by Cynthia Eden
With a yelp, Clay yanked his foot back.
Bam. She stared at the closed door. Odin flipped the locks.
“I think I should have talked more to him.” Her head tilted as she nibbled on her lower lip. “I wanted to grill him about his trip and that would have given me a chance to—”
“You need to stop playing.” He took her arm. Pulled her back to the den. It was a gentle pull, sure, but still most definitely a pull.
At the couch, she yanked her arm free of his hold. “I’m not playing at anything.”
“No?” Again, his voice was a dangerous rumble. “You want to go off and have a private chat with our lead suspect.”
Yes, so she—
“Worst fucking idea ever.”
Anger hummed through her. “No, really, tell me what you truly think.”
“It’s the worst fucking idea ever,” he snapped again.
Her eyes narrowed. “At least I am trying to get more information. I hired you on Friday, and we have not made any progress on the case!”
“Are you kidding me right now?”
She honestly didn’t even know what she was doing. All of the tension inside of her was erupting and words were just sort of tumbling out of her mouth. “You ghosted me.” There. She’d said it. What pissed her off. “I thought we were working on this together.”
“From here on out, we fucking are.” A muscle flexed along his jaw. “I’m sticking to you like glue. No more stake-outs down the street. I’ll be here.”
She was lost. “What stake-out down the street?”
“Did you truly think I was just gonna abandon you after the break-in on Friday?”
Yes, she had certainly considered that possibility. That went back to the whole “ghosted” bit that she’d just mentioned.
“I didn’t think you’d like me cramping your style, so I stayed a safe distance back. I wanted to watch to make sure you weren’t having any unwanted guests.”
Maisey needed to be sure she was understanding. “Saturday night…you were watching my house?”
A hard nod.
“Sunday night…you were watching my house.”
“Didn’t I just say as damn much?”
“Why didn’t you come inside?”
His eyes blazed. “Thought it would be better…to have space.”
What did that mean?
“Also, if the perp didn’t think I was here, figured he’d be more likely to make a move.” He heaved out a breath. “Even had eyes on you at the campus. After all, we’d told Clay that you had a backup on your computer there. I wanted to see if he tried to access it.”
“Is that why you were in the parking lot?”
“Clay wasn’t on campus. I’d seen him leave earlier. I thought you were safe. When he left, I went to do some recon work. When I got back, the parking lot was empty, but you were still there. Shit. Do you know how scared I was when I lost contact with you?”
Big, bad Odin had been scared? She found that hard to believe. “I am not a mind reader.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Do you know what it means to keep someone in the loop?”
A muscle jerked along his jaw.
“This…” She motioned between them. Her bracelets jingled on her left wrist. “This is the loop. You and me. You’re supposed to keep me in the loop. That means you are supposed to tell me what’s happening. I can’t work with you if I don’t know what the heck you are doing!”
His nostrils flared. “You smell fucking delicious.”
“I—” Maisey shook her head. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Hell of a lot. Space. I was trying to give you space by staying outside but that shit is over. I won’t make the same mistake again.” His eyes glittered. He stepped closer. “Like glue.”
Her throat was very dry.
“You want the full loop details?”
“Yes, I would like that very much.”
“During the day, I was following up leads. Working the case. At night, I was making sure you were safe.”
She could not look away from his stare.
“I screwed up earlier. That is on me. I underestimated the danger. If I’d been a few minutes slower in that garage, you’d be gone.” His hands lifted and closed around her shoulders. “You would be gone.”
He pulled her closer. His grip was strong, but he wasn’t hurting her. He was very careful. There was a heat, an intensity, in his touch that swept through her. Maisey couldn’t look away from him. The air was tight and thick. She was dimly aware of her own thudding heart beats. Mostly, though, she was aware of Odin. He pretty much overpowered everything else.
Maisey knew this was not the time to tell Odin that he was hot. That he was so gorgeous that she was having trouble breathing. She knew she was obviously going through some sort of emotional meltdown because of the attack. Anything she said or did would be influenced by her ricocheting emotions. But—
“You are so sexy,” she whispered.
His eyebrows shot down. “What?”
“Thank you for saving me today.”
“It’s my freaking job to protect you.”
No, it wasn’t. She’d hired him to find proof of Clay’s guilt or innocence. Odin staking out her place… Odin saving her from an attacker…that was beyond the scope of their initial deal.
“You shouldn’t have been in that situation. That’s on me.”
“Why are you blaming yourself? You’re not the one who tried to take me.” Had he missed her thank-you moment? She was grateful—beyond grateful—because he had saved her ass.
“You’re my client. I will keep you safe, I will—fuck.” He hauled her against him. “You scared the hell out of me.”
This was the second time he’d mentioned being afraid. Before she could press him about that…
His mouth took hers.
Surprise held her immobile—for like, all of two seconds. Then she was throwing her hands around his shoulders and holding on tightly even as she pressed up to get even closer to him.
Odin.
He lifted her up. She loved it when he did that. Lifted her up and held her against his body and made her feel all delicate and feminine against him while he was hard strength and power. His tongue thrust into her mouth, and she didn’t even try to hold back her moan. This, this was what she wanted. This surge of desire that made her feel reckless, wild. Alive.
