Page 7 of Merciless King

Because where London Rivera was concerned, the way she made me feel scared the ever-loving fuck out of me. I knew I had something in me, something dark and relentless, something I barely kept in check. When London was around there was no reining it in. I would do anything for this woman. Anything. And not regret it. Not lose sleep. Never feel an ounce of guilt, no matter what it was, as long as she needed it.

I was a dangerous man, I knew this; my brother and my friends knew this. With London, I had the potential to become a monster.

“Have you talked to the police?” I asked, and fuck that felt wrong. That dark part of me was howling with pleasure that she’d come to me with this, even if I knew what this was. And I was positive it wasn’t a stalker.

“They said with no evidence they couldn’t help me.” Her eyes shone, glistening from withholding her tears.

I was this close to carrying her to the couch in my office and pulling her onto my lap. Somehow, I resisted. “You get an autopsy on the dog?”

She bit her lip and shook her head, and my dick got hard. Jesus fucking Christ. If that didn’t prove how out of control I was around her, nothing else would.

“Have you actually seen anyone suspicious? Seen someone following you?” I said, hating that I had to make her see what she obviously wasn’t.

Her eyes had grown wide, panicked. “No, but…I just…I know it. Someone is out there. Someone is watching me.”

Fuck. “Are you still seeing the shrink?” I knew she wasn’t.

She jolted in my hold, but I wasn’t ready to let her go. “No.” Her breathing had grown faster, more erratic. “I’m not imagining this. What about the phone calls to the shop?”

“Kids fucking with you? A wrong number?”

She drew in a breath so hard and fast it almost looked painful.

Shit.

I got someone I trusted to check up on her from time to time. I needed to know she was okay. Not too close, and no, not me. Because the truth was I didn’t trust myself around this woman. I’d been all but obsessed with her back when everything went down, and I knew if I took an active interest in her life again I wouldn’t be able to walk away this time.

God help us both if that happened.

When I spoke next, I tried to be as gentle as I could. “It’s coming up two years at the end of the month, sweetheart. It’s only natural that you’d be thinking about this.”

She pulled out of my arms and I wanted to pull her back instantly. Somehow I resisted that, too.

“You think I’m crazy as well?” she said. “That this is me being paranoid?”

I crossed my arms so I didn’t reach for her. “I think you’ve been through a lot, that two years isn’t a lot of time after what happened, and that it’s only natural that you’d be nervous.”

She stared at me for several painstaking seconds, and the betrayal I saw in her eyes cut me to the bone.

“Right.” She glanced away and I watched her take a steadying breath and pull it together. “And if I do see something or someone?” she finally said.

I’d tear them apart limb from limb. But she wouldn’t because I knew what this was, and the help she needed wasn’t something I could give her. She was better off as far from me as she could get. “You go to the police. They should always be your first call.” I hated myself as I said the words. But London wasn’t in any danger out there. She was in more danger here with me. The fierceness of my hunger for her burned hotter than I could handle. My need for her would overtake, would reduce her to ash.

I’d only hurt her if I got close, and she’d been through more than enough already.

She blinked and a tear streaked down her cheek. She dashed it away quickly.

And there it was. I was already causing her pain and I’d only been in the same room as her for fifteen minutes. “London…”

“I’m going to go.”

“Hang on—”

“I won’t bother you again.” She turned and ran from my office.

It took everything I had, but I stayed where I was. If I went after her, I’d bring her back in here and I wouldn’t let her back out.

I’d make her mine.