Dammit.
As Nikki started walking, I turned away from the gravestone, unsuccessfully trying to push Mitch’s face from my mind as I strolled next to Nikki. She was in no rush, ambling lightly throughout the graveyard as we moved from the older cemetery back to the open field. My arm brushed hers as we walked, and she lifted a hand to trail her fingers down the inside of my forearm. I shivered under her touch because now, aside from controlling my demon, I was also trying to control my thoughts.
An impossible task.
When she took my hand, I had to resist the urge to yank my fingers from hers when she intertwined them. The gesture was too innocent, too pure, and made guilt and bile swell up in my throat. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to touch her, I still did, more than ever. Now we were treading in dangerous territory, and she was awakening elements of my nature that simply shouldn’t bedirected toward a human.
Because beyond the guilt, something else flared inside me.
Possessiveness.
I had seen the man she so loved up close and personal in a way that would make her skin crawl, and battling inside me was a desire to tell her the truth and a stronger desire to keep her safe. To keep her not only from the truth about her family but from the world that created men like her father. I knew she already had seen too much darkness in her job—impossible to avoid. But my desire was to simply throw her over my shoulder, take her to my home, keep her to be mine and mine alone, and spend our days lost in each other’s embrace as I claimed her, driving into her over and over again.
My angel.
Possessiveness is a dangerous thing for a demon.
Keep her safe from the world. Take her away with you.
We’re territorial beings, persistently pursuing a female until we are able to claim them. Not against their will, it was never about taking them purely in a physical sense. But it was the chase, knowing that from that first spark between you that she wanted you too, and then having her body under your hands and giving her pleasure she’s never dreamed of.
I was territorial over Nikki. I couldn’t help it. She had given herself to me willingly and then the chance was snatched out from underneath me. The time we spent together today opened another side of her to me, and vice versa, and I was starting to feel things that could almost be a crush.
Feelings.
If demons experienced such things.
But protective, possessive, and territorial—I was all of the above.
The demon within me raged at her touch, at the simple feel of her fingers in mine, and I had to control myself not to crushher hand with unbridled power. I wanted to take her right here on the grass, not caring if anyone saw or that the setting was far from what a human would consider appropriate.
I needed her now on a level I didn’t before.
But I had a past with her father that she knew not of and could never know.
So while I internally battled with guilt and self-loathing, sparks still crawled across my skin at the contact between us. When I squeezed her hand, she returned the gesture, and my chest tightened.
I’m not sure I could stay away from her.
NIKKI
Once again, I was assigned to clear and reorganize the evidence locker. Burke obviously still had a stick up his ass from my outburst the other day. While I had managed to keep my mouth shut this morning, although I had to grind my teeth through the meeting and satiate myself with images of launching myself across the table at him, the man wasn’t going to let it go that easily. If I wanted to keep a decent standing at the station, I’d need to keep my mouth shut for longer than a single day. Long enough, in fact, that he’d believe I had let the issue go, and I doubted that would be done within a few days or even weeks. But three years had been a long time to suck it up, and it started to grate on me. I needed better resources, and I couldn’t do it alone.
So, I was stuck working in the station, refused even traffic duty, and trapped inside a dusty room while the sunlight streamed through the high window, teasing me with its warmth. It wasn’t a punishment as such, the work needed to be done andwas important, but it was no secret that Burke assigned certain tasks to those he didn’t like, and his message was clear.
“Kline.”
I looked up at the voice and managed to keep the scowl from my lips. “Torres,” I replied, nodding at her.
Karolina Torres often worked with Officer Kim, and she’d made no secret of her distaste of my performance the other day. After the morning meeting she’d demanded I look for files she knew damn well weren’t stored in our precinct and then insisted I had somehow misplaced them. She was one of the two officers who had not so subtly escorted me from Kim’s wake after I asked his wife a few questions. “Did you enjoy your day off to mourn your father’s suicide?” she asked.
The comment was unnecessary and obvious bait. Unfortunately, it turns out I didn’t have the willpower to let the remark slide without saying something back. “Murder,” I muttered.
She smirked, knowing exactly what she was doing. “It was signed off as a suicide.”
I should have been a stronger person, strong enough to resist some petty teasing. It wasn’t the first time, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Of course, it happened when you made an outcast of yourself and insisted an investigation was done incorrectly, the implication heavy of foul play within the force floating around every conversation but never quite verbalized. But I was raw from yesterday, from the reminder another year had passed, and I could find no reason why a clearly experienced killer would target my father. Sure, he had property, but so did a lot of people. Why him? Without a clear motive and help from the resources I should have access to as a cop, I was running in circles.
I was letting him down, and time was draining from my life around me. Finally, I had actually reached out and grabbed onto someone—Cade—and I didn’t plan on letting him go as long as those sparks flared between us, his easy smile making my legs weak. But I had already damaged several friendships because I wouldn’t let the case go, and I couldn’t help the guilt that bubbled in my stomach, feeling as though I was being selfish by wanting a life.