Her nails bit into his shoulders. Her mouth met his in a greedy explosion of need and hunger. This reaction didn’t normally happen to her. When she kissed a man, she didn’t go from a peck on the lips to wanting to tear the clothes off the guy’s body within about a minute.
Not normal. At all.
Maisey had always thought normal was way over-rated.
One of his big hands was sliding under her shirt. She loved the feel of his fingers on her skin, and if she and Odin could get more of the clothing out of the way, that would be great.
Vaguely, she became aware that he was moving. Turning his body, turning them, and heading maybe…to her bedroom?
Her legs wrapped around his hips. The better to hold on. She didn’t stop kissing him though. She caught his lower lip, gave it a sensual tug.
“Maisey…”
She had never particularly liked her name. But when Odin said it…all deep and gravelly and hungry-like…
She rubbed against him.
He lowered her onto the bed.
Wait, the bed?
He caught her hands. Pressed them against the mattress. Loomed over her. The trip from the den to the bedroom was kind of vague for her. Her heart thundered, and her gaze locked on his.
He wasn’t kissing her any longer. Just staring at her with eyes gone stormy from need.
She licked her lips.
“That…wasn’t supposed to happen,” Odin said.
What wasn’t? Him kissing her? Or them winding up in her bedroom?
“You need to sleep.”
Sleeping w
as the last thing she felt like doing. Her body was screaming with energy. “No.”
His hands were still around her wrists. Her legs weren’t around his hips any longer. They dangled over the side of the bed. Actually, they dangled and spread and he was between them. His hips were lodged between her open legs, and there was no way on earth that she could miss the heavy arousal pressing against her.
“I don’t want to sleep,” Maisey told him. She was afraid that if she slept, she’d have a nightmare. A flashback to the stairwell and garage. Doing podcasts about historical crimes was different from actually being a victim in a current crime. Being a victim made everything different.
“I want you,” Odin gritted out.
She sucked in a breath.
“But not like this. Not when you’re scared and you’re looking for an outlet.”
Still reeling, Maisey gazed up at him.
“And not when I’m so pissed I can barely think,” he added gruffly. “Not when I keep thinking about how I want to find that sonofabitch and rip him apart.”
Her heart jolted. “You saved me.” Her hand lifted and touched his jaw. She could feel the stubble beneath her fingertips. “I don’t…do this.”
He tensed. “Do what?”
“I don’t meet a guy then stumble into bed with him the next day.”
“It’s not the next day. It’s been several days.”
Her heart slammed into her chest. “I just…I don’t want you to think this is normal for me. I-I feel…”
“Adrenaline. Fear. An emotional tornado that’s about to blow you apart.” His jaw flexed. “Got it.” He let her hands go. Shoved up.
She scampered up, too. She pushed to her knees and grabbed his arm. “Stop. You don’t know what I feel.” She barely knew herself. “Every time that you kiss me, I get so turned on that even breathing seems hard.”
He didn’t move.
“I don’t react that way to most guys.” How about…to any other guy? “I’m not one for pretending or being coy…” She wouldn’t know how to be coy to save her life. “I say what I think. I want you to know—” Deep breath. “The way I’m reacting with you, this isn’t normally me.”
A hard nod. His eyes glittered.
“You are not understanding me at all.” Her hold tightened on him. “It’s not adrenaline. It’s not because I had a terror-filled attack. It’s because I want you. And you want me. We’re two adults. We’re not seeing anyone else.” She hadn’t dated in months. She’d pulled back because she was too over the scene of people being fake. Fake social media. Fake smiles. Over people acting like their worlds were perfect when they weren’t. “I get that you’re my PI.” Had that my sounded a little possessive? Maisey thought that it might have. She found that she felt a little possessive toward him. “But who says we can’t be more?”
There. She’d done it. Put herself out there. More than she ever had before. Because Odin—he was different. Real. Nothing fake about him. What you saw was what you got. And what she saw…
Hero.
He’d saved her. He was working with her to unmask a killer. In a world that was too often filled with darkness, she had stumbled onto a real, true-blue, good guy. What were the odds of that?
“Oh, Maisey…” A sad shake of his head. “You don’t want to go down this path with me.”
She did. Hadn’t she just said as much?
His fingers curled around her wrist. Slowly lowered her arm.
“You don’t know who I am.”
“You’re Odin. Former Delta. PI. Hero. You’re—”
“I’m a man who has done plenty of bad things in my life. Things that you don’t want to ever touch you.” He glanced at his fingers around her wrist. “I’m not good for you.”
Bull. She thought he was exactly what she needed.
“I shouldn’t be touching you,” Odin muttered.
“I like it when you touch me.” A low, husky confession.
A shudder worked over him. “You shouldn’t say things like that.”
Yes, she should. “I’m not into lying.”
His gaze held hers. “Neither am I, so believe me when I say…I am not good for you.”
Chapter Seven
The bedroom door creaked open. Odin saw the small sliver of light trickle into the den. He was on the floor, turned toward her door, and, hell, no, he hadn’t been sleeping. It was hard for a man to sleep when his dick was at full attention and he kept thinking about what a straight-up fool he’d been.
