Page 146

STERLING

Istood at the kitchen island, my coffee going cold in my hand, and watched her like a man possessed.

Sienna was bent over, adjusting something on the new heels I’d bought her, that tight black pencil skirt hugging her ass like it had been sewn on just to torture me. The fabric stretched perfectly over every curve, ending just below her knees, professional enough for a law office but screaming sin in my kitchen. All I could think about was hiking it up, bending her over the table, and burying myself so deep she’d feel me every time she sat at her new desk today.

Mine. The word beat in my blood like a drum, and I had to shake my head because I was pretty sure she’d kill me if I tried anything.

I set my coffee down and slid the plate of eggs and bacon I’d made closer to her, keeping my voice casual. “Eat something before you go, baby. Can’t have you running on empty on your first day.”

She glanced at the plate, then away, her fingers twisting together anxiously. “I’m not hungry,” she said softly. “Coffee’s fine. I’ll grab something later.”

I wanted to push her, but I forced myself to stay quiet. Sienna had been using a lot of excuses since her nightmare last week. She’d been barely eating, and jumping and flinching at shadows and small noises like she was waiting for something to strike.

I was hoping that starting at the law office today would help pull her out of whatever fog she’d slipped into.

I stepped close, cupping her face and brushing my thumb over her cheek, resisting the urge to smear her lipstick. “Promise me you’ll eat lunch, at least. Please.”

Her eyes softened, vulnerability cracking through their green depths as she leaned into my touch. “I promise.” She pulled back after a second and fumbled for her purse. “I was thinking,” she said distractedly as she dug through it, “I need to check with Mack about my car again.”

The words hit me like ice water.

She’s still trying to leave. I can’t let her.

For one dark, unhinged second, the thought flashed through my mind—me cuffing her wrists to my bedframe, chaining her pretty ankles wide so she couldn’t take a single step toward the door. Keeping her naked and spread for me until the only thing she wanted was to stay right here, dripping with me, begging me to never let her go.

I blinked hard, shoving the thought down deep where it belonged…buried with the monster I kept leashed for her.

“Why do you need to do that?” I finally asked, and I was proud of how calm my voice sounded.

Her brows furrowed, and she stared at me like I’d grown a second head. “So you don’t have to drive me every day?”

Oh. Okay…

I breathed out a sigh of relief and grabbed her again, like I couldn’t stop myself. “Baby,” I murmured as I nuzzled into her hair. The soft blonde strands still smelled like the shampoo I’d lathered in myself after I’d fucked her against the marble tile this morning. “I can handle that. I’ll check with Mack after I drop you off.”

She twisted in my arms and frowned. “I just hate you having to play chauffeur for me all the time. I know you have lots to do here.”

“I don’t mind at all,” I said. “Having you trapped in my truck with me, no escape…what could be better?” I winked at her in case she thought that sounded too creepy.

She snorted and shook her head, but her cheeks were flushed again. “New rule,” she added, nodding like she was making a perfectly reasonable decision. “You don’t get to say anything that could emotionally destabilize me before noon.”

“Noted,” I murmured, my voice quieter now, edged with something that wasn’t going anywhere. “Afternoon, then.”

There was a tense silence where something else could have been said, something else I was desperate for…but I just smiled at her reassuringly, escorting her out the door without another word.

She couldn’t say she loved me.

And I couldn’t tell her I was a serial killer.

I thought we were even.

The truck hummed along the winding road, the tires eating up the miles toward town in a steady rhythm that should've been soothing. Sienna sat beside me, legs crossed, staring out the window with a blank face that I couldn’t read.

Megan Moroney played low through the speakers, one of those aching country songs about loving too hard and leaving anyway. Sienna had just discovered her and gone all in, like she did with everything that cracked something open inside her, I was discovering.

It gave me hope she’d be willing to go all in on me soon, too...even as something in the back of my mind warned me how easily that could change.

Like every drive over the past week, I was scanning the woods that lined both sides of the road. Every flicker of movement made my grip tighten on the wheel, even if it was just a branch swaying in the wind or a deer darting deeper into the brush.