I cut her off. “Don’t lie to me.”
Her mouth snapped shut. She didn’t bother to defend herself. “Tristan, if Gino finds you here?—”
I nodded toward her phone. “Call him if you don’t want me here.”
Looking down at the phone in her hand, she frowned, like she’d forgotten it was there.
I took half a step closer, reached behind her, and pulled the band from her hair. Long, soft tendrils of dark hair spread across her back and tickled the back of my hand. Gathering a handful in my fist, I closed my eyes and buried my nose in the soft, fragrant strands. “Never cut your hair,” I ordered.
When I opened my eyes, I saw her reaching toward my chest. Dropping her hair, I took a hurried step back. “Don’t do that.”
She blinked at me, then little creases appeared between her eyebrows. “Why not?”
“I don’t like to be touched.”
“But you touch me.”
“Because I need to. I don’t like it whenyoutouchme.” I didn’t mind sharing this with her. It was better for her to know the rules.
“Oh,” was all she said. Then, “Why not?”
“That’s a story I’d rather not tell tonight.”
She tilted her head slightly with curiosity, but she didn’t push it.
I stepped toward her again. “I need to taste you again, Luna. Please.” My voice had gone low and husky, but I couldn’t help it. I craved her like I craved air.
She didn’t give me permission, but she didn’t move away as I closed the rest of the distance between us. Her blue eyes held me mesmerized as I shrugged off my jacket and laid it on the bed, then removed my pistol and shoulder harness, leaving it within easy reach. I’d already left my tie in the SUV.
I unbuttoned the top buttons of my shirt, then froze, remembering what was hidden beneath the material, and dropped my hands. I didn’t know how she would react to my scars, and I didn’t want anything to distract her right now.
Her eyes dropped to the skin I’d revealed, but before she could see anything, I took her face in my hands. “Don’t touch me,” I ordered right before I took her lips with mine.
She tasted like sweet red wine, and I drank her in, even as I realized this was why she’d been so calm when I’d broken into her room. I kissed her lips, her jaw, the pulse in her throat… I kissed her until our hearts were racing and Luna trembled beneath my hands. “I want to fuck you,” I confessed. “God, I want to fuck you. But not here,” I told her when she whimpered. “Not now.” Then I stepped away. I had to. My self-control was rapidly slipping.
Luna swayed before me, her lips swollen from my kisses, and her hands fisted at her sides. She didn’t protest when I stopped, but I could see the internal battle she fought in her eyes. I’d grown to know the way her mind worked and the kind of woman she was. And right now, she felt guilty for wanting me when she’d sworn to Gino that she would be loyal to him.
To distract myself from my raging hard-on, I checked out the swelling around her eye. “How is your face?” It was hard to see in the dim light from the bathroom if the swelling had gotten any worse.
“It’s fine,” she told me a bit breathlessly.
“Why did he hit you?”
“I told you why.”
I stared at her until she started talking again. “He apologized to me when I got home.”
This is not your fucking home.The thought surprised me, but I had no time to ponder it as she continued talking.
“He apologized,” she repeated. “And explained to me that he’d only gotten so angry because the perfume he’d bought for me was the same kind his dead wife had worn. And he…he missed her so much and how he’d been so lonely. He said I remind him of her. And that was why he wanted me to wear it. He’s buying me more since I can’t find the other bottle.”
Wait.
Something tugged at the edge of my mind again. A memory that scattered as soon as it started to become cohesive. I watched Luna as she continued talking, telling me how Gino had teared up and groveled, begging her for her forgiveness. I studied the curve of her cheek. The line of her jaw. The slight slant of her eyes. Her pale skin and the way she gestured when she talked.
God fucking dammit.
The memory that had been evading me suddenly exploded in my head, clear as day. I knew why she seemed so familiar to me.
