Page 48 of Burned

I cross the room before she can ask it. “Outside,” I say.

Her eyes flash. “Excuse me?”

“We’re going out back. Alone.”

She’s in disbelief. “She’s here. Isobel is here. We should be going out front?—”

I wrap my hand around the back of her neck, not hurting. Holding. Reminding.

“Now.”

Her pulse jumps beneath my thumb. There she is. My defiant, impossible girl.

“Lucian,” she whispers, warning and want tangled into one word.

I lean down until my mouth touches her ear. “Color.”

Her breath stutters. Then, softer, “Green.” The answer goes through me like fire.

I take her hand and lead her through the back door before any man in that room is stupid enough to comment.

The cold hits us first.

Sharp. Clean. Brutal.

Good.

I need something strong enough to keep me from dragging her back inside, locking every door, and burying my face betweenher thighs until she forgets any woman existed before her. Never coming out of that room to face the world again.

Snow crunches beneath our feet. The woods stand black and silent around Red Shutters.

Somewhere beyond the trees, Bayne’s men pretend not to see us.

They see.

Let them.

I turn Erin against the outside wall, shielding her from the wind with my body. Her back meets stone. Her eyes lift to mine, bright blue and burning.

“You don’t trust me,” I say.

Her mouth parts. “That is not fair. You know I do.”

“You trust me with your life,” I say. “But not your heart.”

Her face changes. Then, she says, “A life you only get one of. A heart is more dangerous.”

“How?”

“You have to learn to live with a broken heart.” She stares at me in a way that lets me know this is one of her greatest fears.

To have her heart broken.

By me.

“I will never break your heart.” I cage her in with one hand beside her head. “Never.”

Her chin lifts. “And if I do have doubts?”