Page 42 of Vendetta Vows

I feel my body go rigid. "What?"

"It was me."

Ruslanwas watching me?

I stare at him, mouth open, waiting for the familiar rush of fear and dread.

Instead, all I feel is a surge of heat flooding through me.

All those times I felt eyes on me in the darkness... when I'd stand at my window, heart racing, body tingling with a mixture of fear and something else...

That washim?

My fantasy comes rushing back. A dark figure emerging from the shadows. Deliberate steps coming up the stairs. Large tattooed hands pressing me against the glass and pushing my legs apart.

This whole time…

He was actually there.

Heat pools between my legs as I imagine him watching me all week. What else did he see? Did he know I was thinking of him?

Did he fantasize about me like how I fantasized about him?

The thought makes me weak in the knees.

And I remember how I came with his name on my lips this morning.

"Why?" I whisper, my voice trembling with a confusing mix of fear, anger, and something far more primitive and sensual.

"Because you ran from me," he admits, not looking away. "I wanted to understand why you ran. Why you're so afraid of cameras. Why you're so desperate to hide in a city where everyone just wants to be seen."

His eyes hold mine, fierce and unapologetic. "Now I have a clearer picture."

"Why would you care?" The question tumbles from my lips before I can stop it.

"Because you intrigued me from the moment you crashed into me." A hint of that familiar playfulness returns to his voice.

He takes a step closer, and I don't back away.

"But now," he continues, his gaze dropping to the dead man between us, "we have a more immediate problem. It's not safe for you here."

"It hasn't been safe for a long time," I whisper.

"Which is why you should come with me, Aurora." He extends his hand. "I can protect you from whoever sent this man, and from whoever you're running from."

I stare at his outstretched hand.

I should walk away from this. Turn down his offer and watch my carefully constructed life as Aurora Castellanos crumble when the police inevitably arrive to run my prints.

If I do that, Jamie Fields would come back to life, and Kristofer will find me.

Or I can take Ruslan's hand. A man who kills with the practiced ease of someone who's done it before. A man who's been watching me for a week without my knowledge. A man whose very presence makes my body respond in ways I've denied myself for seven years.

It's a hell of a choice.

The monster I know or the devil I don't.

Jamie would run, I know that for sure. It's what I've done since that night. Run and hide and pretend that the girl I was died along with my family.

---