Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
His hand curled around the door to her bedroom. He turned the knob and soundlessly pushed open the door.
Avalon lay sprawled in the king-sized bed. The suite had a separate bedroom for her. She was safe there. Protected.
He needed her protected.
So many hours had passed since the blaze at his bar. Beau had watched the firefighters try to salvage LeBlanc’s. The smoke had turned to dark black as it drifted in the air. He’d been told to leave the scene. Over and over.
He hadn’t left. He’d watched the fire.
Now he watched her.
Small, delicate. Her body nestled beneath the covers. Her hair fanned out over the white pillowcase. He’d only wanted to watch over her. After her parents died, she’d been alone. Unprotected. Too vulnerable. Beau had wanted her to be safe.
He’d never intended to actually enter her life or talk to her. He’d just wanted to know she was protected.
Yeah, he got that he had a problem. More like an obsession.
But he wouldn’t have approached her. He would have stayed in the shadows. And, once he’d unmasked the arsonist who’d tried to kill her back in New Orleans, once she’d been free of the past…once the bastard was in the ground…Beau would finally have ended his watch.
Plans had changed. Everything had changed.
She’d come into his bar. She’d kissed him.
And then a fire had destroyed the life he’d been building.
“Are you going to stand in the shadows much longer or are you going to walk toward the bed?” Her voice drifted from the bed and had him jerking. “Just curious. Trying to decide if I should go back to sleep or if you’re about to kiss me like you can’t live without me.”
Light spilled in behind him, enough light so that she could see his outline easily. He narrowed his eyes and realized that?—
Avalon is staring straight at me.
“I was…” He stopped. His voice had come out too gruff. Deep. Growly. And what exactly had he been doing? I was just thinking that I’d kill to keep you safe. No hesitation. And that I do want you more than I want my next breath. Nope. Couldn’t say shit that would freak her out too much. “I just…just was checking on you.”
“Because that’s what you do. You check on me.”
He didn’t speak.
“Apparently, a lot.”
Guilty.
“It’s like that Chinese proverb, isn’t it?” Her voice drifted to him. “You saved my life, so now you think you’re responsible for it—for me.”
No, that wasn’t what he thought. He’d explained things to her. Tried to, anyway.
“You made me leave LeBlanc’s.” Avalon sat up in bed and pulled the sheet with her. “That was not an appropriate partner thing to do. We’d literally just had a conversation about working together. Then, bam, you throw me in the back of a car.”
He stepped to the side. The light poured through the doorway and fell on her. That was when he realized she wasn’t wearing anything beneath the sheet. Her shoulders were smooth. No shirt to cover her. No bra. No nightgown.
Silken skin.
“There was nothing there but fire.” His voice came out too rough yet again.
“Wrong. You were there.”
He took a step toward her. Caught himself. “The fire is contained. Wesley said the bar area itself was a total loss. Some of the offices and storage space on the first floor were salvaged. And Ophelia’s office on the second floor was mostly safe.”
Mostly.
Good thing she has backups of all her files at home.
“You’re safe,” Avalon said. “That’s what matters.”
What mattered to him was that she was safe.
And he took another step toward the bed.
“You can’t do this,” Avalon told him flatly. “You can’t.”
His body tightened as he took the rejection. You knew coming to her was a mistake. She doesn’t want to be with someone like you. “I was?—”
“You can’t say we’re partners in one breath, and then shove me in a limo and tell me to get my ass gone in another. That’s not how things will work between us. I’m not a sitting-on-the-sidelines type of person, and I told your buddy Royal that very fact.”
Yes, Royal had mentioned that detail to him. He’d also mentioned… “Royal told you to run from me.”
One hand held the sheet to her breasts. “I recall he mentioned that was an option, yes.”
“You aren’t running.”
“No. Actually, I was sleeping until about, oh, three minutes ago when a man slipped into my bedroom. Had a crazy moment when I first opened my eyes. I was terrified that someone was coming to hurt me.”
Shit. “I’m sorry?—”
“Then I realized it was you. What’s really crazy is that every time I get scared, or even worried or…hell, whenever I’m uncertain, I feel like you’re there.”
I am.
