Mine to Hold (Mine 3)

They were back in his suite. Claire was wearing a pair of yoga pants and a loose top. There was a small bandage on the side of her head. The doctors had stitched her up, but the wound was right on her hair-line, so no one would even be able to see it once she was healed.

Heal fast, baby.

“Since I don’t feel sleepy, that shouldn’t really be a problem,” Claire murmured. She was gazing toward the large windows that looked out over the skyline.

Claire hadn’t looked Noah in the eye, not since he’d left her hospital room in order to talk with Trace.

When he’d gone back, Claire had been too quiet. Withdrawn.

Afraid?

“You’re safe,” he said, and his fingers trailed over her arm.

Claire flinched. “It’s not me that I’m worried about.” Then her head turned and she finally stared into his eyes. “It’s you.”

He had to laugh. “I’m not afraid of this guy.” If Claire only knew how many hell-holes he’d fought in during his military days…

But I don’t want her knowing.

The laughter stilled as she gazed at him.

“Maybe you should be afraid.” Claire’s body shifted slightly against the couch. “If you nearly die, it’s okay to fear some.”

He hadn’t been afraid, not since his parents had died. Even when he’d been battling the enemy—in ice, in sand, in the dankest forest he’d ever imagined—Noah hadn’t been afraid.

But I was scared when she was so still on that sidewalk. Fear had come back then, and he wouldn’t forget the feel of its icy claws raking into him.

“I don’t want you to die for me,” Claire said.

He leaned toward her. His finger slid down her arm. She didn’t flinch at his touch that time. So much better. “I have no intention of dying for you.”

He thought some of the tension left her shoulders. “Good.”

But I would kill for you. I think that would be far more effective.

“The police are working,” he murmured, “bringing in their bomb experts. I’m sure they’ll compare this blast with the one that took out Ethan. Bombers often have a signature. It’ll take some time, but the authorities will be able to determine if the attacker was the same.”

“What if we don’t have time?”

His fingers lightly caressed her. “We have all the time we need.”

“Not if he’s hunting.”

He hated the fear in her eyes. “I’m good at hunting, too.”

Her teeth pressed into her lower lip. “Your time…in the military.”

“And after.” He had his own demolitions expert coming in. Drake had stayed down in Alabama to learn more about the blast that killed Ethan, but he was already on his way up to New York.

“You killed, didn’t you?”

He glanced away from her. “Men die in battle all the time.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“And you shouldn’t ask questions that you don’t truly want answered.” He looked back at her. “You don’t want to know, not really, do you?”

Her fingers curled around the pillow on the couch. “Why would you say that?”

“Because it’s true. People like to see the surface, not the darkness underneath.” Life was easier that way.

Claire shook her head. “I’ve seen your darkness all along.”

Her words caught him by surprise.

“But you have to tell me your secrets,” Claire said as her eyes gleamed. “You know every one of mine. No matter how painful, you know. Don’t you think I deserve to hear yours, too?”

He rose from the couch. Paced away from her. “What if you don’t like what you hear?”

I don’t want to lose her.

He hadn’t actually had anyone to lose, not since his parents. But Claire—she mattered to him.

“Have you liked what you’ve heard about me?” He heard the rustle of the couch cushions as Claire rose. “A woman who tried to kill herself when she was sixteen. I mean, hey, she’s got to be some prize—”

“Stop.” He whirled back toward her. “You’re a survivor. Everything I’ve learned about you has just strengthened that belief.”

Her gaze searched his. “Most people pity me…or else they think I’m…pretending. That I’m a manipulator.”

“I see you for what you are.”

“Let me see you that way, too.” She stepped toward him. Kept coming until her fingers lifted and pressed against his chest, right over his heart. “I’m going to ask you some questions now, and I want you to know that your answers won’t ever leave this room.”

Her touch singed him.

“Have you killed?”

“Yes.”

“In battle?”

“During my tours, and then…after. Trace, Drake, and I set up a security team of our own.”

She waited, watching him with a gaze that seemed to see straight into his soul. The way her gaze always did.

And he found himself saying more. “We focused on retrieving very high-end assets. Businessmen, dignitaries who’d been in the wrong place and been taken. Some of those guys were held for money, some held in hopes of a power swap.”

Her head tilted as she studied him. “And your job was to get those people out?”

“Normal channels wouldn’t work. Uncle Sam didn’t want the wreckage coming back to his door…so our team worked those cases.” His lips twisted. “That’s how I got my start in the hotel business.” Talk about a career change. “One of those guys thanked me with a hotel.”

“Um, that’s quite a thank you.”

He inclined his head. It sure had been, but seeing as how he’d taken two bullets for the guy on that mission, Noah thought they’d come out of the deal square. “I had my own money, too, money left from my parents. I saved every dime while I was working with Trace and Drake, and then one day, I decided that I was done with that world.”

The world of killing and death and blood.

“I got out. I started fresh.” He looked down at her hand. It looked so delicate against him.

“You don’t seem so bad to me,” Claire told him.

Tell her. “I’ve killed with guns. With knives. I’ve attacked with my hands when they were the only weapons left to me. Killing is a talent I have, one that the government just honed even more for me.”

“But that’s not who you are now.”

“That’s who I will always be. When I see a threat, I want to eliminate it.” He couldn’t get more blunt than that. “And that’s what I do.”

Her lashes lowered. “Why don’t women last more than a night with you?”

“What?”

“Drake said—”

Drake talked too much.

“He said that your lovers come and go. One time is it for you.”

“I like sex.” She’d asked for his secrets. He’d give her what he could. “I satisfy the need, then I move on.”