Page 182 of Savage Hearts

Her tears continued to soak my skin and shirt. I reveled in the feeling of her in my arms, afraid if I blinked, she might disappear.

I didn’t know what that said about me.

Or what I wanted it to say.

Without thinking, I cupped the back of her head and placed a swift kiss on the top of it.

She tensed slightly, but didn’t do anything more.

I was glad.

I didn’t have the answers she was looking for.

Half an hour later,I felt her arms go slack.

Her breathing evened, and I pondered with some amazement that she had actually fallen asleep in my arms, as if I wasn’t the monster that haunted her nightmares.

I carefully stood and took the stairs.

She muttered something in her sleep, and I paused in my steps, entranced by her relaxed face.

Had there ever been a time when I saw her relaxed?

My stomach felt weighed down by lead.

I wasn’t a man given to guilt often—or ever.

With what my brothers and I did, there was no room for guilt to fester. That would have made our job infinitely harder. But staring down at her, I wondered why I was feeling like this.

It could have been because of her eyes when she realized what I was about to do in the office. Or, hell, perhaps it had started from the beginning, when Silas insisted that we take herwith us. And all I had been doing by trying to fight this was allowing my past with Lilliana to touch her.

I continued up the stairs and paused in the hallway.

I should probably put her back in her room.

She would be more comfortable that way, and I sure as hell would too. I don’t think I could sleep well if I was next to her. I’d be afraid she might wake up at any moment and search for a weapon to end me.

I frowned, having a hard time conjuring up the image of her doing that.

She might want to hurt me, but kill me?

I shook my head and moved toward my room, laying her down on my bed and pulling the covers up over her.

I didn’t join her.

Instead, I stood at her bedside. She looked so fucking small wrapped up in my bed that my heart clenched.

I moved away and closed the door before heading into the en suite bathroom, quickly and quietly getting ready for bed.

It was early.

Too fucking early for me to be in bed, but hell, I was just so tired all of a sudden.

I couldn’t put a name to the pressure in my chest, the weight, that was pressing down on me. It was there nonetheless, and I just wanted it to leave.

We all had our own demons.

Maverick’s was his control. His tightly held control that he could lose the reins to at a moment’s notice.

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