“So, we should go to bed.”
“Oh, definitely,” he said, his voice deepening, rolling over the syllables in the sexiest way. Heat flared deep in her belly, her nipples tightened, and she curled her toes against the hard wood floor.
“Uhhh.”
It was the only thing she could say at the moment. Her brain shut down when he looked at her like that. It was as if she were some sort of a treat he wanted to devour.
“I think I need a shower.”
“Excellent idea.”
Before she could respond to that, he bent at the waist and lifted her into his arms again. She had never seen a man so willing to carry her around. It was bad enough that she’d brought danger into his life. Now he was acting as if he were her personal way to travel around.
He set her down on the vanity. “What’s wrong?”
“I brought danger to you. Probably to everyone I have ever tried to help.”
“It is not your fault. And let’s be honest, those early interventions when I was still with MI-6 had more to do with my job.” He brushed her hair away from her face with gentle hands.
“Ian.”
“You keep saying my name like that, we won’t make it to the shower.”
She almost said his name again, but she controlled herself.
“When are you going to understand that you can accept help? You don’t have to do this alone.”
“It’s bad enough I brought danger to you.”
He shook his head, then cupped her face, leaning forward to give her a soft kiss that had her heart turning over.
“I’ll stand between you and danger any day of the week.” She opened her mouth to disagree, but he stopped her. “You need to understand that no matter what you do, I will do that. You could run away, or try to because let’s be honest, you can’t get out of here without help. Either way, I would hunt you down and fight every monster who’s after you.”
She felt the blood drain out of her face even as her heart warmed. “No.”
He nodded.
“You don’t owe me, Ian.”
“Aw, Delilah, I’m not doing it because of that.”
“Then why?”
“Let’s talk about that later. I think we need a nice shower to clean off and rest easy.”
He reached over to the standing shower and turned it on. Without a moment of hesitation, he tugged his shirt off. With his back to her, she saw the bullet wound he got in Istanbul and the knife wound from Moscow. She had felt them earlier, but it was different seeing them like this.
She slipped off the vanity and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her body against his.
He covered her hands with his. “I need you to take precautions, Lila. You have a whole team to help you.”
She knew that request took a lot of out of him, so she kissed the faded knife wound.
“I’ll try my best. It will be hard, but I will attempt to let your team help.”
He let go of her hands to pull away and turn to face her. “You have too many clothes on, love.”
She really wished he wouldn’t use that term with her. Ian used it as affection, and while she was half British, it was still messing with her mostly American brain. It didn’t mean that he was in love with her, but it was hard to control her body’s reaction.
