There’s no way he’s giving up that easily. He’s just too clever to argue with me. So, he leaves without another word, just one more lingering look at Emma as he walks out.
When I turn back to her, she’s pushed her plate away, appetite clearly gone.
“I’m finished.” Her simmering anger has given way to defeat.
“You’ve barely eaten half.”
“I said I’m finished.” There’s a tremor in her voice now, the stoic attitude from earlier cracking.
I go still. “You need to keep your strength up.”
She meets my eyes, fury underneath the anger. I see it again, that same desperate courage from this morning. She’s not done. She’s regrouping.
Every rational part of my brain screams this is a bad idea, but I’m already moving toward the pantry door.
“In here.” I hold the door open.
Emma’s startled by my abrupt demand, but showing me that she feels this connection between us, even if she doesn’tunderstand it yet. She slides off the stool and walks past me into the pantry.
Trusting me even as she gives me some serious side-eye as she passes.
It’s a narrow space lined with shelves of supplies, and barely big enough for two people to stand in comfortably. When I follow her in and close the door, we’re inches apart, the only light filtering through the gap beneath the door. I scan the roof and the walls, making sure that I’m right, that there are no cameras inside the property.
Kozlov hardly wants to document what goes on here.
She boosts herself onto a low countertop, her legs dangling. The position puts her face level with my chest. “Why am I in here?”
“What I said, about only protecting Kozlov’s investment, that’s not the only reason why I want you safe,” I say, carefully choosing my words so I don’t give away my real reason for being here.
She doesn’t talk, just raises an eyebrow and waits. It seems she’s as surprised as I am by my need to explain myself.
“I said that because that’s the only thing a man like him would believe.”
If I really was one of Kozlov’s guards, just here to keep the men’s grubby hands off her, I wouldn’t explain myself or care about her feelings. And she’s smart enough to know it.
“Why are you telling me?”
Damn it.
“Because…”
I suck in a deep breath as she reaches out and traces a finger down the front of my shirt, feeling the muscles beneath. She doesn’t look up at me, her eyes fixed on where she touches me.
“Because you shouldn’t be here. And while you’re under my protection, nobody touches you.”
“Because?” Emma’s fingertips slide under the edge of my T-shirt, tickling the sensitive skin of my lower belly, tantalisingly close to the fly of my trousers.
My hand shoots out and catches her wrist as I suck in a sharp breath. Finally, her bright eyes meet mine in the gloom, pupils dilated, cheeks rosy, as I grip the shelf behind her, need crashing over me like a wave.
“Don’t.” I grit out. I brought her in here to reassure her I’m not just some asshole who’d hurt her too if he wasn’t afraid of losing his job or his head to Kozlov. Not to lose control. I drag her hand to my nose, inhaling her scent first at her wrist, and then taking those damn fingers to my lips.
“Why not?” She tilts her head back to look at me, fingertips of her other hand catching on my belt, eyes huge. Vulnerable. So fucking beautiful that it’s making me want to fall to my knees.
“Because I’ll get you killed.” The words come out harsh but honest.
“Would that be so bad? I’m going to die anyway.” She spreads her knees slightly.
The invitation makes my blood run hot at the same time that my brain screams in agony from the words she’s speaking, at the truth of what she’s saying.
