page46 (2/2)

“You see too ruff

“Only because I’”

We hit an impasse and the rest of the ride passed in heavy silence I thought e got back to the condo ould each take a separate corner of the loft and take a ti between the two of us and I hated it

Apparently Titus hated it too because before the front door was even closed behind us he had his hands all overboth of us and headed toward the bed It wasn’t talking It wasn’t letting , and the soht, I couldn’t stop him if I wanted to, which I absolutely didn’t

Only an idiot would say no to those melted silver eyes, that talented mouth, those impatient and heavy hands, that body s, most of them pretty unpleasant, but an idiot wasn’t one of them

Chapter 12

Titus

WHERE I WAS FROM was so I never wanted to talk about with anyone, ever It had nothing to do with Reeve or the fact that letting her into that deep dark hole was going to ceht be a man that had a purpose now, but before I was just like every other punk kid running the streets, and I hated those memories I hadn’t been handed a way out; I made my own, and the way I went about it still left a dirty taste in my mouth all these years later I had asin ht down to it It was that part ofminute of every day to keep buried under honor and duty That tainted blood, that nasty past, followed me, haunted ray The fog of the past was full of monsters that feasted on my soul, so I kept them locked in the dark Usually they ed there, starved and angry, but ever since Reeve blasted her way throughto the surface and de attention

So far they seemed content to feed on her attention and her luscious body They drank in the acceptance and understanding in her navy gaze like it was ah to keep those animals at bay My carefully constructed life was liable to fall victie they would cause if they escaped That’s why I crawled out of bed every singleher sprawled on the other side of the bed, naked and ht she letshe deserved better than what I was giving her Teeks that felt like forever while I climbed all over her and let her sink deeper and deeper inside ofall over her, and instead of wincing in regret that I had da so beautiful, messed up such perfection, I wanted to beat my chest with pride and declare erous way to think because she wasn’t a prize, a trophy, and I had done nothing to win her, so I left her there every single

I hit up every back alley I could find I popped into every underground bar and rattled the owners in a hope I couldden I had on my radar and demanded answers Anyplace Novak was known to haunt back in the dayI showedabout his ard son I even stopped the girls that worked the street corners, the ones that didn’t want Nassir’s protection and preferred to tough it out in the wild on their own, and asked them about Roark It was the same story from every lowlife I encountered The elusive man with an accent had made his presence known All the cri in the shadows,those he deemed responsible for his father’s death pay No one seemed to knohere the Irish and they were afraid of him