I couldn’t blame her for hyperventilating at the reminder of how close she’d come to death. Someone as good and pure as her, an innocent, would be rattled.
She’s too innocent. Too good.
She was in the business of saving lives while I was in the business of ending them. We couldn’t be more opposite if we tried.
Despite the contrast between us, I had no misgivings about bringing her home to my building where she would be protected from anyone else who’d dare to lay a single finger on her.
While she breathed through her panic, I kept my hand on her back, both to press her down and to offer her something to ground herself on. To remind her that she was alive and not shot. That she wasn’t alone but with me to lean on—if she’d let herself do so.
I pulled into the drive and men filed out from the entrance to open the doors. They wouldn’t need my direction. Those I’d left at the hospital would have given the heads up that I was en route home.
“Where…?” Claire lifted her head slowly, peering around at my drive.
“Come on,” I urged her before getting out, rounding the car, and opening the door.
She sat there still, crouched over and looking so small and scared. “No. No, Mr. Orlov,” she repeated in a whisper. Shaking her head, she made no move to get out. “I don’t want this. I don’t want to be a part of your world, a part of any of this.”
Fuck it.
I leaned in and picked her off the seat, hoisting her into my arms to carry her. She protested, bucking and fighting to get free, but I only held her tighter.
“What you want no longer matters,” I growled. “Because whatIwant is to make sure you are safe.’
She went still, staring me down with no trust in her eyes.
“You were almost killed, targeted for doing your job.”
“That’s bullshit. I wasn’t just doing my job. I was told to treat your soldier off the record, and that, among everything else, makes me complicit!”
I set her down in the foyer, satisfied when Martin closed the doors behind us.
She was in.
She was in my home and wasn’t leaving under my watch.
I’d gotten her here, and I felt a twisted sense of excitement, wondering how much she’d push me. How much she’d fight. Because witnessing the burn of anger and flames of defiance dancing in her eyes beat the instance of fear in them. Hearing her snap at me like this, full of heat and stubbornness, was far superior to hearing her cry out in pain and terror at almost being killed.
Once more, rage was rekindled in my blood. I was tense and impatient to vent at the fact that she’d been threatened at all.
She was too fucking good for that. Too innocent.
Yet, I was doing exactly what I never wanted to. I was guilty of bringing her into my circle whether either of us wanted it or not.
I had to keep her safe. But more than that, Iwantedto keep her near, all so I could further this delight and intrigue of learning everything there was to know about her.
“And now you think that you can get away with kidnapping me and bringing me here?” She backed up a step, getting out of my face to shake her head, incredulous.
“Youwillstay here,” I told her, losing the gentle tenderness that came to the surface after seeing her so scared. “For your protection.”
She firmed her lips in a thin line, glowering at me. Then as she glanced past me, spotting the guards at the doors, she seemed to come to the conclusion that I would be the one to call the shots around here. That my will would be done, not hers.
It wasn’t a lie. I brought her here to keep her safe. If I hadn’t interfered, she’d be dead or taken to be tortured, all for doing her job. If I hadn’t shown up when I had, she could’ve tried the stupid route of going to the cops, who were all more lenient on the Giovannis than any other crime family.
She was safe here, but that wasn’t the only reason I acted on the rash impulse to bring her here.
Give me a chance to lose my fucking interest in you, Doctor.
She was on my mind too much. She was consuming me with dreams and too-vivid fantasies. Crossing the line and breaking my rule to never have women in my life wasn’t going to happen. It couldn’t. I was already stressed about having Anya in my life and being a burden and collateral to worry about.
