I do want to devour her.
I want to take all the rage she’s feeling, all the rage I’m feeling, and burn it out of us. I want to kiss her until she forgets her father’s name.
I lower my head.
My mouth hovers over hers. I can taste her breath. It’s sweet.
I’m going to kiss her. I’m going to cross the line.
Crash.
A peal of thunder splits the sky outside. It shakes the building.
The sound snaps me back to reality.
I blink, the adrenaline clearing.
I look at the woman pressed to me.
I see the bruise on her neck where I choked her. I see the fear trembling in her eyelashes. I see the daughter of the man who saved my life, and the man who betrayed me.
She’s a victim, and I’m her captor.
If I touch her now, it’s exploitation.
Cold, oily disgust washes over me.
I tear myself away.
I shove off the wall, stumbling back a few steps. My chest is heaving. My skin feels tight, overheated.
She slumps against the paneling, her support gone. She brings a hand up to her mouth, looking at me with wide, bewildered eyes.
I turn my back on her. I can’t look at her.
“Cassian...”
The sound of my name stops me cold. Hearing it from her lips sounds too intimate in the dark, stripping away the title of ‘captor’ and leaving just the man.
“Don’t,” I warn. “Don’t speak.”
I need to get out. I need air. I need to be anywhere but in this room with the scent of her and the whiskey.
I walk to the sliding glass balcony door. Rain lashes the glass, driven off the black ocean churning at the base of the cliff far below. I unlock the latch and slide it open.
The storm rushes in.
The wind hits me, carrying cold rain. It soaks my shirt instantly. The frigid droplets sting my face.
I step out onto the terrace.
The slate is slick with water. I walk to the railing and grip the cold steel, looking down into the abyss.
Three hundred feet below, the ocean is a cauldron of white foam and black water.
I close my eyes, letting the rain wash over me. I try to cool the fire in my blood. I try to find the “Ghost” again.
But he’s gone.
