Chapter One
Amy
The cop seated on my sofa was hot as fuck. It wasn’t just his brooding dark eyes, his square jawline, and the thick muscles evident beneath his tight black roll-neck, it was the way he looked at me, spoke to me, took control of the room.
Did anything ever shake him?
I doubted it.
A quiver of longing went through me, and I stood and went to the window. My friend, Becca, had slipped to the bathroom, leaving me alone with the brooding guy I’d been obsessing about ever since I’d met him a week or so ago.
I glanced in the direction she’d gone and bit on my bottom lip. He was staring at me, as though seeing right into me. A fact made all the worse because I’d just told him about my childhood—spilled the beans on the cult that had claimed the first eighteen years of my life.
I didn’t know why I’d blurted it all out, that wasn’t my style. Barely anybody in my life now knew about The Way Forward and what it stood for—right now, at twenty-eight, I’d have five kids and be pregnant again, their way of repopulating the Earth with pure new souls, potential disciples of the second coming.
Madness.
Brainwashing.
Thank goodness I’d escaped.
His gaze was heavy on me. Almost a caress, intimate, and I spun away to stare out at the leafy Oxford avenue and folded my arms. I dragged in a deep breath.
“Hey, what’s up?”
My breath hitched.
He was right behind me, close, his body heat blasting onto my bare arms and neck.
“Nothing.” I swallowed, the scent of his slightly spiced aftershave circling me.
“There is, I can tell.” His voice was deep and commanding and held a tone that dared to be defied.
I said nothing and hoped he couldn’t hear my heart clattering. Damn, he smelled good!
“You still upset about Becca being kidnapped?”
“That was a fright,” I admitted and turned to face him. “But thank goodness she’s okay. That you all found her.”
“We were always going to find her.” He paused. “You feel better for seeing her?”
“Yes, much.”
“I knew you would.” He tipped his head, and his black gaze bored into mine. His pupils were dark, yet lava seemed to bubble in their depths. What had he seen? What did he know about the world that I didn’t?
I knotted my fingers to stop from reaching out and resting my hands on those defined pecs and absorbing the solid strength of him. I felt weak, confused, my emotions clattering. Nearly losing a best friend could do that to a girl. “Yes, I needed to see that she was okay.” My voice held a small tremble I had no control over.
“I know what else you need,” he said, his voice a low growling murmur that did strange things to my belly and sent heat between my legs.
I pressed my thighs together and locked my knees, willed my cheeks not to flush the way they so often did.
“You do?”
“Yeah.” He slid his fingers into my long blonde hair.
His touch was steady and sure, as though he knew full well I’d let him do that. Presumptive. Yes. Correct that I’d let him? That was also a yes.
I held in a whimper as my scalp reacted to his touch, the hair roots pulling as he captured my hair into a high ponytail, trapping it in his fist and gripping firmly.
