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

serial killer wouldn’t offer to take their victim to the police, would he? Instead panic rose up my throat. I shoved my hand against the solid wall of his chest to push him away. “No!”

An amused grin played across his mouth as he placed the washcloth into my palm. With a deliberate step back, he let me know the retreat was entirely by choice. He didn’t look mad as he leaned against the doorjamb again. He seemed more…disappointed. But why?

Steam from my shower still warmed the air between us, but the rasp of his rough voice sent a chill up my spine. “Someone is looking for you.”

“No one’s looking for me!” I took a breath and tried for something less guilty-sounding. “I mean, why would you assume anyone’s trying to find me?”

As Nik crossed his muscled arms over his broad chest, I glimpsed tattoo ink peeking out from the edge of his shirtsleeve. His gaze captured mine for a tender, comforting moment then he pressed his lips together and swallowed. “Because someone is surely missing you.”

I caught the wistful tone of his voice and the hard flex of his square jaw as he kept his eyes from daring to drop below my chin, but I growled in annoyance anyway.

Titan sprang to his feet. Instinctively, I held my hand up to let him know I was fine. His sloping hips dropped to sit, but his round, brown eyes and large, perked ears stayed trained on me.

“I know it must sound crazy.” As I lowered my voice, Titan edged himself back down. “I know all of this is crazy. I’m sorry I don’t have the memories to explain why I feel this way. But I can’t go to the police or a hospital. I won’t.”

“Look, we can give the shock more time to wear off.”

“It’s not shock, and I don’t need more time.”

“You hit your head. You were knocked out. You can’t remember your name…anything about yourself. You need to see a doctor.”

“I won’t.”

It was probably the fifth or sixth time we’d been through this. A couple of times among the twisted trees and tornado debris. A few more in the back of his Jeep when he’d treated my cuts…again in the hotel parking lot…and now here.

Nik wasn’t about to let this go. And he had zero intentions of letting me stay. He wasn’t going to help me past making sure I survived. His good deed done. His civic duty completed. Now came the time to dump me at the Emergency Room doors and wipe his hands clean of me, the sooner the better.

“We should find your family.”

I drew in a breath so sharp the pain had me nearly doubling over. I had no one. Nowhere to go. Inexplicable fear balled up inside of me. My throat constricted against the words, but they escaped in a desperate, panicked rush. “What family? They’d be strangers to me. Don’t you understand? There is no family. If you want me to leave, I will. But I’m not going to the police and I’m not going to a hospital.”

He tilted his head. His critical eyes sized me up as they scanned the full length of my body. “Well, girlie, good luck getting very far dressed like that.”

My whole body rang as if filled with a stinging sensation. I wheeled to grab up my torn and bloody clothes. I couldn’t go back to the tornado site. But it was clear I couldn’t stay here.

Nik clamped his hand round my wrist and spun me to face him. His full body pressed mine against the bathroom vanity in one heart-stopping motion. “You’re not going anywhere.”

Chapter Five

Nik caged my body between his strong arms. His every muscle flexed rigid as he trapped me against the bathroom vanity as certainly as I had been by the tornado.

Like hell I’d let Nik’s physical force intimidate me. Instead, the power radiating off him in heavy waves fed my own surging energy. His blazing eyes countered the anger I radiated from my own. Neither one of us broke from the stare, even as Titan leaped up in a barking fit.

I snapped out, “Down!” This wasn’t my dog’s battle. It was mine.

The order hadn’t been intended for Nik, but his muscles relaxed almost imperceptibly.

Titan’s compliance came slowly and with a huff.

Nik didn’t have to say the words or physically back away to signal the surrender his body was giving me, but tempered to almost a whisper, he repeated tightly, “You’re not going anywhere…you don’t want to go.”

Under his heavy breath, his words became as penetrating as his eyes. “You don’t want to go, do you?”

It wasn’t really a question. More an observation. His stare dug into mine—seeking, searching, ransacking my brain for proof. Or maybe it was a plea. Either way, he wanted me to stay.

I released my breath in a rush, my buzzing fury melting in a flash of heat. The hard energy roiling off him dropped so swiftly I had to grab hold of his shirt to keep my balance. He wedged his thigh thickly between mine, bracing me as his body shifted, blending into mine.

I identified the earlier, not-so-calming feeling drawing me toward Nik had been this, now a thousand times stronger and more urgent. Anticipation—yes, curiosity—yes, impatience—God, yes. All of it rolled up into a desperate need to get even closer to him, to wrap myself around him and hold on for dear life.

’Just the shock talking…’

The flames in his eyes lowered to a heated sway. He rolled his lower lip into his mouth and returned glistening. For a split second I envisioned him leaning down, his mouth crushing over mine, our tongues tangling hard. When he didn’t, I went up on my toes, the entire front of my body rubbing up his in my eagerness.

It was his turn to growl, his lips curling over his teeth. A wildness sprang to his eyes, but he dropped his brows low, hooding it. The rise and fall of his chest rasped into mine