With Every Breath (Slow Burn 4)

“What do you think you’re doing?” she hissed.

He shot her a pissed off look—a look she was intimately acquainted with, having been the recipient of it every time their paths crossed.

“Taking you to your posse,” he said in a tone that matched his expression.

That brightened her considerably until she looked to the group they were approaching and saw that Gracie was in the middle of them looking stunning. Shy and overwhelmed but drop-dead gorgeous and deliriously happy. Her heart ached just to see the group of people she worked with, called friends, people she loved and people who had one hundred and ten percent of her loyalty.

Inwardly she cringed because her thought had been in the present tense. She had been loyal to them. Until now. She’d never lied to them. Until now. And she’d never deceived them. Until fucking now.

“Gracie will be thrilled you’re here,” Sterling murmured.

Thank God Gracie hadn’t looked away from her husband to see Eliza yet. Eliza stopped in her tracks, nearly tripping because Sterling was still in the process of his long-legged stride and well, her legs were considerably shorter.

He frowned, rounding on her, purposely positioning himself between her and the DSS group, something she was grateful for even though she knew he hadn’t done it for her. He’d done it so Gracie wouldn’t see Eliza and realize that Eliza had no intention of speaking to her.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Sterling snapped, his eyes blazing with anger and judgment. Oh yeah, he’d judged her and found her lacking all right. He thought her the worst sort of person and an even worse friend.

Eliza closed her eyes, so miserable she wanted to do something that appalled her. She wanted to cry.

“It’s not what you think,” she choked out, her mind churning to come up with a plausible excuse.

“What I think is that you’re being a selfish bitch and shitting all over someone who risked her life to save you. Someone who took a fucking knife and was slashed because she was trying to get to you, to do whatever she could to protect you when you were helpless.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” she yelled, thanking the heavens that the music and the huge group of people mingling and conversing drowned out her passionate outburst. “Don’t you think I relive that moment every fucking night? Every goddamn day for that matter. Do you think I would have ever wanted Gracie, Ramie or Ari to risk themselves the way they did to help me? I would give my life for them. All of them,” she raged, gesturing to where the rest of the DSS group was standing.

Sterling looked genuinely perplexed as he studied her. Almost as if he had some built-in “Eliza truth detector” able to ferret out what was truth and what was lie. Then sudden realization dawned on his features. She could practically see the “aha” moment in his eyes and on his face. His eyes became sharp and piercing, examining every inch of her face as if he could see behind her outer mask.

Fuck this. Only one man had been able to do that and she’d spent years finding ways of mentally strengthening her natural shields and barriers. She’d taken every class on psychic abilities available. She’d read countless books on the subject matter. Dug through thousands of articles. She would love the chance to try her blocking abilities with Gracie, but she hadn’t thought she’d ever need that ability until that damn phone call and now she couldn’t take the chance. She couldn’t risk not being able to block Gracie from her mind and, besides, if she couldn’t block Gracie she would be defenseless against Thomas. And right now, all she had was hope that she would be successful. If she knew she would fail, then her already flagging confidence and courage would vanish and she’d be spilling the entire story to Dane, begging for his help or running in the opposite direction as Thomas instead of straight to him. As far from his reach as she possibly could, even if it meant landing halfway across the world. But even there, he’d find her. She knew he would and that made her feel even more helpless.

“What is it you don’t want Gracie knowing, Eliza?” Sterling asked so softly that she almost didn’t hear him above the surrounding noise.

Eliza froze. She had to act fast. She’d always been good on her feet and quick-witted—when she had her wits about her. In other circumstances she would be smug and triumphant at how easily she thought of a way to throw Sterling off her trail, but right now she just felt desperate and scared to death he’d see right through her lie. Well part of it was a lie. Part of it was truth. Just the details were muggy.

Her face fell, a carefully orchestrated act as if she’d been caught out and wasn’t happy about it. She even managed a convincing glare from underneath her eyelashes, one that told him what she thought of his intrusion into her privacy.

“I’ve been planning a surprise for her,” Eliza said grudgingly, making sure she sounded her normal pissed off self any time she came face-to-face with Sterling, which until yesterday hadn’t been often. Why he suddenly popped up on her radar after so long of mutual avoidance she had no clue. But whatever the reason he could just slink back to whatever rock he lived under and get the hell out of her life.

“A surprise?”

There was no disguising the outright disbelief in his voice or expression. His eyes narrowed dangerously, and it was clear his Eliza-truth radar was beeping nonstop. He looked as though he wanted to wrap his hands around her neck and throttle her. Given his really large hands, she doubted he’d have any difficulty.

“Wade,” she said in a pleading voice, giving him her best big-eyed totally girl plea. It wasn’t a look she could remember using in a very long time. It was rare for her to dip into her feminine arsenal when a snarl, a threat or an ass-kicking would achieve the same results. But she could do none of those things with a roomful of people surrounding her and worse, every single person she worked with was halfway across the room and they’d certainly notice.

He looked shocked, his eyes widening and he stared at her like he didn’t know whether to throttle her, kiss her—oh God!—or take her to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

“That’s the first time you’ve ever said my name,” he said in a low husky voice that made her knees go weak and tremble. A voice and expression that said he liked it. A lot. His eyes were soft, a slight crinkle at the corners as he studied her, and for some reason her gaze was drawn to his lips that weren’t contorted into his usual Eliza scowl of exasperation. In fact, the ends were curled upward slightly, not a smile. Something altogether different. Something she wasn’t about to analyze or figure out because his entire body language had changed and, worse, his hold on her had tightened so an air of intimacy shrouded them. Now she realized she should have gone with the snarl, threats and ass-kicking. Fuck!