purse. When I snatched Conner’s phone I hadn’t really planned too far ahead. All I had on me were the clothes on my back and what was in my purse, which wasn’t much, but it would have to do. I heard the cardboard-thin door rattle as a heavy fist thudded against it, and took a deep breath to steady myself.
I refused to be barefoot on this disgusting flooring, so my slouchy boots made a harsh shuffling sound across the ratty carpet as I made my way to the door. It matched the offbeat stutter of my heart at the thought of being close to Titus again. I peeked out the little hole in the door and pulled back at the ferocity of the scowl that was already on his face. He hadn’t even seen me yet and he already looked like he wanted to strangle someone.
I barely had the chain off the door and cracked open before he was barreling that big body through the space. I wasn’t the only one who looked like they hadn’t changed clothes since our last encounter. He still had on his wrinkled slacks and wilted button-up shirt from the day before and the bags under his eyes made him look far older than his twenty-eight years. He was only a few years older than me, but right now those years looked like decades. He was missing the tie and his dark hair was messy like he had been running his hands through it.
“We found two dead junkies and busted a drug trafficker at this motel not even two weeks ago. This is the best place you could find to hide out?”
As soon as he was in the room I shut the door behind him and fell back against it. He