"Since when do I make sense?"
A soft, broken laugh. Like nothing I say could convince her she deserves anything but contempt.
She peers up at me, and those glossy blue eyes knock the air from my lungs.
I'm so screwed.
"I don't understand why you're doing this." Her voice wavers. "Why risk everything—your business, your life, everyone you love—for someone who?—"
"Stop."
I pull her into me until the heat of her skin bleeds through that goddamn red dress.
"You want to know why I'm here?"
She nods.
I lean down, lips brushing the shell of her ear.
"Because I spent years trying to forget you. Pretending you didn't exist. Burying myself in work, in money, in anything that would stop me from thinking about the way you taste."
Her breath catches.
"It didn't work." I pull back, lifting her chin just enough to watch her pupils blow wide. "Nothing worked. You completely ruined me, Keira. Permanently. And I've been waiting for any excuse to find you again."
"Tristan…"
"The lockbox wasn't an excuse. It was a fucking gift." My hand finds her hip, fingers pressing in. "So don't ask me why I'm here. Don't ask me if I hate you. The answer is the same as it's always been."
She swallows hard. "And what answer is that?"
I don't respond with words.
I just look at her.
Let her see everything I've been hiding—the hunger, the obsession, the barely leashed madness that ignites every time another man touches what's mine.
"You have to go back now." Each word costs me something. "Before the time is up. And if you're gone too long, he'll come looking."
"I know."
Neither of us moves.
"Tomorrow." I tighten my grip on her hip, and she leans into it. "The garden. Six a.m. Staff and guards change at six-thirty. We'll have half an hour."
She shakes her head. "I don't know if I can."
"Keira."
"I need to think." She presses her palms flat against my chest, but she doesn't push. "This is…it's too much. I can't just?—"
"Look at me."
Those blue eyes lift. Red-rimmed. Exhausted. Still the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
"Do you want me?"
I know I'm pushing. But I need to know before this becomes something more than a rescue.
