I walk her backward until her shoulders hit the wall, then pin her there with my body. She arches into me, shameless and wanting, and I drag my mouth down her throat to taste the pulse pounding beneath her skin.
"We should stop." I don't recognize my own voice. Wrecked. Desperate.
"Why?"
"Because if we don't stop now, I'm not going to be able to."
She pulls back just enough to meet my eyes. Her lips are swollen, her cheeks flushed, her chest heaving against mine.
"Who says I want you to stop?"
This woman will be the death of me. I could take her right here, against this wall, and she'd let me. Want me to. I can see it in every line of her body.
But not like this. Not in the middle of the night with a stalker fifteen miles away and fear still fresh in her blood. When I haveher, I want it to be a choice. A real choice, made in daylight with clear eyes and no adrenaline clouding her judgment.
"Tomorrow." I press my forehead to hers, breathing hard. "When this is over. When Derek is dealt with and you're safe and you can think straight."
"I'm thinking straight right now."
"Sadie."
"Fine." She sighs, but she's smiling. "Tomorrow. But you better keep that promise, Wolfe Hendrix."
"I don't make promises I can't keep."
I force myself to step back. To let her go. It's the hardest thing I've done in years.
She smooths down her hair and laughs, a shaky sound. "Well. That was..."
"Yeah."
"I mean, wow."
"Yeah."
"Very articulate, both of us."
I almost smile. Almost. "Get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a long day."
She nods, but she doesn't move toward the bedroom. Just stands there, looking at me with those brown eyes that see too much.
"Hey, Wolfe?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you. For telling me the truth. For not trying to protect me from it."
"You deserved to know."
"Most people wouldn't think so. Most people would try to shield me from the scary stuff."
"You're not most people."
Her smile is sunrise. "Neither are you."
She disappears into the bedroom, and I stand in my living room, blood still pounding, body still aching, mind already planning twenty different ways to destroy Derek Whitmore.
Tomorrow. The storm clears tomorrow.
