Page 12 of Danger Close
“Woah-woah-woah! Breathe, Princess,” Cobra cooed, his hands up, palms out in a surrendering gesture. “Calm down. Other than moving you from when you fainted and into a car, and then from the car to in hereI did not touch you.”
I gasped, heaving as air came back into my chest, making me dizzy. Relief. That’s what this was.
“I sure as fuck didn’tdrugyou.” He looked offended. Appalled, even.
But I knew better. The men who were loudest about the things they’dnever do to a womanwere the very same ones that were capable of the absolute worst.
“My sister came in to change you into the sweatshirt so we could have your clothes cleaned.” He continued, “I stepped outside.”
He had a sister?I never knew that. And I was uneasy about a strange woman touching me… but it was better thanhimgetting his hands on me.
He turned to the armoire, opening it to show several garments hanging, or folded. “Yuliya got you clothes to wear in the meantime.”
Yuliya? Was that his sister? I placed my hand over my heaving chest, my palms against the soft fabric of the sweatshirt.
“You’re safe here, Teri.” His hands came down, and he tucked them back into his jeans’ pockets.
He leaned back into the farthest wall, his brows drawn together, as he looked at me, perplexed. Our daughter had inherited those eyes, and that astute expression.
I’d forgotten how his brazen gaze could heat my skin, as astute as any camera lens. It was that gaze that had me on my back, legs spread for him until we’d conceived Trinity. I thought that gaze was the rapt attention of a man deeply in love.
I knew better now. I’d learned many dreadful things in my old age.
When the silence grew between us, molding like old bread, he said, “You’ve apparently turned into a Batman in the time we’ve been apart. Care to explain what’s happened in the last thirty years, Princess?”
Chapter 6
Fool Me Twice
Cobra
Someone had hurt her. She’d flinched when I moved, as if I was going to strike her. She’d panicked and crumbled in front of my eyes. Then, she’d collected herself. She’d shut her eyes and built herself back up from the inside out. It was fascinating.
“I don’t know what you mean.” Her face was a mask devoid of expression. A clear sign that she was lying. “I began kickboxing to stay fit. That is all.”
She’d blocked me out like an enemy prisoner, prepping for my interrogation.
“Kickboxing?”Bull-fucking-shit.
That wasn't jazzercise-Tae-Bo nonsense. She wastrainedto fight. To close the distance, to defend against arealattacker. She wasn’t trained in some “That’s my purse!” self-defense class either.
If I didn’t know better… I’d think she was an operative. But there was something off about that conclusion. Something about that, and her, didn’t fit. So, what did that leave? I wasn’t sure yet.
“At my age, I have to work harder to stay in shape.” She doubled down on her lie. Un-fucking-believable. “I can’t stay slim with just Pilates and Yoga anymore.”
That voice of hers did something to me, still. It was gentle, with a light, French accent that was even more alluring now, than it had been thirty years ago. My eyes flowed down her gorgeous body and my cock stood at attention, trying to bust through my zipper, wanting to say hi to his old playmate. I groaned, took in a breath to calm myself, and shut my eyes.
Down, boy.
After the blood returned to the head on my shoulders, rather than the one that dangled between my legs, I forced myself to look at her with a more objective gaze.
Her slender, elegant neck, her sloped shoulders, toned arms, tiny waist. Thirty years ago, I was able to encircle her waist with my two hands, she’d been so slight. She’d been a model during the heroin chic era. I’d never liked it, and when she quit modeling after I got her pregnant, she got more and more beautiful. She had to eat to take care of our baby, and the extreme diets of high fashion weren’t going to work with thekind of mother she wanted to be. She’d given it all up for the little bun we were growing.
What changed between the woman who wanted her daughter to be her best friend, to the woman in front of me who was frozen out of our baby’s life?
“Well,” I cleared my throat. “You and I have a wedding to go to.”
“Excuse me?” That haughty raise of her brow ripped right through me.