She wanted you. She’d stared into his eyes, looking at him like he’d just saved the fucking day, and said that she wanted him.
She was trying to put him in the role of the hero. That wasn’t who he was. He had blood on his hands. Scars on his soul. She didn’t get it. Didn’t understand that he’d joined the military not to save the world but because he’d needed someone—something—to control him. He’d needed—
Maisey was tiptoeing across the floor.
“Where are you going?” Odin growled.
She yelped. Jumped a good foot.
He hadn’t meant to scare her. Story of his life, though. Sooner or later, he wound up scaring most people. His buddy War was probably the one exception to that rule. Then again, nothing had ever scared War.
Correction. Rose scared him. The woman who’d stolen War’s heart.
“I was coming to check on you,” Maisey admitted.
He sat up. He’d taken off his shirt, stripped down to just his boxers, and the blanket she gave him was shoved over his hips. “Why?”
“Because I wanted to make sure you were still here.” She crept closer. She wore jogging shorts. Loose and sliding around her hips. A thin t-shirt.
No bra. Odin swallowed. He could see her tight nipples poking against the front of her shirt.
Breathe, man. Breathe and get your eyes off her chest!
“I was scared,” Maisey added in a quick rush. “I couldn’t go to sleep.”
He’d been horny as hell and not able to sleep. Three hours had passed since the scene in her bedroom, and he’d been sure Maisey had slipped off to dream land.
“Every time I close my eyes, I think about the things that could have happened.”
“Told you, don’t do—”
“Yes, well, it’s easier said than done.” She rocked forward onto the balls of her feet. “I’ve done reports on some of the worst crimes in history. I watch every kind of crime show I can find but…it’s different, when it happens to you.”
Yes, it was.
“This might sound crazy but is it okay if I leave my bedroom door open? That way, if I get scared, I can just sit up and see you and I can—”
He stood up.
Her gaze immediately dropped to his chest. “What…” A fast expulsion of air. “What happened to you?”
The scars. Hell. He raked a hand over them. “Gunshots.”
She hurried forward. Her hand lifted and pressed to his chest. “That’s a lot of gunshots.”
Yes, it had been. If War hadn’t dragged his ass out of that firefight, Odin would be dead. “Always thought I was stronger than him.” It still stunned him that War had hauled him so far. “But no matter how many times I told him to leave me, War wouldn’t let go.”
Her fingertips traced lightly over one of the scars.
A surge of heat lanced right through Odin.
“War saved you?”
“Yeah, and he never lets me forget it.” Odin knew he should have stopped fighting after that scene from hell, but he hadn’t. He’d gone back into the field, despite War’s protests. He’d gone back because he’d wanted to prove that he still had what it took to get the job done.
But I just found more death.
He’d found that it was too easy to get lost in battles. For that brutal return, he hadn’t still been Delta. He’d been working with a different unit. Even bloodier and more dangerous and so far removed from the official books that no one ever heard a whisper about them.
“Sounds like War is a good friend.”
She was still touching him, and her touch was making him crave her even more. “You should stop.” Rough.
Maisey’s eyes widened. “I just—oh. Didn’t realize I was, uh, doing that.” She snatched her hand back.
“War’s not my friend.”
She cleared her throat. “When a man saves your life, I’d count him as a friend.”
“He’s family. My brother. Not blood, but who cares about that?” Not Odin. Every time he’d wanted to sink into the dark and get lost—when he’d wanted to give in to the bloodlust that always seemed to call to him, War had been there, pulling him back. Control had always been so easy for War. He didn’t have to fight like Odin did in order to keep it in place.
With Maisey, Odin found that he had to fight twice as hard.
Never wanted someone so badly. Want to take and take and let the rest of the world burn away.
She’d backed away. Two quick steps that put space between them. Only her delectable scent lingered in the air around Odin. She put her hands behind her back. “The door,” Maisey said, absolutely confusing him because he’d gotten lost staring at her. “Is it okay with you if I leave it open?”
Her fear. She’d come out because she was afraid. “No.”
“Oh. Okay.” A jerky nod. “It’s ridiculous to be afraid of being alone. I’ll just—I’ll let you get back to sleep. Sorry for bothering you.”
He was an asshole. Why did things always come out wrong when he spoke?
Maisey spun away and practically ran for her bedroom.
He grabbed the blankets and the pillow.
***
Her body was completely straight and stiff in the bed, and her heart was racing so hard that every thunderous boom filled Maisey’s ears. The booms were so loud that she almost didn’t hear her bedroom door squeak open.
Almost.
Maisey bolted upright in bed. “Odin!”
“Yes?” Calm. Quiet. The total opposite of her cry.
Her chest heaved. “What…what are you doing?”
“Going to bed.”
She’d left her bedside lamp on, and she could see him clearly as he stalked across the room—with the blankets and pillow curled under one arm—and he settled down on the floor near her bed. Maisey blinked, then immediately grabbed the side of the mattress and lowered her head so she was peering down at him. The angle put her almost right on top of him. “Why are you in here?”