Mine to Hold (Mine #3)(40)
Author: Cynthia Eden

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.”

“One time, then done?”

“I know that makes me sound like a bastard, but ties just screw with your head.” He’d seen it happen. First with Drake—and the man had been to hell and back because of that painful mistake. Then the same weakness had twisted Trace.

Claire’s hand pulled away from Noah, but she still stood close to him. “Why am I still here?”

Because I need you to be.

“Haven’t you satisfied the-the ‘need’ yet?”

“No,” he said, voice roughening, “I haven’t. That’s the problem with you and me.”

Her tongue swiped over her lower lip.

Yeah, that’s the problem.

“The need doesn’t stop with you. The more I have you, the more it grows. The more I want.” Until he felt like the need was consuming him. “And I don’t want gentle and easy. I don’t want rose petals sprinkled on the ground. I want you naked and moaning. I want you screaming and clawing my back. I want everything that I can get from you.”

I want to own you.

And he was starting to think…

The way you already own me.

Claire stared up at him.

“Scared yet?” Noah had to push her.

Claire shook her head.

You should be, Claire. With every moment that passes, I get hooked on you even more. He’d seen Drake spiral, he’d seen Trace sink into near madness.

And now I’m on the brink.

The suite’s phone rang. Its pealing cry seemed to echo around them. Noah didn’t move.

She still doesn’t know all that I’ve done. When she did, what would happen?

The phone rang again. Swearing, Noah headed toward it. “What?” Noah snapped.

“Sir, it’s Janelle at the concierge desk.” Her voice was soft as she said, “I know that you said no visitors were allowed up to your floor, but there’s a very insistent gentleman here right now.”

Noah glanced over his shoulder at Claire. “What’s his name?”

“Austin Harrison.”

Harrison? His hold tightened on the phone. He’d done his research. He knew Austin was the senator’s other son. Three years older than Ethan, Austin had seemed to make keeping a low profile his priority. “You’re shitting me.”

“No, no, I’m not.”

“Keep him right there. I’m on my way.” He slammed down the phone and marched for the door.

Claire beat him to that door. She blocked his path with her body. “Who’s here?”

“I’m heading downstairs for just a moment. I’ll be right back and—”

“No. No way. The last time you tried to go off on your own, a building exploded.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “Who’s here?”

“Austin Harrison.”

Shock had her mouth dropping.

“And I’m going downstairs to talk with him while you, baby, are staying right up here.”

“I’m coming—”

“Concussion, Claire.” Gently, but firmly, he picked her up and carried her back to the couch. He put her down on the cushions. Pulled a blanket over her. Kissed her. “You stay here, and I’ll go deal with the bastard at the door.”