“Charlie,” I whispered, still facing away. “I can’t—”
Shivers pricked across my skin just as awareness pressed in.
On a gasp, I flipped around. My mouth dropped open wide and I fumbled back.
Lyrik stood in the doorway with his hand on the knob. Shock waves pulsed, and his intense, severe energy surged. Slamming and striking and stealing my breath. Those licking flames he’d left behind blazed to life, singeing me in regret, fear, and a rush of unwelcome relief.
No.
That dark, menacing boy stood like a shadow beneath the hazy light, his face all harsh lines and blunt curves. Even from across the space, obsidian eyes flared. In them, I felt the resistance, like maybe he was fighting the same battle as I and neither of us knew which side we were supposed to be fighting for.
I wanted to scream at him to go and beg him to stay.
Humiliation shivered through me. God, I couldn’t stomach the memories of the way I’d clung to him. Begging him to make it okay like a weak little girl.
I’d ruined everything.
I stepped back, my voice quiet but hard. “Please, just go.”
Panic spread when of course he didn’t listen. Instead, he edged the rest of the way into the office and shut the door behind him. He seemed to ride in on a whirlwind of anger, his jaw clenched, muscles strained and tight. The click of the lock snapping into place resonated in the tense air.
“You know that’s not going to happen. Not now. Not after last night.”
My feet fumbled a step back when he began to advance.
He’d left me sometime in the night. I’d thought maybe he’d had enough. That he’d let me be. And Lyrik West leaving me be was the only thing I needed and the last thing I wanted.
I pressed my hands flat against the wall behind me that prevented my escape. Tremors rocked beneath my feet with every step of his approach. A halo of darkness surrounded him, his potency trembling in the air.
The buzz before the strike.
That feeling just increased as he came nearer and nearer, until he once again had me backed into a corner. Caged. Breathing his breaths and feeling the rapid beat of his heart.
I tried to keep my attention downcast. To hide some more when he’d already witnessed every single thing I hadn’t wanted him to see. But I couldn’t resist when he just hovered over me, not saying a word. As if he were prying whatever answer he sought from my silence.
When I couldn’t take it any longer, I looked up. My gaze tangled with his. Hatred. In his dark, expressive eyes, I could see unfathomable hatred.
But it wasn’t directed at me.
Because they were protective, too.
Somehow he managed to delete another inch between us. Completely closing me in. His voice was rough when he spoke. “Someone hurt you?”
My entire body winced, and I jerked my head away. His hand found my chin, his touch gentle while everything else surrounding him was harsh.
“Please.” I squeezed my eyes closed when he forced my chin up.
“Red.” The way he said it twisted through me like a hot knife. The pain forcing my surrender.
“Don’t shut me out,” he murmured, and his thumb traced along my trembling bottom lip. “You think you can pretend last night didn’t happen? Even if you can, I can’t.”
Hard laughter rocked from me and my eyes flew open as I released the bitterness from my tongue. “I’ve been pretending for years.”
“How many?” he whispered with that same voice that haunted me night after night. “How many years you been pretending? How many years has it been since you let a man touch you?”
I whimpered.
“How many?” he demanded.
“Four.”
I couldn’t keep the word in. It was as if he pulled it from me.
I watched the thick roll of his throat as he swallowed hard, and his attention shot off to the side as if he needed to gather himself, before he looked back. Something desperate coated his severe words. “Did you want it? To be with me?”
The answer was a tight rasp when I finally forced it from between my lips. “Yes.”
The scary thing was how much I’d wanted it.
“Do you still want it?”
Maybe he saw the answer in my eyes, in the way my lips parted and a needy breath left me. Because in a flash, his mouth came down on mine, and his big hands wrapped around both sides of my neck, his fingers extending all the way around to the back.
Possessive.
The shock died on my tongue when he licked at it in a dominating dance. Energy stirred, that thrill I’d lived for speeding free and fast, igniting every nerve ending and skating across my skin.
I moaned, fingers tugging at his hair. “Lyrik.”
“Tell me,” he mumbled against my lips, “tell me you still want it.”
“Yes.”
It was all the response he needed.
He kissed me like I wasn’t the fragile, broken girl who’d crumbled in his arms last night.
A small piece of me fell for him. Right then. Right there.