Simone sighed. “Disappointing.”
He stalked toward her. A slow, intense stalk that made her feel very hunted. Not that she’d let him know a tremor of fear had just darted down her spine. She’d learned to stop showing her fear a very long time ago. At the third foster home she’d lived in. So, instead of letting the fear appear, Simone summoned her brightest smile. “Guessing you did not mean it when you said you’d fallen hopelessly in love with me and you could not live another day without me by your side?”
Ryan stopped. Right in front of her. His expression was all dangerous and dark. Stubble lined his hard jaw, and his eyes glittered. “I never said that I had fallen in love with you.”
Hello, knife to the heart. Oh, such a bad thing to be thinking, especially considering all that had happened recently. “You didn’t?”
“Simone.” A long growl of her name. “I am trying to keep you alive.”
“And I am trying to keep you alive.” Her hand rose and pressed to his chest. Right over his heart. Bare skin. Hot. Tempting. He should really have put on a shirt. But, then again, she liked the view, so she wasn’t going to complain. “Didn’t you see me rush to the rescue? Me and my lamp?”
“I did not need rescuing!”
“Of course, you did.” Now she was just pissed. “You were living a life of absolute solitude and sadness, and then I walked into your world and things have never been the same since.”
“What?” Ryan shook his head.
She kept her hand over his heart. She liked touching him.
“There is no solitude in my life!” Ryan huffed out. “I’ve got a wonderful family that’s always in my business. My sister Agnes can drive me crazy, but I’d do anything for that woman, and she knows it. My brother Nash always has my back, just like I have his. We’re pretty damn inseparable, and don’t even get me started on holidays with them…”
Her hand snatched back. “Good for you.” Was that jealousy biting at her? Sure felt that way. She would never know what it was like to have a wonderful family around her. She’d never know what it was like to have a big holiday with happy laughs and silly gifts being exchanged and…Why did I ever think he was a loner like me? Why on earth had she come to that conclusion? Why had she thought that she’d found a man who was her match?
Maybe I wanted him to be. Maybe I wanted him to be just for me.
“My life isn’t sad.” Rough, hard words from Ryan. “I work cases that make the world safer. I ride adrenaline, I stop bad guys, and I get shit done.”
“Even better for you.” Did she make the world safer? Uh, no. A resounding no. Did she stop bad guys? Again, no. But Simone did like to think that she got shit done. She helped, in her way. Just as she’d helped when she threw the lamp. “He was attacking you. I threw the lamp to stop him. It was a good deed.”
A little furrow appeared between Ryan’s eyes. “I told you to stay in the bedroom.”
“Oh, no.” She pulled a dramatic face. “Shocking twist. I didn’t do what I was told. Horrors!”
His lips thinned. “If I’m keeping you alive, you have to follow orders.”
“Orders are boring. Don’t be boring, darling. Be the adrenaline-crazed badass that I want you to be.” She turned away.
His hand swept out to curl around her wrist. “Keeping you alive is my priority.”
Her gaze dropped. Fell to his strong fingers. A hot surge had gone through her body when those fingers of his wrapped around her. But, then again, she’d felt the same surge when she touched his chest. Touching him ignited her. Problematic, but manageable. “And here I thought your priority was capturing Frederick and Konstantin. My mistake.”
Using his hold, he pulled her back toward him. “Something has made you sad.”
“What?” Her voice rose. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
Why not? She didn’t matter to him. Not like he’d sworn undying love to her. Not like she wanted him to do that. Oh, wait, I kinda do.
“What upset you?” Ryan asked. His thumb stroked along her inner wrist, right over her pulse point. He had to feel the frantic racing of her pulse.
“I don’t know,” she murmured. “Maybe it was the waiter who came to kill me. The gunshots that blasted.” Shouldn’t other guests on the floor have been disturbed? The guards in the hallway had heard the gunfire and come running, but there had not been a peep from any other guests on the floor. And shouldn’t the hotel management have rushed in with their own security team? Something? “Maybe it was seeing you face off with the jerk as you gripped a knife in your hand.” The same hand that circled her wrist. “Flashbacks and all that.”
He let her go. “You’re afraid of me?”
She prepared to lie and deny any fear. But when Simone opened her mouth…“Yes.” Wait, what? Why had that response just whispered out? Simone swallowed. She was not physically afraid of Ryan. Perhaps she should have been physically afraid. She had seen him kill, but he’d done it to protect her. Just as he’d fought in that very hotel suite for her.
He kept being brave and bold and proving that he’d take any risk for her, and each time he did that, her heart softened toward him even more. So what scared her? What really scared her about the whole situation? It was the idea that she might be falling hopelessly in love with someone who was never meant to truly be hers.
