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

While the gun room hadn’t been the right fit, neither was his living room, filled with flickering golden light. This was more like a scene for a freaking marriage proposal. The pit in Nik’s stomach grew, while Thea took it all in, wide-eyed.

“You don’t look too happy,” she noted. She may not remember her favorite sandwich, but she sure knew how to read people. Nothing got by her. Which, along with her marksmanship, made his theories about her working for the government even more likely. “Don’t like candles?”

“Dad would turn over in his grave if he knew his survival candles were being used to make a sex den.” It was the truth, but not the reason why the romantic scene upset him.

“A sex den,” Thea remarked with a little laugh. “Who did all this?”

“Coop.”

“For us?” Thea’s tone was laced with doubt. The ‘for us’ really meaning for her.

“Trust me, he wouldn’t do anything like this just for me.”

“Does this mean Coop…approves?”

It was no surprise she was skeptical of someone who’d acted like a first-rate dickhead to her. If it were any other guy, Nik would’ve straightened him out right away. But he’d known Coop long enough to know there was a method to his asshole madness, and with a little patience, Coop would come around on his own harder than anyone. Nik hadn’t really anticipated the turnabout would come with candles, sheepskin, and roaring fires, but he also knew better than to take the gesture at face value.

Nik brought her hand up to his lips, kissing her knuckles. “His approval isn’t required. I’m sorry he is being a dick. He’s overprotective of his friends. We all can be.”

“And is all of this”—she gestured to the candles surrounding them—“him being a good friend or him being a dick?”

Nope, nothing got by her.

“Both.” The box of condoms and giving them some privacy was simply Coop being a good bro. The exorbitant display of romance, however, was Coop’s way of strapping some C-4 to something he was eager to blow up. So yes, he was still being a dick, a dick in a romantic package. “Coop thinks once we have sex, I’ll ditch you to go with him.”

Nik hated himself for it, but Coop was probably right to think it. Infiltrate. Hit your target. Exfiltrate. It’d been Nik’s modus operandi for most of his adult life in more ways than work. “Like I said, we’re jackasses.”

Naturally, Nik didn’t plan to leave Thea. Or want to leave her. But how could he trust feelings he’d never had before?

A nearby candle held her attention away from the struggle no doubt showing in his eyes. Lifting it, she cupped the warm heat in her hands, studying the dance of the flame. “You would never ditch me.”

“I might.” He hoped it sounded more playful than it felt. “I told you I wasn’t a nice guy. You can still back out.”

She skimmed her finger through the flame, winced, and set the candle down before sucking the burn. “You won’t.”

He grimaced as she closed the distance between them. How could she be so confident, when he felt so torn?

She met his uncertain gaze head-on. “What? You’re the one who insisted I look into your eyes and witness what I do to you.”

“I better keep my cards closer to my chest next time.”

“I hate to break it to you”—she tapped her finger to his heart—“but your cards are tattooed all over your chest.”

Nik stilled, the air in the room thickening, the mood deepening to the point he might as well have been treading in rough waters. He tried to force a smile, not really wanting to come off like the emotional wasteland he was. “Thea, it’s not that I don’t feel—”

Thea’s casually raised hand cut him off. “You don’t need to explain why you encased your heart in steel, Nik. I’m not naïve enough to expect those reasons have changed in the short time you’ve known me, no matter what happens in the next two hours or how many glowing flames dance around me trying to tell me otherwise. But the candles are really pretty.”

“You still want to do this?”

She turned back and smiled. “Well, not in front of the cameras.”

Nik let out his held breath. “Then we better take all this back to my bedroom where there aren’t any.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

With the glow of candlelight dancing from every surface, fresh bed linens, and the sheepskin rugs draped over the bed, Nik’s bedroom looked surprisingly elegant. It was the gorgeous girl with the amber eyes impatiently staring up him making it perfect, though.

“We’re not doing anything you’re not ready for, okay?”

“Oh no, we’re doing this,” Thea assured, grappling with the hem of his shirt and hoisting it awkwardly over his head. “It’s bone-in ribeye day.”

He’d have laughed at her mimicking his seriousness about steak, but couldn’t resist teasing her back. Flexing his muscles, he raked the hair she’d disheveled back, drew his brows together, and asked, “You want my bone in your what?”

Thea ducked, her forehead knocking into his now bare chest as a cascade of blonde waves tickled his skin. An adorably embarrassed giggle escaped her lips. “I’ve had a head injury. I’m allowed to make bizarre sexual innuendos. Please forget I ever said that and just bone me.”

He pulled her closer. “Oh no, this will never be forgotten. Never. You know how strongly I feel about bone-in ribeye day.” Grasping her hips, he heaved them against his own to prove his point. And his cock was killing it at making his point. “But before I put my bone in your…ribeye, there is something we should talk about.”

“Talk? You want to talk? They’ll be back soon.” She started shucking off her oversized snow pants. The tighter black yoga pants took more effort, her impatience evident as she tugged them down her thighs while bouncing on the balls of her feet. Bouncy, flouncy, trouncy… His instinct to pouncy roared back in full force. His cock sprang like the springs Tigger