Page 193 of Into These Eyes
Laughing, I press my forehead to hers and rub our noses together. “You’re too fucking cute.”
“Cute?”
I give her lips a gentle kiss. “And sexy and beautiful, hot, gorgeous and sweet and every goddamn thing all at once. I’m spoiled rotten, you little wench.” I litter her face with kisses before pulling back so I can see her eyes. “It’s like we both waited for each other … we just didn’t know that’s what we’d been doing until we met.”
She caresses my jaw, her eyes watery. “I think you’re right,” she whispers before planting her mouth on mine. “I love you so much … I don’t even know how to describe it.”
“It’s easy,” I tell her. “You’re my happiness, my life, my breath. When you stop breathing, so will I.”
I startle awake, heart pounding, not sure what brought me out of sleep. Motionless, I listen. Nothing. Reaching out, I find Jamie’s back only a foot away. Instinct wants me to snuggle against her, but I don’t want to disturb her. Besides, now that I’m awake, I could use a glass of water.
Slipping out of bed naked, I pad quietly out of the room, down the hallway and into the kitchen. With the illumination from thevarious appliances, I don’t bother with the lights as I grab a glass from a cupboard and fill it with water.
When I raise the glass to my lips, I freeze.
At the fringe of my vision, a shadow moves.
I spin toward the breakfast bar as he rounds the end. He stops there, in the hallway, giving himself a view of our bedroom door, while effectively trapping me in the kitchen.
So I can’t get to her, can’t protect her.
Like I’m fucking supposed to. The very reason I’m in this house.
And now Reid’s pointing a pistol with a suppressor attached right at my chest.
I’m naked, exposed, caught completely off guard.
The fact that he’s made no effort to hide his identity sends terror streaking up my spine.
He’s here to kill us. And he wants us to know exactly who’s ending our lives.
I let the glass slip from my fingers. When it hits the tiles in the silent house, the shatter sounds like a foreshadowing of what’s to come. Because all that broken glass is about to hurt.
I’m certain it’s woken her. The very reason I dropped it.
Reid chuckles. “Merry fucking Christmas, arsehole.”
“Jamie! He’s here! Don’t come out!” I yell, knowing that’s what she’ll do. If there’s any hope of her surviving this, she’ll have to take him by surprise. “Get Bennie and the Jets!”
At Reid’s confusion, I launch myself at the fucker who took so much from me. The fucker who’s here to take everything.
As I charge at him, the glass slices into the soles of my feet, and I slip on the blood, almost losing my footing. But I don’t stop. Over the roar of rage coming from my throat, I barely hear thepop, barely acknowledge the burning pain spearing through my shoulder, the acrid smoke filling my nostrils.
Before I reach him, Reid ducks behind the kitchen wall, constricting my heart with renewed terror.He’s going after her.
But when I slam into the hallway wall, he’s not racing to our room. He’s facing me, bringing the gun up again.
Launching off the wall, I swing my arm down on his wrist, hoping to knock the weapon from his hand.
Anotherpop.
Heat slices through my torso.
Ignoring it, I ram my uninjured shoulder into his chest. He stumbles backward, raises the gun again, and this time I grab the hot barrel, try to twist it from his grip.
When I rocket my other fist at his face, my sliced feet slip on the polished floorboards, and I only manage to graze his jaw.
“Benny!” I shout, trying to regain my footing. But there’s something wrong. Reid’s not afraid of me, and I can’t be sure, but I don’t think my voice is as loud as I want it to be. “Get Bennie and the Jets! Get Benny!”
