“Sergio.” I kept my voice firm. “You’re literally crushing my body right now.”
He lifted his weight off but kept me pinned, straddling me and then slowly moved his hands to my face as he tilted my chin toward him. “Answer.”
“I’ve never met someone so demanding in my entire life. And I live with three overprotective uncles and a twin.”
“Just answer the question, Val.”
I wanted to look away but his gaze held me. “Yes.”
“Yes, what?” he prompted.
“Yes,” I yelled. “All right? You were my first kiss. And now that my humiliation is complete I’d REALLY like to sleep on the couch and try to forget the fact that you probably still have blood on your hands.
“Washed,” he answered gruffly, and when I gave him a doubtful look he pulled one hand up and showed me. “I know how to get blood off my hands.”
“Well if that isn’t the most uncomforting statement…”
“How was it?” He licked his lips again, this time leaning in.
“Bloody.” I refused to suffer more humiliation.
“Val,” he said my name slowly, drawing it out, like he wanted to say it, like I wanted to hear a man say it. Which was so stupid, but when you’re in the moment, when you have over two hundred pounds of muscle straddling you, and looking at you, not through you, how are you supposed to respond? It’s not like I could swoon, I was already lying down and I wasn’t the type, I was more terrified of him than I was attracted.
Mostly.
His blue eyes flashed.
Okay, so not mostly.
But he was violent.
Snapped a man’s neck, snapped… a… man’s… neck!
His hand moved from my chin to my hair and then to the back of my head as he gently pulled me until we were about a half an inch away from tasting one another. “I can do better.”
“Don’t,” I whispered.
He jerked back a bit. “Don’t kiss you?”
“Please.” I was ready to plead with him, like he held my life in the palm of his hand, when really, it was just my heart, but just as important to a girl who needed to build a fortress of concrete and locks around it. “Don’t toy with me.”
“Kissing is just kissing.” He didn’t believe a word that came out of his mouth. I knew it, he knew it.
“Not for me,” I said urgently. “Please, Sergio, please get off of me. I’m tired.”
Surprisingly, he moved off of me and helped me to my feet, but the minute I tried to go back up the stairs he tugged me back. “You’re stuck with me tonight. Don’t worry I’ll sleep on the floor, Frank has a cleanup crew coming in a few minutes, so it looks like I should add another few logs to the fire. You take the couch.”
“But—”
“For once in your life, try not arguing when someone is doing everything in their power to keep you safe, yes?”
“Yes.” Properly scolded, I grabbed the afghan from the chair and wrapped my body in it like a little mummy then lay down on the couch.
Watching him stoke the fire was probably a bad idea, a very bad idea, because the outline of his body in the firelight was beautiful.
It made a girl want to throw caution to the wind.
He was going to be my husband.
And the sucky part.
He would never actually be mine.
“Stop sighing,” he said without turning around. “It’s stressing me out.”
“You? Stressed?”
“Me,” he said in a clipped voice. “Stressed. I am human you know.”
“Hmm.”
“What? No snarky comment?” Another log was tossed onto the fire sending sparks flying into the air. “Nothing?”
“You can kill someone in less than one point two seconds.” I shivered.
“You counted?”
“Not the point.” I turned on my back so I’d stop staring at him like some freak. “The point is, maybe I should learn not to poke the ninja bear.”
“Ninja bear?” he repeated. “I think you can come up with a more bad ass name than Ninja bear.”
“Nope, Ninja bear it is.” I felt somewhat satisfied that his nickname bothered him. “Goodnight.”
“Val?”
“Yes?”
The crackling of the fire was starting to grate on my nerves only because it made me more tense. My body was going to be sore from all of the tightening of my muscles on that stupid couch.
Well, that and the fact I probably had a Sergio sized bruise on my front side from him lying across me.
“Don’t be scared.”
“I won’t.” My answer was quick, swift, because at least I knew that if it came down to me or some random guy who broke into our house, he’d choose me, every time.
And then a thought occurred.
What if his wife was still alive?
Would he choose her or me? Who would he keep alive?
Her.
Every.
Single.
Time.
“Don’t fall in love with me,” he’d said.
Well, don’t worry, I can’t compete, I probably never could.
“Hey, Sergio?”
He turned off the lights and was rustling next to the couch. “What?”
“Tell me a story.”
Groaning, I heard a curse and then. “I’m exhausted, Val.”
“You were the one who said I was a child, and children get stories, I’ll wait…”
“Pain in my ass.”