Pieces of Us (Confessions of the Heart, #3)(20)

But that was just when I was realizing the cop that had come to a stop behind me wasn’t just a cop.

The big white suburban with the severely tinted windows hiding the driver was unmarked. Nothing to indicate it was the authorities other than the flashing of the blue and red lights hidden in the fierce looking grill.

My mind was suspecting it was some kind of detective, while my heart was screaming out that I was getting ready to face down my worst nightmare.

Nerves rushed and sped and careened, my heart skipping beats, but that really didn’t matter since it was speeding so fast.

Plenty of blood flow.

Unfortunately, all of it was flooding from my head, and I was hit with a rush of dizziness.

My breaths got shorter and raspier as the driver cracked open the door. A boot landed on the gravel, then another.

Awareness spiked. It was nothing but this crazy, frantic energy that sizzled across my skin. And the worst part of it all was how familiar that it was.

An old embrace that might as well have been a smack to the face.

Those boots moved out from behind the door, and it slammed shut.

And there he was, standing beneath the bright sun.

Maxon Chambers.

Need and attraction and the love I’d tried to squash underfoot whipped around me. A vicious summer storm in a cloudless sky.

Looking at him today wasn’t any easier than seeing him the first time three days ago.

He took a step forward, and I swore, I could feel the planets shift their orbit.

Or maybe they’d shifted the second I’d crossed state lines.

Our destinies had always felt dependent on the other, though I’d never imagined it’d twist our paths up quite like this.

We had come alive in the other. A million mismatched pieces strewn between us that had magically fit.

Still, I knew he was more dangerous than any casual passerby could ever be. Dangerous to me. To my heart and my world and everything that remained the most precious.

“Maxon,” I whispered, unable to stop myself. I twined my fingers together in front of me.

No place to run or hide.

“Izzy.” He looked between me and my car that had gone caput. “You havin’ trouble?”

I didn’t think he had the first clue what kind of trouble I was in.

I gave him a tight nod. “I don’t know what’s wrong with it. It was running just fine, and then it seemed like it overheated.”

A dose of amusement rode into his expression, one stark brow lifting in speculation. “It was running just fine? Are you sure about that? If seeing you drive off a few days ago was any indication, this thing hasn’t been running just fine for a long time.”

A smirk ticked up at one side of his mouth, that easy sexuality he’d worn like a brand making a resurgence.

My knees wobbled.

“Well, I had to rely on her to get me all the way back out here, so I can’t blame her too much.” I lifted my chin. Why I felt the need to stick up for my crappy car, I didn’t know, but the last thing I wanted was this man to be judging me.

Maxon smiled a little more, tipping his head to the side, the guy so gorgeous it should have been a crime. “She?”

A little huff blew through my lips. “Of course, it’s a she. She’s a caretaker. I’ve been relying on her to get me around for years. Yours looks like a brute.” Why in the world was I talking to him this way? Nothing but an easy conversation.

“That so?” More amusement was riding out of him, that urgency from a few days ago gone.

Like seeing each other this way was . . . normal.

Expected.

He started coming closer, a rough chuckle tumbling out, hitting me square in the chest.

Hit after hit.

There went that easiness. Blown out of the water by the magnitude of his presence.

“Mmhmm,” I managed to mumble.

He’d always been unbearably tall.

But now he seemed . . . massive.

Imposing.

Foreboding in an arrogant, powerful way.

Drippin’ with all that danger and peril that he’d warned me he was capable of.

Too bad I hadn’t listened.

“Well, I didn’t have much choice in the matter. Government issued.” He shrugged a bulging shoulder. It gave a little flop to his blond hair that was cropped at the sides and longer on top. “I guess they thought it was a perfect fit.”

God, this man. I fidgeted, trying to take a step back. Last thing I needed to do was go and get hypnotized, his nearness some kind of mesmerizing drug.

Face so deliciously rugged, his chiseled jaw coated in at least three days of scruff. I had the stupid urge to reach out and scratch my nails through it. To touch him the way I used to do.

But it was hard to stop my mind from traveling that direction. The man a fantasy I’d tucked away that had manifested as whole.

Every inch of that big body was packed with tight, rippling muscle, both arms completely covered in colors and designs that danced with a story I wasn’t close enough to read.

Still, there was something about it that felt as if he had peeled off his layers.

A book sitting wide open to confess his sins.

Maxon tipped his head, mischief playing out in those eyes, and I realized my mouth was hanging open, drool probably running out the side.

Oh god.

He’d caught me checking him out.