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He pulled her to a stop. “The more I learn about the fucker, the more it’s me.” His palm—brand-hot against the cool afternoon breeze—cupped her cheek. “Let me go talk to the club myself. They may be more open with me. After all, my oldest brother made his money from a chain of sex clubs.”

“And I have so many questions about that later.” Addison planted a brief kiss on his mouth. “But I’m coming with you.”

Pulling open the silver door, Oliver motioned for her to precede him into the red-tiled foyer. Ornamental palms in gilded pots flanked a shiny black hostess stand. From behind the stand, a woman in a tight gold dress looked up, a square-jawed security guard next to her.

“What can I do for you?” she asked with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

Pulling out her phone, Addison showed the most recent picture she had of Kyle. “I’m looking for my brother. I think he stopped by here a few months back?”

The woman’s smile evaporated. “We asked him to leave, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Thought a bit of charm could get him in for the evening. Not a chance—Jeff here had to throw him out. Don’t know where he went after that.”

The woman and the guard glared at them until Addison felt no recourse but to back up.

Oliver slid over a card and a hundred-euro bill. “If you remember anything else, or if he comes back, give us a call.”

Neither one so much as nodded.

The walk back to their car was silent.

Oliver started the engine, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.

He was ready to return home, Addy realized. It’d been months since he’d been out like this.

“Thanks for coming with me.” She leaned over the console to catch his lips. “I know it wasn’t easy.”

“No, but necessary. The sooner we find him, the sooner it’s over.”

Chapter 38

Oliver could almost hear the gears turn in Addison’s head on their way home. He pulled out onto the main road and let her do her thing.

A few minutes later, she twisted in her seat and flashed him the usual Addy smile. “The rest of today is all about you. You want cake? Done. Rolling around naked across the floor? Done.”

This birthday was really shaping up.

When he pulled up in front of the house he’d called home for almost three months, the rest of the tension receded. His quiet place. An oasis he got to share with Addy for a bit longer.

Addison had already climbed out of the car by the time he came around to her side.

Pulling her closer, he took a teasing lick of her neck. “Why do you always smell like dessert?”

“Mmm… because I have a sweet tooth?”

He traced her smile with his tongue. “Can the cake wait?”

“It’s your day… you tell me.”

Angling his head, he deepened the kiss. Her fingers dug into his biceps as she pressed closer.

She wanted him. Wanted him as he was. The thought was staggering—humbling and empowering at once. He’d never take that for granted, even after they went their separate ways.

Addison nibbled along his jaw. “I love how this feels against my skin. The abrasion. I feel marked by it. By you. I like it. I like everything about you.”

Her pupils were dark and wide. He wondered if his mirrored hers.

She kissed the corner of his mouth that still had feeling, and the corner that didn’t. She kissed his cheekbones, shattered and rebuilt, the bridge of his once-broken nose. She framed his face and brought him even lower so she could reach his eyes, his scored brow, the scars that marked the perimeter of his face, the nerves that fired and ached deep beneath.

He’d never allow this with anyone else, but he wanted her mouth on him. Everywhere.