Say It's Forever (Redemption Hills 2)

He was about three-quarters of the way across the lot when the black car suddenly peeled out, flying from its perch with a squeal of tires and a billow of dust.

Running from the monster set on savagery that clumped that way.

I saw it there, when he turned around.

The expression on his face.

A gnarl of wickedness.

A disorder of malice.

My stomach twisted.

My pulse flew.

I could feel the tumult blister through the air when he looked back at the spot where the car had disappeared. When it seemed clear, he reluctantly turned, stuffed his gun back into his waistband, and marched back across the lot.

My heart thundered, a careening stampede.

It hammered harder and harder with each step that he took.

Tremors rocked the ground.

Shockwaves of animosity and duty.

I didn’t know how to stand.

Didn’t know how to do anything when he tossed the door open and strode through, rays of bright sunlight streaking over him as he entered, lighting him up like some kind of unrighteous god.

Intensity cracked.

Snapped in the room.

An imposing force.

The man a wicked, wicked savior.

I was back to pressing myself against the cool metal of the file cabinet, unable to breathe, unable to process the thousand thoughts that spiraled through my mind.

I never should have come.

I never should have thought I could stay.

I never should have allowed myself to start to feel safe.

And most of all, I never, ever should have started to think of this place as home.

Jud edged forward, the colossal, beast of a man coming closer and closer.

Black hair and black beard and black eyes that I could have sworn fired red.

My chest squeezed tighter with each step.

My pulse thudded like a snare with each powerful stride that he took.

Though those steps were slowed.

Cautioned.

I fought for ground. To remain unaffected.

Not to whimper when the forbidding man suddenly towered over me with those eyes pinning me to the spot.

“They’re gone.” The words scraped like barbs from his tongue. His anger barely contained. “Probably a drug deal or some shit. Not exactly the best side of town over here.”

I gulped around the rock that pressed like razors to my throat. Warily, I tried to gather the fear and the panic, to be reasonable and not jump to the first horrible conclusion, the way I always did.

It was hard not to do that when I’d spent years running. When every sound and whisper and intonation had made me terrified someone was coming for us.

The worst part was knowing it wasn’t illogical. I had the holes carved out inside me to prove it.

The truth that I would be a fool to take the chance.

On a jittery nod, I faked a smile. “Probably.”

Jud’s brow pinched, and those eyes raced over my face like they could see through to the very depths of who I was.

To every secret.

To every fear.

He leaned closer, and his warm breath whispered across my skin. “But that’s not what you were thinkin’, was it, darlin’?”

This.

This was why I’d been diverting. Why I’d been trying to distract and pretend and ignore that I’d revealed a piece of myself I shouldn’t have at the beginning of the week.

“Who are you running from?” I could have sworn his words were underlined with murder.

My head shook, and my eyes found the intensity in his. “Please, don’t ask that of me.”

I didn’t know him.

Couldn’t trust him.

Fury flashed through his features.

He took my hands and threaded our fingers together.

Vibrations zapped through the connection.

Palpable and real.

His growl was menace. “Want to destroy whoever hurt you. Just need a name.”

A gasp ripped up my throat when he suddenly lifted my arms above my head and pinned them against the cabinet.

“Just a name.” It sounded of sex and coercion.

My eyes squeezed closed. “I can’t.”

His big hands slipped down my quivering limbs, as if he were gathering up every ounce of terror that I possessed. Taking it into his hold. Caressing away the panic.

“I have you, Salem.” He grumbled it, and those eyes never left mine as he ran his hands all the way back up my arms to my hands and then down again.

Though that time, he didn’t stop.

He ran them over my shoulders and down to my sides.

My lungs squeezed tight, and our hearts raged in the bare space that separated us.

Need spiked in the dense air.

His wide, wide chest jutted and heaved, and every muscle in his body strained.

I knew we were concealed behind the wall, but there was something about this that made me feel exposed.

As if there was an audience watching as I slipped into recklessness.

As I tiptoed into sin.

My stomach twisted in want, and my nipples hardened beneath his stare.

Jud groaned as if he felt the desire ravaging my flesh, and his hands were splaying wider at my ribs, so big they nearly wrapped all the way around.

Harsh air puffed from his nose when he brushed his thumbs over the rock-hard peaks of my breasts.