“Lovely,” I murmur, feeling dazed. I run my fingers via the size of her hair, gently brushing the few stray knots free. “So fucking stunning.”

She bites her lip and appears away, bashful on the reward.

“You don’t imply that,” she whispers.

I hook a finger beneath her chin and make her lookup at me. “I don’t say or do issues I don’t imply, sweetheart.”

She offers me a protracted look, her fists tightening their maintain on my jacket.

“I don’t do issues like this,” she lastly says. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”

“What do you imply?” I whisper, pushing again to stare into her ocean blues.

“I don’t simply let strangers kiss me. I simply … I didn’t count on to love it a lot.”

Then what does that make me? I believe to myself.

As a substitute, I smile at her. “I don’t kiss strangers both.”

It happens to me then that I ought to supply to take her dwelling, that I ought to use the second to lastly take her away someplace secure and make her mine. However I’m a hunter, not a caveman. I would like to indicate her that I’m not going to harm her, that coming with me isn’t just the one possibility, however the easiest possibility.

My phrases keep suspended between us as we watch one another, the connection between us thrumming with rigidity and wish. It’s laborious to keep in mind that we’re standing on the heart of a quiet road in the course of a bustling metropolis.

However then behind me, I catch the sound of approaching footsteps.

My senses sharpen immediately and my physique tenses reflexively. I flip to see somebody, a person in a chef’s coat and pants, smoking a cigarette with a backpack over his shoulder. Some prepare dinner headed dwelling after a shift more than likely, however he appears acquainted. I instinctively put myself between him and Renee.

When the person lastly seems up at us as he passes by, he acknowledges me. He stops lifeless in his tracks, the streetlamp mild making his now face look sallow because the blood drains from it. I notice why I acknowledge him. “Mr. Bianchi—”

“Preserve strolling, Tony,” I warn, all-to-conscious of the woman standing behind me. I attempt to sound non-threatening, however I do know that almost all discover me fucking terrifying even when I attempt to be informal. Comes with the territory my popularity has lengthy given me.

“Y-Sure, sir. Have an excellent evening, sir.” he stammers as he scrambles down the road.

As quickly as he’s out of sight, I let loose a protracted sigh. That was not the impression I wished to depart Renee with, however it’s too late now.

Once I flip to take a look at her, she has an odd look on her face. It’s not worry, however it’s not the clear need she’d had simply moments in the past both. That little interruption should’ve snapped her again to actuality, changing the need with illness.

“I have to go,” she says softly.

I pressure away the frustration that creeps up at her phrases. She’s not incorrect. Whereas I’m going to comply with her wherever she goes—possible again to that shithole motel, given the late hour—she nonetheless must do what she must do. The second is over and all I can do is let her go.

I brush a strand of hair from her face. “The quantity printed within the high nook of the verify is my private cellphone quantity. Name me while you get dwelling, alright?”

She nods and says a quiet “Thanks” as she walks again to the sidewalk. Simply earlier than she disappears across the nook, she glances at her shoulder over me and offers me a tender smile that makes my coronary heart ache.

As quickly as she’s gone, I depend to twenty and climb into my automotive, turning the important thing within the ignition to start out it. Whereas this interplay wasn’t what I believed it will be, I actually don’t remorse any of it. She was by no means in any hazard of getting hit by a automotive by carelessly crossing the road, however I’m glad I used the prospect to talk along with her regardless.

Now she’ll have a bit more cash to ease her worries, and she or he’ll nonetheless have me on her tail, whether or not she realizes it or not.

Chapter 4

Renee

I stare on the verify as I sit on the mattress in my motel room, questioning whether or not or to not name the stranger from earlier.

He’s not likely a stranger although, is he? We kissed. And like I informed him, I’m not likely the form of individual to kiss random strangers.

Or perhaps I’m. That was my first kiss, so perhaps he’s simply the primary stranger of many. I simply don’t need to kiss anybody else however him …

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