“Tell me, Aiden. I have a right to know.” I’m expecting to see upset in her glare; instead, I see rage. She doesn’t seem upset at all at my admission, more pissed off that I kept the truth from her.
I have to think about it. Really think about it. The information I give her, she can easily bring to the gardaí and have me hung. Not literally, of course, though, I doubt Moore would be opposed to the idea. I mean, it’s not like I’m sharing an embarrassing secret, like I’m a secret cross-dresser and love to be pegged up the arse—Judge Richardson.
“If I tell you,” I pause, internally struggling to weigh the potential consequences, “there is no going back. I don’t mean that you can never unhear the information; I mean, I will never let you go. Do you understand that?”
She freezes, trying to figure out if my words are a threat or a plea for her understanding. Her eyes dart back and forth, searching my face for the answer she seeks.
“If I tell you and you run, I will find you,” I continue. “I won’t stop until I track you down and haul your arse back to where you belong. This is not a game, and I won’t tolerate betrayal or deceit. Make sure that you want to know, because once you do, you’re stuck with me, whether you like it or not.”
“You’ll kill me?”
“No.” I pluck her lower lip gently between my thumb and forefinger. “I could never hurt you.”But that doesn’t mean that I’m averse to abducting you.
“You killed those men?”
I give her a look; I’m not answering shit until she knows what she’s getting herself into.
She said she loved me, but that was before she knew the truth. Now, she has a choice to make—whether to stay and accept the darkness within me, or, well, there’s no walking away from this. She’ll just have to hate me for the rest of her life.
“Why me?” She stares at me for the longest time. “Hypothetically speaking,” Oh, we’re doing this now. “Why would you kill those men for me?”
I smirk, knowing what she’s asking. Now I know what she was searching my face for. “Full disclosure?”
She nods in response.
“It wasn’t love at first sight, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
There is a twinge of disappointment in her eyes, but she quickly masks it with curiosity. “Then why?”
“Hypothetically speaking,” I continue, “I like what I do—love what I do. I will always aim to put down men like that. I can sniff a predator a mile away, and that’s exactly what those two arseholes were.” I run my tongue over my teeth and continue, “Truth be told, I didn’t give you another thoughtafter you left Dandelions.” I tell her about seeing her on the camera’s, tell her everything she already knew, and only when I get to the part I filled in with the bouncers, I disclose a variation of the truth, leaving out the gory details. “You didn’t just fight them off, bug, you had them rattled. You were still semi-conscious when I found you, still fighting. I’m not easily impressed, but that,” I lock eyes with her, “was something else. You’ve got a fire in you, bug, a strength I didn’t expect.” I pause for a moment, letting my words sink in before adding, “Then I saw you in my clothes the next morning.”
“And that’s when you knew you loved me?” she quips.
I snort, earning a slap across the chest. “That’s when I knew I wanted to sleep with you.”
“Charming.”
I shrug.
“So, you don’t love me, you just really admire me.” Her smile doesn’t reach her eyes.
“I didn’t love you then; I never said that I don’t love you now.”
Her head snaps up, her eyes searching mine. “You do?”
“I knew I loved you the day you fell apart in my arms and spit in my face.”
“That was an accident!” She blushes to her roots, her eyes drop to the bleeding bite mark on my arm. “Sorry about that.”
Her delicate hand settles on my jaw as she leans in closer. “You killed those men.” It doesn’t come out accusatory, she’s simply stating facts. In other words, agreeing to the terms I set.
“Yes.”
She pauses for a moment, her hand trembling against my skin. Dark eyes fall to my lips, a smirk forming at the cornerof her mouth. “I don’t need to know the details, but I hope it fucking hurt.”
I lean in closer, our lips almost touching. “Believe me, it did.”
“Good.”
