“You have no idea the danger you’re in. Because of me. Because of my lifestyle. I can’t have that. I can’t have anything happen to you. You have to get that, Siena. It can’t happen. I’ve only got so much decency left in me. That’s all you now. All for you. You get taken from me, I got nothing left and I’m one of them. I’m dark and ugly and not fit to live. But I would, baby. I would live and I would be a monster.”

“Elijah.”

Just his name. He couldn’t look at her. “I’d kill them all. Whoever touched you. I’d wipe them out. Not just them, everyone they loved would die first. I’d take everything and everyone from them before I killed them. I’m capable of that.” She’d better fucking believe him. She’d better take what he said seriously. Did she think he wanted to admit that shit to her? Hell no. He didn’t want to see her look at him and recognize that killer in him.

“You have to know me, Elijah. I’m not the kind of woman to ever put my man in jeopardy. I won’t flirt with other men. I would never defy you in front of others, although I might kick you hard under a table. I will have your back always. If I don’t understand what you’re doing, I’ll wait until we’re alone and ask you, but honey, you have to know I’m going to ask. You can’t pretend I’ve got an empty head, because I don’t. I lived with secrets all my life, and I don’t want to live that way any longer. So you make up your mind to talk to me.”

“You strip me bare.” What the hell was he going to do with her? He’d just handed her that last little piece, the one that she could use against him.

“That’s a good thing, Elijah,” she said.

His gaze jumped to hers. His heart pounded. He tasted the bitterness of fear in his mouth.

“Because you strip me just as bare. No one else in this world could tear me up the way you could. But I trust you won’t. I’m safe with you. You have to know you’re safe with me. I get that you have never trusted anyone in your life. That you couldn’t. Everyone you loved betrayed you. I get that. But you have to get to a place where you know you’re safe with me if what’s between us is going to work.”