“I feel like you’re watching me or coming to get me and that everything is going to be fine. That I’m not alone.” She eased to the side of the bed. Swung her legs over. Kept the sheet. Most of the sheet. But he could see her trim calves. Her sexy thighs. “I think you’re a big red flag, Beau.”
He nodded. “Probably.”
Avalon rose. She pulled the sheet with her, and as she stalked toward him, the sheet trailed her like a wedding train. “I also think you’re a man I want very, very badly.”
“You attracted to red flags?”
“I’m attracted to you.” She stopped right in front of him. “Ground rules.”
Nope. “I’m not a rule type of guy. You must have me confused with someone else.”
“There is no confusing you with anyone else. An utter impossibility.”
“Now you’re just trying to stroke my ego.”
Her head tilted to the side. Her hair fell over her shoulder. “I plan to stroke quite a few things.”
Sweet hell. “Careful.” A rasp of warning. “You don’t want to push me too far.”
“Why? You gonna let that control break and do something other than watch me?”
Yes.
“Ground rules,” she repeated. “No sidelining. If things get dangerous around us, you don’t get to go all controlling and try to tell me what to do. I only agreed to leave today because I had things to handle.”
It was hard to concentrate on what things she might have done when she was only partially wrapped in a sheet as she stood in front of him. “I’m not going to let you be in danger.” That was his one rule. “You’re protected. That isn’t up for debate.”
“You’re an arrogant asshole, you know that?”
“It’s been mentioned a time or twenty.”
“Have you ever thought that, oh, I don’t know…maybe I don’t want you in danger, either?”
He frowned. “Why would you care about what happens to me?”
“Because I just do!” Her delicate nostrils flared. “You don’t face danger alone. I don’t face danger alone. There. Done. Got it?”
He got that there was always a way around rules. You just broke them. And he also got that he needed to circle back to something she’d said before. “What things?”
“Excuse me?”
One tug, and he could have the sheet on the floor. Do. Not. Tug. “What things did you have to do today?”
“Oh, I had to handle the little matter of arranging a meeting with a convicted serial killer. You were suspicious of Everett Thomas. So was I. You wanted to get in the room with him. So did I. I pulled strings, and voilà, we’ll be meeting him tomorrow morning at nine a.m.”
His back teeth pressed together.
“I have connections. I used them. I couldn’t very well battle the blaze at your bar.” One hand rose and curled around his forearm. “Though I wish I could have. I’m very, very sorry about LeBlanc’s.”
Her touch had warmth pouring through him. Her eyes shined with her sympathy. She actually seemed to care about him.
What the hell was he supposed to do with that?
But then she pulled her hand back. “Ground rule one. No sidelining. I don’t sideline you. You don’t sideline me. We don’t ditch each other in dangerous situations.”
“I was protecting you.”
“What if I wanted to protect you?”
He frowned at her. Who the hell would want to protect him?
“You have a tendency to see fires and rush right into them.” A shake of her head. “Super bad trait. Without me at your side to hold you back, who knows what madness you could face?”
“I rush in…” He stopped. It wasn’t like he rushed into every dangerous situation he saw. And as for the fire, he’d rushed in once before. He’d done that?—
“For me?”
He stared into her eyes.
“You rushed into the fire all those years ago in order to save me. You didn’t know who I was. You rushed in because you heard someone screaming for help. You can play the villain all you want with the rest of the world, but villains don’t run toward the fire when they hear a scream. Villains stand back, and they enjoy the blaze. Heroes are the ones who help.”
He’d never enjoyed the flames. “That’s too one-dimensional. Sometimes, you can save one person and then turn around and cut the heart out of someone else.”
Her eyes widened. “Ground rule two. No heart cutting. You don’t cut out my heart, and I won’t cut out yours.”
His eyes narrowed. As if he would ever do anything to physically hurt her. He’d sooner cut off his own hand.
She let the sheet fall. “In other words, don’t break my heart, and I won’t break yours.”
He should have told her that he didn’t have a heart. That it couldn’t possibly be broken. And if his every single fantasy wasn’t currently naked in front of him, he would have mentioned that very important point.
But…
Avalon.
Was.
Naked.
And he wanted to touch. And taste. And devour.
And most of all…take.
“When Royal gave me the choice, I didn’t want to go to the airport. I didn’t want to leave you. Mostly because…I just want you.” A slow exhale from her. “But you’re standing there, not saying anything, and I’m basically baring my body and my soul, and you are not responding the way I’d hoped. So please, say something. Do something.”
