Deadly Heat (Deadly #2)(39)

“I want more than that.” The floor squeaked beneath him, and she knew he was stalking her.

She stopped moving. “I don’t have a lot to give right now.” True. He didn’t understand. Sex—that was all. Inside, she was too hollow.

I don’t want to hurt again. It was too easy to care, then it hurt too much when you lost the one you cared for.

He was right behind her now. She could feel him.

“You’re not the only one who’s lost someone.”

Her eyes stayed on the ground outside the window. Max was leaving, heading out, probably on a grocery run.

Kenton stood behind her, not touching her, but standing close, warm and strong. “When I was ten,” his voice rumbled, “a drunk driver hit me and my mom. We were driving home, on the way from soccer practice.”

She looked back at him. Had to. “I–I’m sorry.”

His eyes gazed at her, but she had a feeling the guy saw the past. “He hit the side of our car and slammed into her. For the longest time, I could hear the sound of that metal, crunching around us… and her crying. She cried a lot.” He swallowed. “Cried so much, because she didn’t die, not right away.”

Oh, God.

She whirled to face him. “Kent…”

“I couldn’t get to her. I was pinned in the back.” Cold and flat. She knew that voice. She’d used that voice before. “And that bastard—he ran and left us there.”

Lora could only shake her head.

“She kept telling me that everything was going to be all right. Not to worry. It’ll be all right.”

Lora’s brother had told her that, too. He’d been wrong.

“But I knew. I could smell her blood. See it on the broken windshield. I knew. And all I could do was sit there and wait for her to die.”

Lora’s eyes closed.

“By the time someone else came along that stretch of road, she wasn’t talking anymore.”

“Kenton…” Her eyes opened. “I’m sorry, you don’t have to tell me—”

“I do.” His eyes glittered with fury and pain. “You’re not the only one who’s lost. You’re not the only one who sat there when death came, and you couldn’t do anything.”

She wanted to reach out and touch him. He was right there, so close, and—

He’s just like me.

Twisted by the past.

“What…” She stopped and cleared her throat. “What happened to that driver?”

“He went to prison. Vehicular manslaughter. Got five f*cking years.”

Five years didn’t seem so long when balanced with a life.

“Six months after he got out, he hit a big rig, head-on. Bastard died at the scene.”

Was that justice? She wasn’t sure. These days, she didn’t have any idea what real justice was anymore.

“My dad never got over her death. Hell, for years it seemed like he could barely look at me. He shut himself off, all but crawled into the grave with her.”

Jesus. At least she hadn’t been alone after she lost her dad. With her brothers, she was never alone.

“Your mom—what happened to her—is that why you joined the SSD?” She’d asked before and he’d said… Because someone has to. She’d known that wasn’t the real answer then.

Now she knew the truth.

“It’s why I became a cop. But after a few years on the force, I worked a series of homicides where the perp took his time killing kids—little girls.” A muscle flexed in his jaw. “That’s when I realized there were bastards out there a hell of a lot worse than the drunk * who’d taken my mother’s life. I knew what we were really up against, what was out there, waiting in the shadows.” A shrug. “And I decided to join the Bureau.” He caught her hand and stroked his thumb over the back of her palm.

Lora drew in a deep breath. “I became a firefighter because I wanted to stop folks from winding up like me.” Her home gone. Her father dead. And her brother hooked to a thousand machines with each breath agony.

“You know my past,” he said gruffly, and his long, strong fingers tightened around hers. “I know yours. Is that fair enough for you?”

“That why you told me?” She wet her lips with a quick swipe of her tongue. “So we’d be ‘fair’?”

“I told you because you had a right to know.”

“Kent—”

“I want to be with you, Lora. In your bed. Fuck, I want you naked now. I want you. I’m not walking away. Not from this case, and not from you.”

And she wasn’t either. The case would only end for her when the killer was caught, no matter what skeletons the SSD pulled from her closet.

She’d known the investigation would get rough. She was ready for whatever bumps came.

As for Kenton…

His left hand rose and cupped her jaw. “I want more,” he said, his voice so deep and dark that an ache lodged in her chest.

Because she wanted more, too.

It was dangerous. So dangerous…

“So do I,” she whispered.

As his lips took hers and stole her breath, Lora knew that she’d have him again. Wild and hard and strong.

She’d have him. And he’d have her.