Mine to Take (Mine 1)

The bellhop and the concierge left a few minutes later. The door eased shut behind them.

Skye kept staring down at the city below. “Sometimes, I forget what New York is like…”

Snow fell lightly past the window. They’d flown out of rain in Chicago and right into a late snowfall in New York.

Her hand lifted and touched the pane of glass. “When I was a kid, New York was everything to me. The people here…they were happy. Famous. Everyone loved them.”

When she’d been a kid, she’d bounced from foster home to foster home.

She’d found dancing thanks to a social worker who’d wanted her to have an outlet. That outlet had been at a small, community center. Skye had once told him how nervous she’d been the first day she walked into that center.

She’d been nervous, until she danced.

Skye turned away from the window. “The suite, Trace?” She cleared her throat. “There are only two of us. Do you really think we need…what is this?” She glanced around with pursed lips. “I’m guessing…four thousand square feet?”

“Forty-five hundred.” He pulled off his coat. Tossed it aside. Went to her.

“Any room would have worked. Any—”

His hand cupped her chin. “When I was a kid, I dreamed of not being hungry.” She would know this. Far better than anyone else. “I dreamed of not wearing someone else’s used clothes. Of not being the one mocked because my shoes had holes in them.” His parents hadn’t died like Skye’s. His parents just hadn’t given a shit.

They’d forgotten him most days. Left him to feed and clothe himself.

The day the social workers had come for him…how long had I been without food then?

His old man loved to use his fist. His mother…she loved to use her bottles. She’d drowned out reality and hadn’t cared when her son cried.

“I pulled myself out of the past,” he told Skye, making sure he kept his hold gentle. With her, he tried for gentleness. Only for her. “These days, I can afford any damn thing I want.”

“What you want…”

His fingers drifted down her throat. She had such a sensitive neck. Once upon a time, he’d kissed her there, and she’d melted for him. “What I want is you.” Being near her drove him fucking insane. Having her scent—sweet vanilla—wrap around him. Having her silken skin beneath his fingers.

She wasn’t telling him no. Wasn’t pushing him away. Instead, she stared up at him with need in her green gaze. “I thought…I thought we came here to figure out who was after me.” Her words were a whisper.

“We did.” But it was nearing 3 a.m. New York might be the city that never slept, but they still couldn’t go pounding on doors right then. Better to wait. Head out in the morning.

Waiting left them with the night.

His fingers eased under the heavy curtain of her hair. Her breath caught on a little rasp that was the sexiest sound he’d heard in years.

“Tell me you haven’t thought about us.” Even though she’d been with others. Fucking bastards. When she’d told him their names, everything had gone red for him. Other men, touching her. He wanted to wipe the memory of their hands away.

Trace wanted her to only think of him.

Before the night was over, she would.

“I won’t lie.” The snow fell lightly behind her. “I’ve thought about you more times than I can count.”

Good. Because every damn night when he closed his eyes, she was the one in his dreams.

Her hand rose. Curled around his wrist. “And I think about the way you told me…to get the hell out of your life.”

Trace didn’t let his expression alter.

“You stopped wanting me, Trace, not the other way around.” She yanked his hand away from her. Marched around him. “Since you got the bell hop to leave my bags in the master bedroom, I’ll take that room.” She wasn’t looking back at him. “With forty-five hundred square feet, I’m sure you can find some other place to crash.”

Every muscle in his body locked down. “I never stopped.” His control seemed razor thin right then, and that was dangerous. He’d intended a seduction for her.

The wild hunger he’d held in check wasn’t supposed to break free.

Not yet.

Her laugh was bitter. Not like Skye at all. “Right. That’s why you came after me, huh? Why I’ve seen you pictured with dozens of women over the years? Because you wanted…”She glared over her shoulder, “me so much.”

Maybe he wasn’t the only one eaten by jealousy. Maybe there was some hope for them after all.

“Want me to prove how much I want you?” Nothing could have kept him away from her in that moment. He’d talked to her doctor before he left Chicago. Skye was safe. The concussion wasn’t an issue. She could sleep.

She could fuck.

She was most definitely about to get fucked.