His lips pinched tighter, and a muscle at the back of his jaw twitched.

She caressed the spot with her thumb and lowered her voice. “That’s not a no. That’s just me saying I need some time to tune out all the chaos. To forget today’s pain. To get a little more practice letting go of all the old things that used to drive me and let the idea of trying on a new career settle in my head.”

His fingers in her hair tightened against her scalp, and his voice was a broken growl. “They hurt you.”

“Only whoever it was that shared the information. My boss and his boss were just protecting themselves. But it will pass. Tonight, I just want to forget. About everything. My parents and their expectations. Jobs. Killers. All of it.” She teased her fingers through the loose curls at his temple. “Everything except you.”

The light behind his eyes changed in an instant, the spark of inspiration honed by laser-focused tenacity. “I can make you forget.”

The swirl in her belly and pleasure spearing to her sex shouldn’t have been possible. Not with everything else that had happened.

But this was Kir.

A man who resonated with her physically, emotionally and mentally unlike anyone else. Who seemed attuned to her needs and responses at the most primal level. Maybe she couldn’t give him the answer he wanted right this moment, but she could give him all that she was right now. Let go of her worries and pride and yield to his comfort and strength. “I’d like that. Very much.”

She waited. Anticipated the tightening of his arms around her as the dominant in him rose to the surface. The confident play of his mouth against hers and the sweet peace his kiss created. The mastery he employed with each touch.

The predator was right there in front of her. Bristling with energy and an unbending resolve she couldn’t wait to feel unleashed on her overwrought senses.

But he held completely still. Studied her with a keenness that cautioned the old and structured part of herself to run. To reconsider the door she’d just opened and what might lie on the other side. When he spoke, his voice roiled with the power of thunder in the distance—a warning and a vow of what was to come. “You have no idea of the lengths I would go to for you.”

A tremor snaked down her spine, and goose bumps that had nothing to do with the room’s chilled temperature fanned along her shoulders and arms. “The way you say that, I’m not sure me knowing is wise.”

His mouth crooked on one side, the grin of a mildly amused pirate that did little to dissipate the intensity of the moment. “My actions will never hurt you.” He skimmed his calloused palms from her bare shoulders up to her wrists. “But I will be your protector.” He peeled her arms from around his neck. “Your provider.” He held her stare and kissed the palm of one hand, his voice pure velvet. “In all things.”