Kara shoved at his chest, tearing her mouth away from his, her chest heaving. “Damn you, Blake.” Again, her lips found his ear, a firestorm of emotions balling in her chest. “You made me feel what I’m feeling right now, and damn it, you aren’t quitting on me. Damn it, you will stay alive. For me. I need you to do it for me.”

“What are you feeling, Kara?” he whispered, his voice barely audible.

“Like I can’t lose you.”

He stiffened, not moving, not responding, and then, suddenly, his arms wrapped around her and he buried his face in her neck. “I promise to stay alive on one condition.”

Relief washed over her with his response, at the possibility he might actually try to survive what she knew he saw as a death mission. Moving to look up at him, she searched his face, looking for a sign he needed her, too. “What? What is it?”

Several heavy seconds thick with tension ticked by, his expression unreadable until a slow smile transformed his features. “You have to let me spank you.”

She barely contained a flinch at the unexpected question. She’d been hoping for an emotional connection, and he’d dodged it completely. His warning that he wasn’t the guy for her to count on replayed in her mind. Kara shoved away from him and when he let her, a chill raced down her spine and spread to her heart. He didn’t plan on staying around. She didn’t mean to him what he did to her. Damn it, why had she picked Blake to finally let her guard down with? Why?

Snatching up his jacket, she leaned against the wall at the end of the couch, and pulled her knees under the heavy weight of the leather. Physically distancing herself from Blake, as he’d emotionally distanced himself from her. Trying to survive herself now, when everything inside her felt like metal shards and broken glass.

Now in profile, Blake just sat there. She sat there. Seconds became minutes before he sank lower into the cushion, stretching his legs in front of him. Kara let her lashes lower, feeling the tension between them like a thick, icy blanket that only chilled her further. Helplessness filled her. All she could do now was sit and wonder if they would both share a destiny, if not a life, and end up as Blake had suggested—sinking in the bay in concrete blocks.

***