Twist My Heart by Brooke Taylor (ebook audio reader .txt) 📕

him to get up on the couch. The more warmth the better. Besides, Titan had been the one to alert him to her condition, so he owed the dog.

Hooking his finger in the stray coils of her hair, he brushed them away from her face. “Why did you stay in the water so long, baby? How could you stand the cold?”

“I locked it out.”

SEAL training had centered on the very same concept. So many men—huge, physically tough men—couldn’t handle the brutally intense training because their brains weren’t as strong as their bodies. Fear wormed through their mind, driving them to quit. Blocking it out was one way. The other was to press into it, drawing power from pain. Nik had done both many times in training and in combat. It’d gotten him through unimaginable torture, keeping him alive on multiple occasions.

Holding Thea’s cold body now, he wondered if blocking out fear and leaning into the hurt could actually do more harm than good. The pain was there for a reason, to keep you from being injured worse.

“You had me terrified,” he admitted as he pressed his lips to her forehead before dropping his own to rest against it. “You don’t have to be so strong, baby.”

Back and forth, the tip of his nose brushed against hers.

Eskimo-freaking-kisses, Steele?

His grip was officially gone. He’d saved her life twice now, but she wasn’t his to keep. Pressing his lips together, he clamped his teeth and willed himself not to do the one thing he desperately wanted to. If he gave in, he was screwed in ways that were virgin territory for a cold-blooded guy like him.

Her amber eyes claimed him. Bold fingertips ghosted across the hard line of his locked jaw. “You don’t have to be so strong, either,” she whispered.

He might as well have forgotten to pre-breathe before leaping out of a C-130 and falling thirty thousand feet to earth. That was how fucked he was as her lips lifted and brushed fire across his.

Naked in his arms, her mouth testing his. Shit. He had no choice but to surrender, and yet still he fought for control by nipping her plush bottom lip. Whether he meant it as a warning or a defense, it didn’t matter. The soft tip of her tongue mocked the bite, flicking across his teeth and the underside of his lip. His own thrust out and sideswiped hers, tangling in her sweet taste and taking control.

He explored her mouth in the same methodically slow way he’d stealthily approach an enemy or maneuver across extreme terrain. Instinctively he knew the ground he treaded on now was equally filled with danger.

Chapter Fifteen

It was just one kiss, I told myself. It was as much a lie as it’d been in the hotel bathroom not even twenty-four hours before. I knew full well Nik had held himself back from kissing me. I shouldn’t have pushed him over the edge. It wasn’t fair. It was selfish to want anything from him. To take anything from him.

I eyed Nik’s strong profile across the kitchen counter as he stared out the window above the sink. Undoubtedly, he regretted bringing me here, and I couldn’t blame him. This wasn’t a fairy tale. Kissing the handsome knight wasn’t going to solve anything, but damn if kissing Nikolas Steele didn’t make me feel alive. Blazing heat coursed through every single cell and for the first time this body belonged to me. All me.

But the feeling was a fleeting one.

She waited inside of me, holding everything hostage. I wanted her gone. I’d sat in the frigid-cold bathwater praying it would kill her. I didn’t care if she took me with her, either. I’d blocked out the cold, but I’d lied to Nik about blocking out the pain. I’d felt the scorch and sting of it and drawn it in deeper, because it attached me to this flesh. And it had terrified me to the core, because pain was the only thing making this body mine.

Until Nik’s kiss.

The slow invasion had infiltrated me to the point I’d palmed his rough cheek and crushed my mouth into his, deepening our kiss with desperation. Lapping into him like he was my only drink in days. Thirsting for the wild, hot burn of his taste and the searing edge of his flames cutting through my veins.

Ostensibly, Nik was still focused on heating me up. He’d left me a pair of his thermal long johns, a plaid flannel shirt, and thick wool socks to change into. He’d stoked logs in the massive stone fireplace of the great room until a fire roared to life. He’d heated up the tomato soup I was sipping on while sitting at the kitchen counter. Titan was even curled up at my socked feet, panting hot breaths my way. But there wasn’t a hint of warmth radiating from Nik himself.

Was he upset about the kiss? From the way his tongue had taken over mine, his lips hot and hungry, he’d seemed to enjoy it. More than enjoy it…need it. Lord knows I had. I’d fallen blissfully asleep cradled in his strong arms. But when I’d awakened alone hours later, it had been if he were the one with memory loss. No more calling me ‘baby’, no more kisses on my forehead. He could barely look at me.

He spooned soup into his mouth as he scanned the dusky terrain out the window over his sink. His brow furrowed and his features locked as he focused in on something.

“Is someone outside?” Running away with me had been a horrible idea. Why was it so hard for him to admit I was a liability? Bringing me here to his house had been a mistake. I should’ve insisted he take me to the police. “Someone followed us, didn’t they?”

“Relax. Just a black bear,” he replied.

“Outside? Seriously. There are bears here?”

“Lots. The other houses in the area are all rentals. They have bear-proof trashcans, but the tourists don’t use them properly, so I get