Page 43 of Broken Trust
One soft soprano sent ripples through his senses, the same voice that haunted his dreams for the torturous two years they were apart.
The sound of Elin’s laughter flooded through him like oxygen after a long dive. Hearing her laugh and knowing she’d found friendship with the ladies eased him.
If she couldn’t be comfortable with him, at least she was with everyone else.
* * * * *
Elin closed the door to Alyssa’s room behind her, silencing the last of the women’s laughter, a warm echo that surprised her with how much it settled under her skin.
She’d never thought she’d like girl time. She never had it before. But tonight had felt…good. Easier than she ever imagined, when she considered herself to be an awkward technerd. She didn’t really fit in with women in a conventional sense—but it helped that the women involved in SEAL Team Blackoutweren’tconventional.
Who ever knew that sitting cross-legged on Alyssa’s rug with Kennedy, Sophie, May, Izzy and Alyssa, passing around a bowl of chocolate almonds, talking about shoes and face masks and nothing that could blow up a city, was something she’d been missing from her life?
She wrapped the cardigan tighter around her body and started for her room. For the last hour, her mind kept drifting to Liam.
She didn’t even know what to call him. Her former lover? Her current lover? Or just a colleague for the time being?
She reached her room. As she touched the doorknob, she felt his presence looming close to her before she saw him.
“Liam.” His name left her on a breath.
He stood at the bend of the corridor, a ghost carved out of blue granite in the dim shadows. He wore jeans and a black shirt, the sleeves shoved up over his chiseled forearms.
The sight of him made the brief balance she found from being with the women tilt, as though the floor changed angle and forgot to warn her.
He didn’t say anything, just stood there studying her. She couldn’t make out his eyes clearly, but felt his gaze roaming over her face. Was it her imagination or was his stare locked on her mouth?
Her veins pulsed with molten heat that told her she was headed into dangerous territory if she didn’t go in her room and shut the door. Now.
Did she want to be alone anymore?
Recovering her wits, she slipped into her room, letting the door swing wider in something that wasn’t quite an invitation and wasn’t quite not.
She pivoted toward the door, the air thick and charged with things that hadn’t been spoken in two years and maybe never would be.
When the door closed, the soft click seemed louder than a gunshot.
He didn’t come any closer, just stayed there, back to the door, shoulders rising and falling as if struggling to breathe. It wasn’t indecision that held him in place—it was control. She could see it in the set of his jaw, in the way his hands flexed once at his sides before curling into fists again.
He looked like he was holding back the storm, and she was his trigger.
Her pulse tripped like a warning or maybe a dare. Whatever words were about to pass between them would either mend everything or burn it down.
She folded her arms to keep from fidgeting.
“I saw you earlier. With Sinner.”
She shouldn’t be surprised that a man like Liam saw everything that went on around him and was laser focused on anything that went on aroundher.
“The bag…” He let the words trail off.
She wrapped her sweater tighter around herself. “I can’t tell you anything about that.”
“Promises were made?”
“Yes.” The word felt heavy with the weight of someone else’s privacy. “Mine to keep.”
His gaze dropped to her mouth, a slow nod following. The intensity there wasn’t anger, but it still made her pulse stumble. What lived in his eyes scared her more than anger ever could.
