Arro Adair had given me the best fucking kiss of my life that night, and she didn’t know it. She didn’t know that kiss plagued my dreams. That in my dreams it went further, that I peeled the silver dress that sculpted her body like a second skin from her perfect tits, that I pushed the hem up past her thighs and sank into her tight heat.
“What are you thinking about?” Her voice was husky, drawing me from the fantasy.
She knew. Her eyes were smoky, cheeks flushed. She was visibly turned on.
Arro knew where my thoughts had gone.
That I dreamed of looking into those beautiful eyes, watching them grow hazy with need as I moved inside her. Sometimes it was slow and loving. Sometimes I fucked her in desperation, her nails biting into my back.
I could feel my body stirring, my mouth dry.
“I don’t think you want to know.” The words fell from my lips before I could stop them, my voice thick, hoarse.
Arro’s breath caught, her fingers tightening around mine. “I think if you weren’t currently covered in stitches, I’d very much want to know. Perhaps even indulge in a demonstration or two.”
Despite the danger in her flirting, I couldn’t help but laugh. She laughed too. But I saw the pain in her expression, the sadness, and even the fear. I hated it. I hated I wasn’t free to love her. To promise I’d never leave her.
She bowed her head and pressed a kiss to the top of my hand, and I felt every ounce of her in it.
It hurt.
Fuck, it tore me apart worse than the three knife wounds in my abdomen.
I pulled my hand from hers, needing the distance.
Arro gave me a knowing smirk and murmured, “It’s not going anywhere, Mac. What we feel. It’s not going anywhere. It just keeps growing. I think Guy can tell.”
The temptation of her was agony. And I didn’t even want to think about the bloody chef who warmed her bed whenever he liked. Ever since he’d started dating Arro, I couldn’t look at him. I’d avoided the estate kitchens for weeks.
But if she, the most loyal and steadfast woman I’d ever met, could look at me like this and say these things, then Guy wasn’t the one for her. I didn’t see it lasting between them, and that relieved me, selfish bugger that I was.
My gaze dropped to her mouth. I couldn’t. But I wanted so badly to pull her to me, even just to feel the brush of her lips on mine. To soothe me.
The door to the room flew open, breaking the moment. Robyn walked in, her expression suspicious as she glanced between me and Arro. I braced myself, but my daughter merely smiled as she walked toward the bed. Her attention on Arro, she said, “Hey, it’s nice to see you again.”
Arro looked flushed, guilty, and she stood up too quickly. “You too. I was just leaving. I have to return to work.”
“I’ll walk you out,” Robyn said, surprising me.
I tensed, wondering what she’d seen, what she suspected, and what the hell she would say to Arro once she had her alone.
Keeping my face blank, I looked at Arro as she told me she’d see me later.
Whatever she saw in my expression made the light I wanted to protect so badly flicker out of her eyes. She walked away.
My demons bayed from the darkest place inside me, and I closed my eyes to drown out their mournful roars.
* * *
Before I knew it, I was pulling up outside Arro’s bungalow, parking behind the patrol car that was already there. Thane’s SUV was behind Arro’s car. Thrust from my memories, I jumped out of my Rover and marched up her front walk to bang on the door.
A few seconds later, Thane opened it.
“Is she okay?” I asked with steely quietness as I entered without an invitation.
Thane’s face was hard with fury. “She will be,” he promised, and then gestured for me to go into the living room.
Some worry eased at the sight of Arro sitting in her armchair across from the two police constables on her couch. But when she didn’t look up at me, that crack inside me grew. Expression carefully controlled, I introduced myself to the police. Thane and I stood as Arro recounted returning home to find the note.