Page 61 of The Vow

I let my arms fall, feeling the jacket drift apart on my chest. “What did he do to you?”

He started to laugh until the pain made him reconsider. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

“Really? Because from the pool, it looked like you needed Pat to help youhandleit.”

His lip twitched. “Last chance, Robber. Go back to your room.”

“Or what? The big bad wolf is going to eat me?” I knew it was a mistake before the words were even out, but like they’d been programmed on my tongue by some unshakable power, I couldn’t stop or change them had I tried.

Damon drew a slow inhale. One that he needed to take to steady himself, and one that hurt like hell judging by the way his pulse jumped against the side of his neck.

He took a single step closer to me. Maybe it was meant to be a warning. A threat. It certainly made the hum in my blood heighten, but nowhere did I feel the urge to run.

“If given the opportunity, Robber, I’d fucking devour you whole.”

My throat worked to swallow, desperate to damp down the sudden roar of lust through my limbs.

“What happened, Damon?” I demanded again. “What did you say? What did Belmont do?”

Another step narrowed the gap between us. I didn’t back away, but I was prepared to. He didn’t need to be close to me to tell me what happened, and God knew, I didn’t need to be close to him to wish that I was.

“You want to know what he did? Then come here.” Myhead tipped to the side, instantly suspicious. At my hesitation, Damon growled, “Either you want to know, or you’re going to leave.”

My feet moved like they’d heard a blow of the whistle, bringing me to him. Because of his warmth, I felt the cold of my wet clothes like an icy reminder of my rage plastered to my skin.

Before he said another word, his eyes closed and nostrils flared, his chest, in spite of the pain, filled to the brink of bursting with his deep inhale…as though he wanted to bottle it in his lungs just in case my scent was the only part of me he’d ever get his fill of again.

“Robber…” This time, the pain on his face looked anything but physical.

“I want to know,” I said, realizing there was nothing so inconspicuous as a breath and yet nothing more damning the way it infiltrated my voice.

His jaw muscle fired again. “Then take off my clothes.”

Chapter Seventeen

Robyn

Iwanted to laugh, but the stark seriousness on his face guillotined the sound in my throat.

Damon wasn’t kidding. He slowly lifted his arms from his sides, an invitation to take the next step. To commit to getting my answers. This was the price to know the truth, and the smug liar thought it would be too steep for me to pay.

“Fine,” I said, aiming for a breezy tone but falling sorely short as I reached for the flaps of his lapels.

The heat of him infected the layers of his clothes, oozing through the fibers and coating my fingertips. I kept my eyes locked on my own hands, my fingers as they gripped the fabric and pushed his jacket over the broad stretch of his shoulders.

A hard exhale wedged through his lips. Pain, for sure, but the cause I couldn’t tell. Was it an injury? Or was it the same pain I felt—the pain of being this close?

I glanced up, catching how his chin was tipped up and his eyes shut. A mistake because I couldn’t look away from thechiseled edges defining his face and the way their edges carved deeper as I worked his jacket down his arms, letting it finally fall to the floor.

Damon’s eyes opened, catching mine and the way I stared.

Heat stamped the skin of my cheeks, my lips parting on a sharp breath. I quickly caught myself, snapping my attention to his vest, my fingers slipping as they fumbled with the three buttons.

“Did you send all my hats to a watery grave, Robber?”

I smiled, skating my fingers up to the edge of the vest to draw it, too, over his shoulders. This time, I could feel the ripple of his muscle quake under the surface of his shirt.

“I’m sure I didn’t send all of them,” I said, my voice husky.

---