But one whiff of her scent. One glimpse of her body. The sound of his name on her lips…

He was weakened and undone.

Don’t you dare think about forgiving her. He wanted to hang on to his anger and hatred with both hands. To wrap himself up in its protective coat so that no one could ever hurt him again.

And yet as he looked into her amber eyes…

He saw what no one else had ever given him.

Her heart.

God, help me. Please…

Zarya froze at the sight of his hunger for her. This was the man she knew. The one she wanted back at any cost.

But underneath that was a pain so profound it stole her breath. He was wounded so badly that it made her own heart ache for him. She couldn’t stand to see him like this. He looked lost and tormented.

Please come back to me. She needed what they’d had. Needed him to tell her everything would be okay and that he still loved her, no matter what.

Before he withdrew from her again, she rose up and captured his lips.

He wrapped his arms around her, fisting his hands behind her back as he kissed her senseless. Closing her eyes, she breathed him in. All of her emotions slammed into her. Her fear that he’d been killed. Her guilt over what they’d done to him. Her anger over the way he’d treated her.

But most of all was the love she despised feeling for him. Only he could destroy her.

Darling burned with a need to kill her. He did. The darkness inside wanted nothing from her except to feel her blood on his hands. But the man in him only wanted to lie in her arms until she drove the demons inside him straight back to hell where they belonged.

He needed the peace she alone gave him. Just for one moment, he wanted to feel secure again. Feel something other than this bitterness that ate at him until it drove him to murder the ones who caused it.

For so long now, he’d been lost. But as he tasted her, he remembered what it was like to be home. To feel welcomed…

And in this instant, that was what his battered soul craved most.

Growling, he picked her up and carried her over to his desk. With one arm, he sent everything on top of it to the floor. Then he set her down. His heart hammering, he stared at her, torn between the two things he wanted most.

To kill her and to love her…

She pulled the gown off, over her head.

His thoughts scattered as he saw the body that had haunted him since the moment he’d first touched her. She had the most beautiful breasts of any woman ever born. And as she arched her back, all the blood drained from his head and went straight to his groin.

He’d be mad at her later.