Bound Beneath His Pain (Dirty Little Secrets 1)

Tied to His Betrayal

Available from Loveswept

Darius

I want a gun. A gun that will take a man down in the blink of an eye.

I’m considering where to get this gun as I’m staring at the only woman I’ve ever loved. At Taylor Erikson’s beaten face. She’s standing on the other side of my half-sister’s, Allie Parker’s, front door, and her light hazel eyes are locked on mine, collapsing the stability and strength of my world.

Minutes ago, I was enjoying Sunday night dinner with Allie and her boyfriend, Micah Holt. Now I can’t move. I’m not even sure I’m breathing. I don’t know how long Taylor and I have been in a staring contest that I won’t ever lose. All I know is every bruise and cut on her face, burning them into my memory so I can repeat these marks on whoever hurt her. “The man who did this to you,” I hiss through my teeth, seeing tears well in her eyes. “He’s dead.”

I hear the hitch of her breath before she expertly shuts down emotion, as she used to do when we were younger. But that’s not all I remember. I remember the way those pink pouty lips felt when I kissed her worries away. I remember how perfect and warm she felt wrapped in my arms, safe from a scary world. I remember how my fingers tangled perfectly in her long honey-colored, wavy locks, holding her tight against me.

I can’t forget anything. She haunts me. Every damn day.

“Oh, hush, Darius,” says Allie, breaking through the thick air, pulling Taylor inside her condo. “No one is going to kill anyone.” She shuts the door behind her with a loud bang. “God, Taylor, you’re shivering.”

That’s when some sort of sense smacks into me. Taylor is soaking wet from head to toe. One quick look over my shoulder at the 180-degree view of San Francisco’s midtown shows me that it’s pouring rain outside.

“I’m fine,” Taylor says, drawing my attention to her. “Or I will be once I get out of these clothes.”

“Need help?” Allie asks.

“No. Geesh. I’ll be back before you know it.” Taylor smiles.

Every set of eyes watch Taylor, with her bags in her hands, moving down the hallway, toward the bedroom. Silence surrounds us. Silence that is heavy and thick, saying so much without saying anything at all.

Allie’s blue eyes are wide when she looks between me and Micah, nervously twirling her long brown hair around her finger. I know she’s searching her mind for the same answers I want, like what happened to Taylor, but she seems stuck, unable to move past the worry for her best friend. I don’t have that problem.

Leaving Allie and Micah behind, I storm off to the bedroom in search of answers, and knock on the door, intent to get them.

“Come in,” Taylor calls from behind the door.

I enter the bedroom, finding Taylor sitting on Allie’s bed, now out of her wet clothes and wearing a pair of black yoga pants and a light blue T-shirt. Her hair is pulled up in a ponytail, but her skin is

still ashen. “Taylor…”

“I don’t want to hear it, Darius,” she states, pulling a pair of socks out of her bag. “No lectures. All right?”

I fold my arms, leaning against the doorframe. “Who says I want to lecture you?”

She finishes putting on her sock, then smiles. “Because I know you.”

That smile is a sucker punch to my throat. Many of my best memories have that smile in them. “If you know me so well, then why have I come in here?”

She doesn’t hesitate. “You want to know who did this to me and why it happened.” She puts on her other sock before continuing. “The answer is, an angry ex-boyfriend and drinking…lots and lots of drinking.” After zipping up her bag, and rising from the bed, she turns to face me. “And now you’re going to tell me that you want to hire security to watch over me, because you’re concerned for my safety.”

I don’t hesitate either. “You’re right, I do.”

Her pretty eyes soften as she moves toward me. “I don’t want a babysitter, so that’s not a conversation we’re going to have.” Her fruity scent spirals in the air around me when she closes in. “But because I know you won’t let this go. His name is Shawn Mason. And no, Darius, you’re not going to go and kick the shit out of him.”

I’m hearing what she’s saying, and even I recognize she thinks she doesn’t need me, but it’s been five years since I’ve had her this close. I can barely contain myself, fighting against the yearnings to protect what once was mine. “You forgot to mention the final reason I came in here.”

Her light brown eyebrows raise over her ocean blue eyes. “Oh, yeah, and what’s that?”

I open my arms to her. “Come here.” She might act like she doesn’t need me. But I know she does.

A second of hesitation drags out between us before she’s stepping into my arms, melting into me like she used to. My cock hardens to steel, being close to the only woman who’s spoken to my heart, and I angle my hips out, not allowing her to feel my greedy dick.