A hard nod. His eyes glittered.
“You are not understanding me at all.” Her hold tightened on him. “It’s not adrenaline. It’s not because I had a terror-filled attack. It’s because I want you. And you want me. We’re two adults. We’re not seeing anyone else.” She hadn’t dated in months. She’d pulled back because she was too over the scene of people being fake. Fake social media. Fake smiles. Over people acting like their worlds were perfect when they weren’t. “I get that you’re my PI.” Had that my sounded a little possessive? Maisey thought that it might have. She found that she felt a little possessive toward him. “But who says we can’t be more?”
There. She’d done it. Put herself out there. More than she ever had before. Because Odin—he was different. Real. Nothing fake about him. What you saw was what you got. And what she saw…
Hero.
He’d saved her. He was working with her to unmask a killer. In a world that was too often filled with darkness, she had stumbled onto a real, true-blue, good guy. What were the odds of that?
“Oh, Maisey…” A sad shake of his head. “You don’t want to go down this path with me.”
She did. Hadn’t she just said as much?
His fingers curled around her wrist. Slowly lowered her arm.
“You don’t know who I am.”
“You’re Odin. Former Delta. PI. Hero. You’re—”
“I’m a man who has done plenty of bad things in my life. Things that you don’t want to ever touch you.” He glanced at his fingers around her wrist. “I’m not good for you.”
Bull. She thought he was exactly what she needed.
“I shouldn’t be touching you,” Odin muttered.
“I like it when you touch me.” A low, husky confession.
A shudder worked over him. “You shouldn’t say things like that.”
Yes, she should. “I’m not into lying.”
His gaze held hers. “Neither am I, so believe me when I say…I am not good for you.”
Chapter Seven
The bedroom door creaked open. Odin saw the small sliver of light trickle into the den. He was on the floor, turned toward her door, and, hell, no, he hadn’t been sleeping. It was hard for a man to sleep when his dick was at full attention and he kept thinking about what a straight-up fool he’d been.
She wanted you. She’d stared into his eyes, looking at him like he’d just saved the fucking day, and said that she wanted him.
She was trying to put him in the role of the hero. That wasn’t who he was. He had blood on his hands. Scars on his soul. She didn’t get it. Didn’t understand that he’d joined the military not to save the world but because he’d needed someone—something—to control him. He’d needed—
Maisey was tiptoeing across the floor.
“Where are you going?” Odin growled.
She yelped. Jumped a good foot.
He hadn’t meant to scare her. Story of his life, though. Sooner or later, he wound up scaring most people. His buddy War was probably the one exception to that rule. Then again, nothing had ever scared War.
Correction. Rose scared him. The woman who’d stolen War’s heart.
“I was coming to check on you,” Maisey admitted.
He sat up. He’d taken off his shirt, stripped down to just his boxers, and the blanket she gave him was shoved over his hips. “Why?”
“Because I wanted to make sure you were still here.” She crept closer. She wore jogging shorts. Loose and sliding around her hips. A thin t-shirt.
No bra. Odin swallowed. He could see her tight nipples poking against the front of her shirt.
Breathe, man. Breathe and get your eyes off her chest!
“I was scared,” Maisey added in a quick rush. “I couldn’t go to sleep.”
He’d been horny as hell and not able to sleep. Three hours had passed since the scene in her bedroom, and he’d been sure Maisey had slipped off to dream land.
“Every time I close my eyes, I think about the things that could have happened.”
“Told you, don’t do—”
“Yes, well, it’s easier said than done.” She rocked forward onto the balls of her feet. “I’ve done reports on some of the worst crimes in history. I watch every kind of crime show I can find but…it’s different, when it happens to you.”
Yes, it was.
“This might sound crazy but is it okay if I leave my bedroom door open? That way, if I get scared, I can just sit up and see you and I can—”
He stood up.
Her gaze immediately dropped to his chest. “What…” A fast expulsion of air. “What happened to you?”
The scars. Hell. He raked a hand over them. “Gunshots.”
She hurried forward. Her hand lifted and pressed to his chest. “That’s a lot of gunshots.”
Yes, it had been. If War hadn’t dragged his ass out of that firefight, Odin would be dead. “Always thought I was stronger than him.” It still stunned him that War had hauled him so far. “But no matter how many times I told him to leave me, War wouldn’t let go.”
Her fingertips traced lightly over one of the scars.
A surge of heat lanced right through Odin.
“War saved you?”
“Yeah, and he never lets me forget it.” Odin knew he should have stopped fighting after that scene from hell, but he hadn’t. He’d gone back into the field, despite War’s protests. He’d gone back because he’d wanted to prove that he still had what it took to get the job done.
But I just found more death.
He’d found that it was too easy to get lost in battles. For that brutal return, he hadn’t still been Delta. He’d been working with a different unit. Even bloodier and more dangerous and so far removed from the official books that no one ever heard a whisper about them.
“Sounds like War is a good friend.”
She was still touching him, and her touch was making him crave her even more. “You should stop.” Rough.
Maisey’s eyes widened. “I just—oh. Didn’t realize I was, uh, doing that.” She snatched her hand back.
“War’s not my friend.”
She cleared her throat. “When a man saves your life, I’d count him as a friend.”
“He’s family. My brother. Not blood, but who cares about that?” Not Odin. Every time he’d wanted to sink into the dark and get lost—when he’d wanted to give in to the bloodlust that always seemed to call to him, War had been there, pulling him back. Control had always been so easy for War. He didn’t have to fight like Odin did in order to keep it in place.
With Maisey, Odin found that he had to fight twice as hard.
Never wanted someone so badly. Want to take and take and let the rest of the world burn away.
She’d backed away. Two quick steps that put space between them. Only her delectable scent lingered in the air around Odin. She put her hands behind her back. “The door,” Maisey said, absolutely confusing him because he’d gotten lost staring at her. “Is it okay with you if I leave it open?”
Her fear. She’d come out because she was afraid. “No.”