That was the wrong thing to say, she could tell from the way his eyes went hard and that muscle in his jaw worked. It wasn’t often that Kit was angry with her—she never gave him reason to be—but he was now.
But Luna was feeling a bit reckless, and she was more than happy to give Kit a fight if that’s what he wanted. “She was my best friend—the only friend I had. And you want me to pretend like she meant nothing? I can’t turn my feelings on and off like you can, Kit—I don’t work that way.”
That muscle was working faster, but he still didn’t react. “The job—”
“Fuck the job!”
Kit had had enough.
One second he was across the room, the next he was hauling her out of the water with a vengeance, but he didn’t hurt her. Even in her mind’s frenzy as she struggled to right herself, she knew he wouldn’t do that.
She could feel the barely restrained anger pulsating out of him, and the rational part of her knew that she should have been more afraid—that she should have heeded his unspoken warning—but it wasn’t fear she was feeling.
“Don’t make me put you over my knee,” Kit growled at her, his fingers dancing over the column of her throat until he had her face in his hand and forced her to look up at him.
It didn’t matter that she was completely naked and pressed against him dripping wet.
He didn’t care that she was soaking his clothes.
He wanted her attention—he had it.
“There is no fuck the job, Luna. You either do it, or you die. That’s what happens when you sign a contract. If you merely wanted his head, I would have laid it at your feet.”
Her heart was hammering in her chest, her breaths panting. “I can take care of myself, Kit. You taught me how.”
“And you’ve shown me that, but you don’t have to do it alone, Luna. What about that are you not understanding? I’d put anyone in the ground for you, you only need ask. So the day you give me a name, I’ll show them what fear really is.”
“Because you’re better at it.”
“Because I love you, Luna. Don’t be daft.”
His words managed to suck all the air right out of her. Every bit of her anger and annoyance and agitation with him disappearing.
“Why is that surprising to you?” he asked, his tone gentling. “You had to have known how I felt.”
“But it’s different hearing you say it.”
Kit’s gaze darted over her face before it softened, and he offered a half smile that made her feel warm inside. “I love you, mi peque?a luna. More than I’ve ever loved anyone.”
Her fingers curled into the front of his shirt. “I love you too, Kit.”
More than the stars.
More than the moon.
More than she had ever thought possible.
She loved him with everything she was.
“I know you’re upset about your friend, and I’m sorry that it happened.” The tension in his shoulders eased. “Aidra is taking care of it.”
What else could she say other than, “Thank you.”
He nodded once. “You did good tonight—mistakes and all.”
But she should have done more, Luna thought.
Not what she had done to Lawrence, but what she hadn’t done for Cat. She should have tried to go after her sooner.
Her throat feeling tight all of a sudden, Luna shook her head. “It doesn’t feel like it.”
Kit sighed, his lips falling to her forehead a moment. “Then let me help you forget that feeling.”
She didn’t know how long it would last, the reprieve he offered her, but she would take it.
For just a while, she wanted to forget.
Part Two
Chapter Fifteen
Present Day …
When she took a breath, Kit was jerked from his own memory of that night and the visceral reaction her words created. It didn’t matter that they were sitting in an office being observed, he was too focused on the way her breath caught—the way she reacted to the stimuli that her thoughts provided.
She was angry with him, sure, but she missed him whether she was willing to admit that or not.
Her gaze found his, open and vulnerable, making him wonder if he reached for her, would she allow him to touch her?
But it wasn’t just her body he wanted—he wanted her. And if she wasn’t willing to give everything, he wanted nothing at all, even if it meant his cock was going to be disappointed.
Trying to tamp down the lust he felt, his mind seized on everything she’d said, focusing his attention on something other than the reminder of how he’d fucked her that night. “There was nothing you could have done,” he said. “Your friend—Cat, wasn’t it?—even if it hadn’t been at Lawrence’s hand, it might have been by another’s.”
Luna blamed herself, but he wasn’t lying when he said nothing could have been done.
And he never did like the distant look she got in her eyes when she spoke of something particularly painful, as though disassociating herself from the memory.
Never in his life had he wanted to fix something the way he felt with Luna. It drove him in a way that he hadn’t realized until one day he had woken up and felt at peace while she slept on soundly beside him.