Torn - Cynthia Eden Page 0,32

to understand them.

Just as he pulled up another newspaper account of her father’s trial, he heard the squeak of the hardwood floor, a soft sound, just beyond his door.

He froze.

Then he heard the squeak again. For one wild moment he thought it might be Victoria, coming to him. But the lady had been pretty damn adamant that she wasn’t looking for a bed partner that night. When a woman walked away and shut her door pretty much in a guy’s face, it was a hard hint to ignore.

But if it wasn’t Victoria . . .

Then who the hell was tiptoeing around outside his room?

Silently, he rose and stalked to the door. He didn’t have a weapon, but he wasn’t about to let that fact slow him down. Because if someone was on the other side of that door, then Victoria could be in danger.

And that wasn’t fucking happening.

He curled his hand around the doorknob and turned it silently. He’d shut off the lights in the outer room before heading into his bedroom, so darkness filled the area when he crept out of his room. His eyes adjusted quickly, and in seconds he could see the form standing there.

Halfway between his room and Victoria’s.

He rushed forward, moving without a whisper of sound. He grabbed the shadowy form and—­

Lavender.

Sweet, tempting lavender. Sweet, soft woman.

And he was holding her too hard. His hands were too rough. He needed to back the hell off—­

Not hold her tighter.

“Victoria!”

He’d pulled her body against his. He should let her go. He didn’t.

“Sweetheart, what the hell were you doing?” Walking in the dark? Sneaking around? She was—­

“I was coming to you.”

Wade shook his head. Hell, no. No, that made zero sense. Why would she turn him away and then seek him out?

“I needed you,” she told him, her voice husky. He’d just grabbed her in the darkness, but she didn’t sound afraid. Not at all.

Her hands were on his chest. “I don’t want to hurt you,” Victoria said.

He was the one who’d grabbed her so that now they were pressed—­body-­to-­body—­as intimately as lovers.

We are lovers.

“But I need you,” she whispered. “Why do I need you so much? I was in my room, and I couldn’t stop thinking about you. About the way you make me feel. About the way you make me forget everything else.”

Wade locked his hands around her hips and lifted her up against him. He knew he held her far too tightly as he moved unerringly in the dark, but there was no way he could let her go. Her arms wrapped around his neck and he felt the faint whisper of her breath on his cheek. “I’m . . . using you,” she said, the words hushed and ashamed. “It’s not . . . right.”

He carried her to the bed. Then he turned off the light. He knew she wouldn’t want him seeing her scars, even though he didn’t care about them.

She didn’t want him seeing her scars or knowing her secrets.

But she wanted him.

And he . . . he couldn’t remember wanting another woman the way he’d started to want her.

“Screw right and wrong,” he said as he lowered her onto the mattress. “It’s us. Us. That’s all that matters.” He stripped off his shirt. Tossed it aside. His laptop was still open, providing a faint glow in the room. Victoria wore a loose T-­shirt, a silky pair of panties, and nothing else.

His fingers slid to the hem of her T-­shirt. He pushed it up slowly, his callused fingertips trailing over her stomach, her ribs, then touching her tight nipples. She was gasping for him, moaning his name. Electrifying him with her need.

He anchored the shirt above her breasts and bent down, leaning over the bed and licking her nipples. She tasted so freaking good. And as he tasted her nipple, strumming her with his tongue, his hand slid between her legs. He stroked her through the panties. He felt her grow damp, wetting that soft silk. His fingers slid under the elastic edge of her underwear.

Then he pushed two fingers into her.

Her hips arched up to meet him even as her sex squeezed him tightly. Fucking perfectly.

Two bodies, coming together in the dark. No past. No promise for a future.

He’d take that. Now. Later . . . later, he’d take everything.

Wade yanked her panties down, pulling them over her hips and jerking them off her feet. Then he unzipped his jeans and had his protection on in seconds. He didn’t need long