you do that?” He pulls his mouth away from my arm and looks up at me, searching my eyes.
“Why did you?”
“Release of pressure. Something I can control.” My admission surprises me more than it surprises Danny, his face remaining straight. “And because sometimes I hate myself.”
He swallows. “I did it because it was me or you.”
“What?”
“Enough people in your life have damaged you, Rose.” He eyes me closely, and I swallow. He has no idea. “I didn’t want you on the list of people I want to kill.”
He wants to kill everyone who’s ever hurt me? That list is a long, long list. And my hope just soared, yet I can only manage a meek smile.
Danny circles my nose with his. Pushes his lips to mine. “After our date, where I promise not to kill anyone, will you join me in bed again?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’m done with pushups.” He slips an arm around my waist and hauls my breathless body into his arms. “Ready for some thigh work?”
“You or me?”
He smiles mildly and carries me to the bed, sitting me on the end and shoving my legs apart. “You.” His rough voice could make me come all by itself. “Squeeze,” he demands, and I strain to close my legs. They don’t move a millimeter, not with his palms keeping them where they are. “Harder, Rose.”
I grit my teeth and fight against his resistance. I get nowhere.
“I think three sets of twenty will do.”
“What?” I choke, alarmed, as he abruptly pulls my panties aside, burying his face between my legs. My eyes roll in the back of my head and my back plummets to the mattress. “Three sets of twenty,” I breathe, smiling when he bites the tip of my clitoris. It doesn’t take him long to get me fisting the sheets, my legs squirming around his head. I pull the sheets over my face, relishing the coolness of the cotton on my blazing skin. It’s coming, I’m there, it’s . . .
I hear a loud bang in the distance, and Danny is quickly out from between my legs, looking lost between drunkenness and alertness. My building orgasm is swallowed up by worry as he jumps up and paces to the door. “Stay there.”
I quickly cover myself as he swings the door open, completely naked, and looks down the corridor. On a curse, he slams it and finds some boxers, pulling them on and grabbing his phone from the nightstand. “What is it?” I ask, getting to my feet and fastening the buttons of his shirt down my body.
The door to his bedroom flies open, and Brad falls in, looking harassed. Ringo follows on behind. “What’s going on?” Danny asks as Brad fights to get his breath back.
“Explosion by the front gates.” He makes his way onto the terrace with Ringo.
Danny follows, his eyes raging holy hell. Every muscle on his back protrudes with uneasiness. “Fuck,” he curses, and I look past him, seeing smoke rising in the distance, a dense, dirty gray cloud that symbolizes ruin. I walk out onto the terrace, my nostrils immediately picking up the smell of burning rubber.
“Get the men together,” Danny orders, brushing past me and retrieving some jeans, tugging them on while I stand on the terrace with Brad and Ringo, watching the smoke ball growing.
I step forward toward the edge, setting my hands on the metal while Ringo and Brad back up into Danny’s room, talking urgently. Their voices morph and muffle as I stare across the grounds toward the main gate. I see a few men running through the gardens, guns poised, shouting panicked orders and instructions as they go.
Apprehension engulfs me, as grim and destructive as the swirl of smoke still rising.
This is my fault.
The shoot-out in Vegas, the jet ski, this. It’s all happening because of me. I swallow, searching for the courage I need to tell Danny. I can’t wait. I need to do it now. I turn, finding him pulling a white T-shirt over his head as Brad talks into his cell and Ringo throws Danny’s boots at his feet.
“Danny,” I say, and he looks up. I expect him to dismiss me, to tell me he hasn’t got time for me right now. But he doesn’t. He comes to me. Kisses me. And looks at me in a way that tells me everything is going to be okay. And then he walks away. “Danny,” I blurt, and he stops at the door, turning to look at me standing motionless