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

sincere, he reeled himself back from using any more cheesy-sounding pick-up lines. If he’d learned anything from his first attempt at getting her attention in Goodland, they weren’t going to work for crap where Thea Gale was concerned.

Instead he’d work the problem by falling back on his training. In order to bring someone toward you, some well-placed sniper fire generally got a target high-kneed in whatever direction you desired. Without overwatch, though, he’d have to resort to good old-fashioned reverse psychology. Retreat, hoping to draw her closer.

Problem was, her eyes had dropped from the stars to his. His body fought him, but with patience and discipline, Nik let go of her hand and leaned away from her, resting his arm on the rocks. “The night sky doesn’t look like this from everywhere. But out here, with no real lights, clear cool atmosphere—they shine the brightest.”

Thea glanced longingly at the inviting space he’d created for her, but didn’t take the bait. Annoyance fused with neediness, but patience would have to win out—he needed her to come to him willingly, and preferably wantonly. He distracted himself by pointing out various constellations and describing them the way his dad used to on their many camping trips. “The best place to stargaze is the middle of the ocean where the darkness swallows you. If you go far enough, you’ll see entirely different constellations. It’s amazing how everything changes when you’re on the other side of the world.”

Recognizing his dad’s words coming back after all these years made him pause. Had his dad been the one to plant the seed, the drive to go find those oceans, those other constellations all along? Here he’d guilted himself for abandoning these mountains—and more importantly, his family—to travel and explore, to get away and be on his own…when maybe he’d been subtly steered.

After eight years, all the rough strands and raw feelings had been clipped smooth, or so Nik had thought. People often would say to him—‘they’re still with you’, ‘they are always with you’. But he never engaged in such delusions. Never let his imagination wander to what life would be like if they were still here, or wonder what they might think of how he lived his life or the choices he made. Courting some fantasy of them still being with him had always been too dangerous. Too painful to feel the salt of the truth after the salve of the lie, and yet…talking about his family to Thea had felt easy, natural. Maybe enough years had finally passed. Or maybe knowing she’d lost her whole family, including every single memory of them, made him hold his memories closer and tighter.

Thea nestled in against him like he was a pile of feather pillows on a bed at a five-star hotel. There was something so simplistically perfect about the way she fit with him. His hardness supported her, her softness comforted him. And damn, he’d had no idea how much he’d needed this.

If only everything between them were this simple.

The pleasure of her resting her head against the crook of his shoulder as easily as if she’d done so every day warred with the pain of knowing he didn’t have every day to hold her. He didn’t even know if he’d have one more day with her.

 

Chapter Seventeen

As the temperature dropped and Thea huddled in even closer, Nik’s thoughts focused squarely on her—the tickle of her hair on his arm, the rise and fall of her chest with each breath. He hoped he could control himself enough to kiss her deeply again, maybe even do a few other things too.

Would she explore his body the same way she’d explored his world—grazing her fingertips over every surface, curling around and testing the weight of him in her palm? Where would her tongue flick over him, or linger for a taste? He let out a long, restrained breath, pumping the brakes on the runaway freight train of fantasies.

She shifted to her hip, rising up on her elbow enough to gaze down at him. “You must be tired,” she remarked, misreading the sound of his exhale. “You’ve probably only slept a couple of hours in the past two days.”

He hadn’t slept at all. When she’d fallen asleep after their kiss, he’d been quick to extract himself before she woke up to his boner banging on her backdoor. Besides, after kissing her, the last thing he would’ve been able to do was sleep. The workout he’d pushed himself through had barely been enough to take the edge off.

Sharing his insomnia with women wasn’t something Nik did, not even as an excuse to leave. He figured it would freak them out or they’d try to fix him or, God forbid, spend all night discussing the minutia of their life with him. Though spending nearly the whole night talking with Thea in the hotel room hadn’t been so bad, despite the frustration of her not trusting him enough to actually try to remember anything.

How could she trust him, if he didn’t start trusting her? Right? Shit, here goes nothing…

“I doubt I’d be able to sleep. My brain has a hard time kicking off.”

A breathy laugh escaped her. Not the reaction he’d expected. “I’m not helping you too much, am I?”

Her irreverent sorry-not-sorry grin made him laugh heartily. “Don’t worry, you’re giving me more interesting things to think about.”

“More interesting? Is that what a fugitive amnesiac is?”

Nik had heard Thea playfully make light of her situation enough to recognize it as a defense. The reality of it weighed heavily on her, and he’d do whatever he could to lift the weight off.

A wavy lock of hair shadowed her eyes. He rolled up onto his side and reached out to slide it behind her ear. “I don’t think about you that way.”

“What do you think about me?” she asked. Insecurity laced her tone.

Could she honestly not know how crazy he was about her?

“Different things. Good things.”

“When you let out that deep breath, were you thinking