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

my way through the bedroom and cracked the door open. The house sat silent and dark aside from a swath of pale white radiating from the great room. Padding quietly down the hallway, I spotted Nik, lit by the glow of a computer screen.

I propped my shoulder against the hallway wall. “Not coming to bed?”

He spun the chair toward me, leaning back as his gaze leisurely slid down my body. “If that is an invitation, you should know I sleep naked.”

“You don’t need an invitation or a dress code—it is your bed.”

He shot me a dimple. “My bed or not, vampire rules apply.”

“That’s why you don’t sleep at night? You’re a vampire?” I grinned.

“I wish, but no.”

“So what are these vampire rules you live by, then?”

His chin ducked as he flashed a shy, boyish smile. “When I started getting interested in girls, my dad set me down for the sex talk. But let’s face it, between movies and the internet, the cat was already out of the bag. Still, he wanted consent to be clear in my horned-up pea brain. I was into these paranormal books as a kid, so he used the vampire rule. A vampire can’t enter someone’s house unless he’s expressly invited in. Dad said vampire rules apply not only to a woman’s house, but her bedroom, any bed she is sleeping in—even if it is my own—and especially her body.”

“Well, I would invite you…but right now the bed is occupied by one very stinky, passed-out German shepherd.”

He crooked his finger and motioned me closer.

I thrust my hands up in innocence. “I wasn’t the one who kept Titan up all night drinking and partying.”

Nik’s face tightened as my surrender dragged the hem of his flannel shirt high up on my thighs.

“Coop’s a dead man. First he cock-blocks me, then he gets a damn dog to do it.” He drew in a deep breath before running his eyes over me again. “You bought a whole new wardrobe. Why are you still wearing my shirt?”

“Because I like feeling your things against me.”

“My”—he arched a brow—“things.”

“Want to trade this thing for another?” I fingered the top button open as I approached. “If we sleep naked here, I guess I don’t need it.”

Nik growled. “Not in front of the cameras.”

“You really need so many cameras?”

He made wide eyes at me. “Regretting it now.”

When I got close enough, he wrapped his arm around me and scooped me into his lap. Stroking his hand up my thigh, he slipped it under the shirt’s hem. As his fingers strummed my skin, he whispered how much he’d missed me against my ear. Soon his mouth, tasting like cinnamon and sugar, found mine for a kiss. I squirmed, clamping my lips together.

His hands clasped my hips to keep me still on his lap. At his narrowed gaze, I explained, “You taste great and I should go brush my teeth.”

Nik’s chuckle sounded manly and devilish as all hell. “You’re not going anywhere.”

His open mouth ran from below my ear, down the nape of my neck. A blast of heat and goosebumps played across my skin as he nibbled at my shoulder. “In fact, you taste so good, I could eat you alive.”

“Not in front of the cameras,” I mocked, eliciting another growl. “Should’ve come to bed earlier.”

“I’m really, really sorry I left you alone all night. We weren’t exactly partying though. Coop wanted us to have a memorial of sorts for Will.”

“Mr. Foxtrot?”

“He died two months ago, during my last deployment. Coop couldn’t make it to the funeral and hasn’t gotten closure on it.”

Nik’s mouth skimmed my shoulder, stopping on my neck with a soft kiss, as I asked, “Do you have closure?”

* * * *

Nik drew in a long breath, before purging the words “I don’t want closure” into Thea’s flesh. Did he really just admit that? Why? A simple ‘yeah’ or ‘I’m fine’ would’ve sufficed.

Her arms encircled him, drawing tight. Slim fingers stroked up into his hair, easing his head deeper into the crook of her neck. He inhaled deeply. The fine grains of her scent polished down the harsh edges of his soul, numbing him and answering his question—Thea was why.

She was here for him with her arsenal of painkillers. So much better than a stab of morphine to the thigh.

Her arms cinched him in tighter, allowing him to relax against her strength, let go of some of his own. She didn’t ask for anything and he didn’t give her more for a long time. Breathing her in was enough. Trouble was, her essence was like truth serum. He wanted to confess all of his sins. Relive the worst days of his life, so she could tell him it was all okay, she was here now.

Special Ops soldiers didn’t reveal the details of their working lives for a reason. But he needed to share this part of himself before he could tell Thea what he’d learned about her. She had to believe, trust, none of the horrible realities or unconscionable truths in her life would change how he saw her, how he felt about her.

Lifting his head from her shoulder, he leaned back in the chair. Under the pretense of a caress, he circled her wrist with his fingers, slipping his thumb over her pulse. In the recesses of his mind, he kept track of its rhythmic beat.

“After the tornado, you asked if I was a doctor. I’m a corpsman—a combat medic. When things go bad, really bad, my teammates trust me to help them.” His own pulse ramped up as images of Will dying, begging for help, came rushing back. Nik swallowed, his mouth painfully dry. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

“Coop said he wouldn’t be alive without your blood in him. That’s what he meant? You saved his life.”

She wasn’t pushing for more on Will and the reprieve calmed him. Maybe this was a better place to start, anyways. Nik forced a grin. “Battlefield blood transfusions are just one