Page 31 of The Villain

I stilled. “Are you okay?”

“Stop licking your lip.” The order was gruff and filled with hunger.

I bit down on the side of my tongue, not even realizing I’d been doing that while I’d imagined licking him. “I’m sorry.”

He shackled my wrists in his grip and carefully peeled my hand from his face as though he were pulling a knife from his body.Necessary but painful.

“I…thank you.” Maybe if touching his face had been as simple as creating a blueprint, that would’ve been the right thing to say, but it wasn’t. I knew it wouldn’t be. One touch and I knew I’d been crafting a fantasy.

And he knew it, too.

Embarrassment seeped into my cheeks. His face—his expressions might be hidden from me, but mine were an open book to him. He’d watched the blush form in my cheeks. He’d watched the swipe of my tongue over my lips. He knew he saw the moment the veneer of exploration—the need for information—dissolved into something far less appropriate.

“It’s going to rain. We should go back inside.” His gruff command seemed to have power over nature because, an instant later, the cold splat of a raindrop landed on my nose.

He released my arms and brushed my side as he stepped behind me. Like a puppeteer with his marionette, he held my shoulders and guided me to the only place left to go—back inside the safe house.

At least now, the darkness there was a little less dark—Dare’s handsome, scarred face burned into my mind so bright it was impossible to ignore.

Chapter Six

Dare

I’m worried about you—about why you haven’t written. I’m sure you’re going through a lot, so I’m trying to ignore the worry and be patient. But I miss you.

I’m looking at the stars again, and is it just me or do they not shine like they do when we’re together?—Always, Athena

Fuck.I pressed the door shut to my cabin, leaving my palm flat on the surface as I hung my head.

What the fuck was I thinking? Letting her touch my face like that?Forget the risk I took that she’d recognize me—however small it might be—the greater risk was that touch—her touch.

The last time I’d been touched by a woman…I shuddered, feeling as though an earthquake had let loose from deep inside me. The last woman to touch me aside from my sisters was the woman who’d betrayed me—broke me.Amira.What the hell kind of twist of fate was it that the next woman to touch me after that was the woman whose heart I broke?

It wasn’t a twist. It was a goddamn torpedo.

Fate didn’t deal with my life in games, only weapons and destruction.And I didn’t know what was more destructive—the pain in Athena’s voice or the desire flushed to her cheeks.

Either one should’ve been reason enough for me to stay away, but when we’d learned about her ex and gambling and the policy he’d taken out on her life, I couldn’t let anyone else break that news; it had to be me.

Maybe I wanted to protect her from the pain as much as possible, but more likely, I sadistically hoped she’d shoot the messenger.I deserved it.

I’d been the first to betray her, and now, her almost ex-husband…

“Fuck,” I muttered and scrubbed my hands over my face like I could remove every trace of her soft fingertips, every last trace of heat, every remaining tingle of electricity.

She wasn’t a fool—I was.

“Dare?”

I dropped my arms and looked at Ty. I hadn’t heard him approach, but it was obvious by the look on his face that he’d been watching me for some minutes.

“What’s up?” There was no hiding the bite of frustration in my voice.

“You good?” The very fact he was asking the question implied that he knew I wasn’t.

Shit.

“Yeah. Fine,” I clipped. “What is it?”

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