He did. He touched. His hands curled around her shoulders, and he hauled her closer.
He tasted. His mouth locked onto hers.
He devoured. Beau could not get enough of her taste. Avalon was driving him absolutely insane, and he wanted more and more and more.
He would take. Take until she screamed his name.
His hands slid down her body. Down the curve of her back. Down to the lush ass that he wanted. And he pulled her against him even harder. Silken skin. Naked woman.
Avalon.
He could fuck her right where they stood. Ditch his jeans. Thrust into her. Pound hard and fast and deep. He could?—
Make it good for her. No, better than good. Has to be great. He needed to drive her wild. Past the point of no return. He needed her begging and moaning and drowning in the pleasure he gave her. Only then could he let go of his control. Only. Then.
He lifted her up.
She gasped against his mouth, and her arms curled around his neck. A few steps and they were at the bed. Carefully, tenderly, he lowered her onto the mattress. He kissed her lightly, then pulled away. His gaze traced over her body. Every perfect inch.
“Uh, Beau? Not to tell you your business, but this works way better if you’re in the bed with—” Avalon stopped. Swallowed.
For a moment, what could have been fear flashed in her beautiful, green eyes as her gaze met his.
He knew she’d seen the true depth of his need for her. He was freaking holding on to his control by a thread. “Don’t worry, I got this.”
A nod. “I, yes…”
He caught one of her ankles. Then the other. Slowly, he maneuvered her to the edge of the bed. Then he spread her legs wide.
“Beau?”
He touched. His fingers dipped into the heat between her legs. Two fingers. Thrusting. Stretching. Her hips surged up against him as he pulled the fingers out and then raked them over her clit.
“Beau!”
He tasted. He bent and put his mouth on her core. That hot, tight center. His tongue thrust into her, and when her hips bucked again, he locked his hands around them and held her in place as he?—
Devoured.
His tongue thrust and he tasted heaven and he wanted to eat her right up. So he did. He licked. Sucked. Kissed. Stroked. Worked her clit over and over again and her feverish pants and moans drove him on. He was merciless. So focused and hungry for her that he could not, would not stop until she came.
And she did.
She shrieked and climaxed against his mouth. Her hands fisted in his hair. Not to pull him away but to hold him closer. He lapped her up as she came for him.
Then…
He eased back. Her breasts heaved as she stared up at him.
“That—that was?—”
Without taking his eyes from her, Beau stripped. He paused long enough to pull a condom from his wallet. He rolled it onto his dick.
She still sprawled at the edge of the bed. Her legs were still open. Her sex glistening for him.
He hauled her a little closer to the edge of the bed. Still standing, he positioned her, and he took. Beau drove as deep into her as he could go. And that was when his control snapped. Nothing had ever felt so good. Nothing could feel as good as Avalon. Tight. Hot. Wet. Driving him to the brink of sanity and beyond. His fingers bit into her waist. Her legs wrapped around his hips. She surged against him even as he pounded into her. The rhythm was too fast. Too hard. Her body was too perfect. He could not get in her deep enough.
His mouth took hers. A wild, voracious kiss. His hips kept driving against her.
Not enough.
So he hauled her off the bed.
She gasped into his mouth.
He whirled. Pinned her against the wall. Then with his hold on her waist, he lifted her up and down. Up and down. Up and?—
“Beau!” Avalon tore her mouth away and yelled his name even as her hands flew out. Something thudded onto the floor. He didn’t stop to look and see what it was.
He was too busy coming inside of her. A deep, endless wave of pleasure poured from him as he held her. Not just taking. Not any longer.
Claiming.
And he knew that he was well and truly fucked.
Beau had gone back to her. At the very first opportunity. Gone rushing back to the hotel where he knew Avalon hid.
Apparently, Beau had not learned a lesson from the fire that had wrecked his bar. Instead of kicking Avalon from his life, he seemed determined to run back to her.
Like a moth to the flame.
From the darkness, he smiled.
He’d always really liked that comparison. Some things were just drawn to the fire. Even though, in the end, the fire would consume them.
A beautiful tragedy.
That would be Avalon’s life. And death.
A beautiful tragedy. Because that was exactly what she deserved.