fucking details. The masked dickhead and his crazy eyes and satisfied smirk. The thick black silencer. The world fading away from me.
Only now a more macabre image settled in my brain and, strangely, provided me with comfort. Lifeless eyes, pale skin, a slit throat. He was dead and I was alive.
Alive and safe.
And bothered, if the nonstop knocking was any indication.
“One damn minute,” I grumbled, though not loud enough for the incessant knocker to hear me. Vanessa was nowhere to be found and all the lights were off except for the one in the hall that led to the front door. I stood slowly and found a note on the counter in an unfamiliar handwriting.
At the main house so you can sleep peacefully. My number is in your phone if you need me. ‘Nessa.
More knocking.
I took my sweet ass time and not just because every step caused a shooting pain to dart from my head to my toe, blurring my vision and nearly buckling my knees. But the constant knocking was already starting to piss me off and I wasn’t at anyone’s beck and call. Exercising more caution than I had at House of Ashby, I opened the wall panel to reveal the hidden cameras aimed at the spot outside my front door and gasped at the sight.
Terry, holding a stupidly big bouquet of flowers as he knocked. Impatiently.
Several deep breaths later, when I was sure I had my silly heart under control, I opened the door with an impassive expression. “Terry. What are you doing here?”
He took a step forward, and I took a step back, refusing to let his masculine scent intoxicate me, or make me act like a fool. Again. “I came to see you.”
“A little late for that, don’t you think?”
His broad shoulders fell and his light blue eyes turned sad but resigned. “I don’t know. Is it too late, Kat?”
My mouth formed to say the word ‘yes,’ but my heart zipped my lips, willing me not to do something stupid. Something rash.
“Why now, Terry? Why not before I was shot? Why not when I was in the hospital near death?”
“I had some business to take care of,” he admitted. “These are for you.” He shoved the flowers at me like an anxious little boy, as if they would bite.
I eyed the oversized arrangement and the heavy crystal vase that housed them and backed away.
“I can’t carry them. Too heavy. Doctor’s orders.”
Somehow, he’d won the first battle, an unintended invitation into my home, a place he’d steadfastly avoided since I moved in right after college.
“How are you feeling?”
I shook my head. “Don’t act like you care, not now. I wanted you there when I was lying on that table waiting for the anesthesia to kick in, not knowing if I would live or die. I needed you there when I woke up in the middle of the night, screaming in pain. Screaming at the memories that wouldn’t quit. That’s when I needed you, Terry. Not now.”
His blond head bobbed up and down in understanding. “I know and I’m an asshole. Worse, I’m a coward.”
“Definitely an asshole,” I shot back and crossed by arms, but the effect was ruined by the yelp of pain I let out. Okay, can’t be too bitchy just yet.
“Where do you want these?” He nodded at the vase and took a few steps back, his eyes silently pleading with me to follow him.
I did because it was Terry, and what the hell else could I do?
“I’m not sure yet. Why are you here?”
“I love you, Kat. I am in love with you.” His shoulders relaxed completely as the words, totally sincere, left his mouth. “I don’t deserve your love, and I sure as shit don’t deserve a second chance, but that’s why I’m here. To beg you to give me—give us—another chance.”
Hell yes. I went to cross my arms again before my brain reminded me of the blinding pain from moments before.
“Why now? Because you feel guilty that I could’ve died without knowing or because I almost died?”
“Neither. Both.” His lips lifted into an uncertain, vulnerable smile that turned my insides to mush. “Because the few short weeks we had together, they were amazing. Hell, they were the best goddamn weeks of my life, and not just hearing you scream my name and learning what makes you come.”
My heart raced at his words, and if it could have, my belly would have clenched with desire. As it was, his words caused an