Page 90 of Ice Covered Heart

“I—” Shelby stopped. “It’s not your fight.”

“The hell it isn’t. You are my fight. Dammit, you are mine. Don’t you get that?” The drumming of the blood in his veins was too strong. He was too aware of everything. His heartbeat. The blood rushing through him. Every ragged breath.

Too aware of Shelby. Beautiful, delicate, strong Shelby. Shelby who was trying to send him away because she didn’t want him to be risked because of her.

Screw that.

He’d take any risk for her.

“Hunter…”

He kissed her. With too much rage. Too much need. Too much possession. Everything felt far too dialed up in that instance. Back at the Shiloh estate, he’d told her that he was going to play the unhinged asshole.

Forget playing the role. He was an unhinged asshole when it came to her. He wanted to grab her, run away with her, make sure that no threat ever got near her.

He wanted to go out and find the bastard who’d tried to kill her. Hunter wanted to torture him, to make the SOB suffer.

And he just wanted Shelby. Wanted her warm and willing and calling his name. Alive. Safe. His.

Her hands rose and pressed to his shirt front. He thought she was going to push him away. Instead, her hands dug into the fabric as she hauled him ever closer.

Her mouth opened wider beneath his. Her tongue met his with a voracious need. Did she understand that her taste drove him insane? That he was so greedy for her that he was about to strip her, lift her up, and taste all of her? Against the wall?

He could do it. He was strong enough. He could lift her up, pin her high to that wall, and put her legs over his shoulders. Then he’d put his mouth right there on her clit. He’d suck it. He’d drive his tongue into her.

He’d claim her.

He’d…

Dammit.

Hunter yanked back. “You think you’re going to make me leave?”

“I, um, think I was pulling you closer.”

His teeth snapped together. “Show me what you’d do.”

Her lips were swollen from his mouth. “Say again?” She blinked those big, deep green eyes at him.

“You send me away. You stay in this town on your own. Because that’s your plan, isn’t it? You’re not going to stop investigating. How could you? Tiffany Blake was just murdered. You discovered she had a murder wall and that she thought Nate Shiloh was innocent⁠—”

“Technically, we discovered that,” Shelby pointed out. Her fingers still clutched his shirt.

“Show me what you’d do. If you had to face this murdering prick on your own, what would you do?”

She wet her lips. Her stare didn’t waver. “You think I can’t fight back?” A mocking laugh. No, a bitter one. “You think I didn’t sign up for every self-defense and martial arts class that I could find? You think I didn’t make it my mission to become the best freaking shot in the world? I go to the gun range every single week to practice. I made myself be stronger. And if the time comes when I do have to face a ‘murdering prick’ again, I will one hundred percent fight back. As hard as I possibly can.”

Fuck, but she was sexy. “You aren’t leaving town.” He was dead certain. “But you want to send me away.” That just pissed him off all the more. “I’ve faced danger again and again. I’ve been in nightmare zones. I’ve flown choppers into hell itself. I can handle any threat. And you are trying to make me leave you. Bullshit. Bullshit.”

“I don’t want you hurt. I-I like you, Hunter.”

He more than liked her. He was consumed, obsessed, wrapped around her finger. “Like,” he repeated, gravel rough.

“More than that,” she whispered.

Oh, hell. She’d just sealed her fate. Did she get that?

“I didn’t think I could ever—” But she stopped.