Just… heavy. Charged. Like every breath between us remembers the sound of bone snapping.
Ethan keeps one hand on the wheel, the other resting near the gearshift, fingers flexing every few seconds like he’s replaying every second of that fight in his head—cataloguing threats, cataloguing what he’d do differently.
Me?
I’m replaying it too, but for a very different reason.
Because I’ve never seen anyone move like that for me. Let alone, never been protected like that. And every strike he threw, lit up something low and feral in me, something I didn’t know I even had.
By the time we pull into my driveway, my pulse has migrated somewhere between my throat and my thighs.
He kills the engine. We don’t speak.
Inside, he slips immediately into security mode, scanning the windows, checking the locks he installed, moving with hard, precise purpose. His shoulders stay tense, jaw working like he hasn’t finished fighting yet.
I leave him to it.
Upstairs, I peel off my clothes without thinking—shirt, jeans, bra, panties—all of it landing in a little messy pile. The quiet should feel dangerous, but it doesn’t.
Not tonight. Not with him here.
I crawl onto my bed and sit back against the pillows, naked, legs loosely crossed, heart hammering.
By the time he steps into the doorway, he’s rolling his sleeves up, still breathing like he’s trying to come down from something dark. He stops dead when he sees me.
His eyes drag over every inch of me.
Slow. Disbelieving. Possessive in a way that makes my skin tighten.
“Lucky Vale,” His voice is rough gravel. “What are you doing?”
I smile, small and sharp. “Waiting for you.”
He exhales like I punched the air out of him. “You should be resting.”
“I am.” I tilt my head. “Just… not the way you’re imagining.”
A beat passes.
His throat works.
“You’re insane,” he murmurs.
“Probably.” I shrug, heat curling low in my stomach. “But watching you tonight…” I search for the right words, fingers brushing my own thigh. “I was terrified. For you. For me. For the entire damn restaurant.”
He steps inside, slow and wary, like I’m the dangerous one now.
“But it also—” My cheeks burn, but I don’t look away. “It did something to me. Knowing the man who can crack bones like twigs is mine. And that he’d burn down the entire world before he let anyone touch me.”
His eyes darken. Completely.
“I don’t like you seeing that side of me,” he says quietly.
“I do.”
His breath stutters.
“I’m not a violent person,” I whisper. “But tonight? You were the safest thing I’ve ever seen.”
