Tempted & Taken (Men of Haven #4)(95)

Another person taking a stand on her behalf. Several, actually, if you considered how his family had rallied around her.

I’m not sure where you got the idea there’s some karmic tally being kept, but to my mind, family doesn’t work that way. Especially not ours.

Ninette was right. There was nothing wrong with her wanting to give back after so many people had helped her, but there was also something to be said for holding your own. For standing up and making your own mark.

She palmed the dog tags hanging heavy between her breasts and squeezed them tight, the metal cool against her over-warm skin. “We need to talk.”

Knox’s fingers stalled the second she spoke and he canted his head just enough to bring his handsome face in profile. “Something wrong?”

Any other day, she’d have taken a different tactic. Would have started slow and moved in with logic. Today, if she had any chance of breaking through his need to shield and protect her, she’d have to go in guns blazing. “Yes.”

He spun in his chair, worry instantly wiping the tenacious focus from his face. His gaze dropped to the closed laptop in front of her then scanned the room as if it might conjure up some clue as to what was wrong. He locked on to her hand fisted around his tags and his expression shuttered. “If you’re thinking of leaving again, you can toss that idea out the window.”

“I gave you my word and my love. Whatever we do, I want us to do together.” Like a beacon, her gaze drifted to the screens behind her, gifting her with the words she needed. She refocused on him. “But we’re not together in this. It’s only you. You and your brothers. It’s my future. You are my future. I should play a part in it.”

He stood and frowned, more than a little wariness pinching his brow as he prowled toward her. “Babe, the things I’m doing take years to learn. And no way in hell would I recommend you hone your chops with some of the safeguards Ruslan’s got in place.” Reaching the couch, he sat and pulled her across his lap so she straddled his hips. “If you want to learn this side of my business, I’ll teach it to you, but one misstep with this guy and he’ll know we’re digging.”

“I’m not talking about hacking.”

Silence stretched between them for two heavy heartbeats and his mouth pressed into a hard line, too stubborn to broach the subject.

“I think Sergei’s plan is a good one,” she said. “I could—”

“No.” His chest rose and fell a little quicker, and his eyes sparked with barely contained anger. The loose grip he’d held on her hips tightened in such a way she wasn’t sure if he’d jerk her against him, or push her away. “That’s not happening. We’ll find a better way. One that doesn’t put you at risk.”

“And what if I want that risk?”

His head snapped back and his eyes widened. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m very serious.” She framed his face and let her fingers tangle in his hair. It was always unruly after he’d spent time on his computer, but it was more so today, the quirk of running his hands through it as he untangled whatever riddle kept his focus leaving him with the look of a man who’d just had a healthy tussle in bed. “My whole life I’ve reacted to events. Been the recipient of others standing up for me or giving of themselves.” She paused long enough to hold his sparking gray gaze. “I don’t want to be passive this time. I want to make a stand. To take action and claim the future I want.”

“I get that. I want it for you and I’ll help you, but not at a time when taking that stand can mean you end up dead.”

“You won’t let that happen to me. Neither will your brothers. Or Sergei. I trust you. All of you.”

His jaw slackened just enough to show she’d made a dent, so she forged ahead. “It’s the right move. The cleanest, fastest and safest one for everyone involved. Me included. Sergei knows Ruslan. Would have already planned to accommodate every scenario, but with you and your brothers aiding him, we can get this over with and move on with our lives. You know this and you’d admit it if the woman in question was anyone but me.”

He swallowed hard and his hands moved up her back as though he needed the tactile connection to ground him. “You don’t realize what you’re asking me to do.”

“I do,” she whispered, hating the wound she was asking him to inflict on himself. “I’m asking you to risk the future you’ve always wanted. But for me to walk into that future with you, I need to be whole. To know that I had a part in building it beside you.” She paused only enough to ensure the weight of what she had left to say reached him with added emphasis. “You told me the women in this family are free to live the way they want. To make their own choices. This is me making mine.”

He palmed her shoulders and squeezed, no doubt a host of arguments cued up and ready for flight on his tongue.

“Can you outwit him?” she asked before he could speak. “If it were anyone else—one of Danny or Beckett’s clients—could you pull it off?”

There it was—the unflappable confidence and certainty that had governed his every movement from the day she’d first walked into his business flashing bold and beautiful to the surface. “That’s a dirty play.”

“Dirty, but accurate. You wouldn’t hesitate. Not for a second.”