Pawn (The Pawn Duet #2) - T.M. Frazier Page 0,17

like I did when I was with him.

I wonder if he’ll ever forgive me for leaving like I did or if he even cares that I left?

Probably the latter, considering I brought him nothing but trouble while I was there, but even that thought feels wrong as I remember how caring he was. How he touched my leg and held my hand as I told him and Nine the truth about my father, the truth about why I was involved with the Reich in the first place.

I rest my forehead on my knees, lost in my own thoughts and an overwhelming sadness.

A loud stomp echoes in the small bathroom, and my head shoots up to find the very source of my thoughts standing above me.

Pike.

“You,” I breath, clamoring to my feet.

“Expecting someone else?” Pike drawls, eyes raking over my body. There’s heat in his eyes along with something else. It’s pain. The same pain I saw reflected when I told him I had him figured out in his pawn shop.

“No, but…why are you here?” I ask, smoothing down my skirt and feeling just as nervous as I did when he approached me for the first time in his garage. He has the same dark warning in his eyes that he had that night. An icy tremor breaks out at the base of my spine, causing my entire body to shiver.

“I have a question for you.” Pike stalks forward, closing the space between us. His masculine scent along with his nearness wraps around me. “Do you know what it’s really like to kill someone? To have blood on your hands? And I’m not talking about the physical act of taking someone’s life. I’m talking about what it does to you. What you’ll feel after. It’s not as easy as you think. It’s not something you can’t undo, and it may not be something you can come back from.”

Suddenly, I go from happy he’s here to enraged. “Why? Because my mind has broken before, and you think it will break again? You don’t think I’ve thought of that? That I know the risks?”

He cages me in, backing me up to the one of the three sinks. “I don’t want you to go to a place you’ll never come back from. It’s selfish, but I don’t want to lose you. I can’t.”

“I…have to do this,” I say, my voice shaky.

His nostrils flare. “What exactly is this grand plan of yours, Mic? Because whatever you do, it won’t bring them back, and it will probably wind up getting you killed.”

“It doesn’t matter if I die or not,” I try to explain.

“It matters to me,” Pike seethes.

I suck in a breath. “Why?”

He looks me over and frowns. “I’m not sure, but it does. It matters more than anything.”

I shake my head. “No. I don’t. You can’t—”

He wraps a strong hand around my wrist.

“No!” I wrench out of his grasp. “People who care about me end up getting hurt or killed. So you see, you can’t care about me.”

He grabs me and pushes me back against the sink. He holds my jaw, forcing me to look into his eyes. “The only person who can hurt me right now, is you. It’s your fucking move, Mic. Make sure you make the right one.”

“How?” I ask, feeling a stabbing sensation over and over again within my chest. “What choice do I have?”

He lowers his face until his lips are hovering over mine. “I’ll tell you…after.”

“After what?” I ask, but no sooner do the words leave my mouth that his lips are on mine. Devouring me along with any thoughts I had about anything else.

There’s only me and Pike.

It feels right. More so than anything has over the past few days.

Pike looks and smells like a woman’s version of a wet dream. Or maybe, that’s just my reaction to him, although that sounds ridiculous even as I think it because there’s no woman alive that wouldn’t be affected by his strong shoulders, his wide gate, the casual unaffected hard stare in his blazing eyes. Hormone-driven response or not, I’ve never wanted anything more in my life than I want to feel Pike’s hands on me, the weight of his naked body on mine, the warmth of his skin wrapping around me as he thrusts his hot cock inside of me.

My cheeks burn with redness, and suddenly, the humid night air is too much to bear. I’m a prisoner in my own clothes.

I yearn for Pike to free me from