Not when he has claimed my mouth again, his tongue warring with mine, teasing and tasting, so deep and wild and hot that I can feel the power of this kiss reverberate through me, exciting every part of me so that I feel as though I will die if I don’t feel his hands upon me. “Nikki.” My name is a moan, and I cannot respond. And I know that I was right-Damien will always take what he needs from me, and he knows that it is already his. “I love you,” I whisper, but I barely get the words out before his mouth finds mine. But what I can’t survive is knowing that you did something like this for me, when doing it will chip away at the core of the man I love.” So long as I have you to anchor me, you know I will. Just like I know that Damien will do whatever it takes to protect me and mine, no matter how much a sacrifice that protection is.īut this isn’t a sacrifice I want him to make. I nod, my eyes flooded with tears, because I do know how well he sees me. But where Jamie is concerned-when you are shouldering pain for a friend-baby, do you think I don’t know how it wrecks you? Don’t you know by now how clearly I see you?” “You were fine when it was just about us-you can stand it because you’re strong, and because you’ve stood it before.

Do you think I didn’t see?” He brushes my cheek, and I shiver from his touch. “It is, yes.” He takes my hands and pulls me close. And I won’t have her tossed out there to the wolves any more than I will have you hurting for your friends. “You and I both know who they expected to pay.” And she understands what it will cost you to pay extortion money.

She made her choices, and she knows they were bad ones. “I can handle whatever comes.” My voice is soft, but strong. “You say that you’re strong enough to handle seeing that shit with me and Carmela, and I believe you. Now he turns to look at me, and what I see in his face is no longer flat, but fierce. “I will pay,” he repeats, as if he is responding to a question I just posed. This time I will wait for Damien, because I know that he will take what he needs from me, just as he lets me take what I need from him.Ī moment passes, and then another. Telling myself that, I open my door and move to stand beside him, though this time I do not touch.

Lost with me by j kenner