Elijah didn’t argue with her, rising with her as she stood up. Instead, he leaned down and lifted her into his arms, cradling her against his chest. Her stomach fluttered. Her heart somersaulted. He’d held her so carefully after he found her, running with her to the helicopter. She remembered the feel of his arms and his hard chest. The steady sound of his heart beating. He made her feel safe when her entire world was collapsing around her. The very strange thing was, she still felt safe in spite of the information he’d just disclosed to her.

Siena sighed and slid her arms around his neck, buried her face against his shoulder and hung on, her mind racing as he carried her back through his beautiful, perfect house. She loved his house. She loved being in his arms. She loved his wild hair and his rock-hard body. She didn’t love what he was telling her, but she did love that he told her the truth.

He moved with a fluid, casual elegance, his muscles rippling subtly, suggestively beneath his skin. “Thanks for not judging me, Siena.”

It wasn’t about judging him. It was about having a baby with him. Raising a child with him. She tightened her hold on him and pressed her face deeper into him, breathing him in. She even loved the way he smelled. She was so far gone on him she could barely separate her dreams of him from the reality.

“Growing up in a home like that, with the violence, the guns, fists, expected to be that person because you’re the head of the family’s grandson and then son, you have something to prove all the time. Hell, baby, my own family expected it of me. My leopard made me fast and violent. Strong. I excelled, and my family pushed me to really excel. To be that man. The punisher. The enforcer. The killer.”

Siena shook her head. She couldn’t imagine being a child in those circumstances. She’d been devastated when she’d lost her parents so violently, but she hadn’t known why. She didn’t understand that her grandfather’s world invited violence. That someone had retaliated for some move her grandfather had made.

She stiffened. Of course. She hadn’t put that together. “My grandfather made a move against another family and that’s why my parents were killed.” She made it a statement.

“My uncle murdered his own brother,” Elijah said. “I was a kid, but he wanted to groom me properly to take over the family business. He was extremely violent and he enjoyed hurting others. I have a sister. Rachel. My uncle threatened her. If I didn’t do what he wanted me to do, she paid the price.”