His weight settled into me after he finished and I liked it, the heaviness of him, even though I couldn’t breathe.
I took it as long as possible. When I made an audible gulp for air, Mace heard it and immediately rol ed to his back, taking me with him so I was on top.
We were both stil breathing hard (me alternately purring). I tucked my face into the space between his shoulder and neck and cradled the back of his head in my hand.
As my breathing slowed, the purring breaths stopping, I realized something was happening to me. Something thril ing and frightening. Something like being on the front page of the paper and referred to as a “celebrity”.
But bigger.
And better.
Something that made me think, for the first time in my life, that my luck was about to change.
I didn’t want to test it but I had to.
“Mace?”
“Yeah?”
I didn’t know what to say.
Then I did. “You walked away.”
His arms had been loose around me but they got tighter.
“I was pissed, Kitten,” he said softly.
H e was pissed. And Mace pissed was like a natural phenomenon, a tornado or a hurricane or a volcano exploding or something.
“I was a bitch,” I whispered.
One of his hands came up and tangled in my hair.
“You got reason. Lots of shit happening to you. You can’t keep it inside, it’l f**k you up. So you gotta be able to take it out on someone. That someone is me.” He twisted his head and kissed my shoulder then finished quietly, “I gotta learn to handle you with more care.”
My throat made a noise I couldn’t control, soft and low, like a moan of pain but it wasn’t that I felt the pain, it was that I was letting it go.
His head settled back, his hand twisted softly in my hair and his other arm wrapped tighter around my waist.
“Why’d you give me back my keys?” I asked.
“You told me to.”
“Yeah, but –”
Then my body tensed when Mace interrupted me by saying, “For now, whatever my father told you to do, he’s gotta see you doin’ it.”
Oh my God.
How did he know?
“How did you know?” I breathed.
Mace didn’t answer me, instead he went on, “What we’re not gonna do is play by his rules. He won’t know I’m comin’
home to you.”
“Do you think he’s watching?”