I stared into her beautifully sad eyes, not sure what the hell to say or where to go from here. My gut told me to wrap her in my arms and make her body sing in ways it never had before, so all memories of anyone else touching her would be erased. My head told me to tread lightly because of everything she’d just gone through.
“What are you thinking?” she asked with that soft voice of hers.
“How I want to march back into that bar and finish the job properly.”
“You don’t think you hurt him enough already?”
“No amount of pain would be enough for him.”
A sad smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Are you mad because of the kind of man he is or because of what he did to me?”
I pinched her chin between my finger and thumb and tilted it up. “I’m mad because he dared to touch what I’ve already claimed as mine. I don’t share, Phoebe. I never have, and I’ll take down any man who tries to make me.”
She inhaled sharply, her breath soon stuttering out of her, making her chest sink as her eyes searched mine. I wanted to kiss her there and then. I wanted to press my mouth to hers and pull her body against mine. I wanted to close any distancebetween us and show her just how good I was at healing the broken—everyone except myself. But I wouldn’t be the first to make a move. Not after what she’d just been through. Tonight, it would have to be in her hands, and if nothing happened, there would always be tomorrow.
Unless my need to take her ended up killing me in my sleep.
Chapter Twenty-One
Phoebe
“Take a walk with me?” I asked.
With a brush of his thumb over my chin, he stepped back, releasing me from his hold.
It took everything in me to stay upright, but I somehow turned to lead us down a wooden walkway that led to the beach. Once there, I slipped my heels off and carried them as I turned to make sure Henry had followed me.
“You’re not going barefoot? The sand feels amazing between your toes at this time of night.” I said, swinging my shoes by my thighs.
“I can’t be bothered holding onto them.”
“You’ll carry me but not your shoes?”
“Absolutely.” He smirked.
“You make no sense.”
“It only has to make sense to me.”
We fell into a weirdly comfortable silence as we made our way down to the shoreline and began to walk along the water’s edge, with me on the left of Henry so his trainers didn’t get wet,while I relished the feel of the ocean lapping gently at the soles of my feet. It grounded me after all the chaos back in that bar.
“So, tonight went to shit, huh?” I said.
Henry’s voice was quiet, almost contemplative. “I’ve had worse nights.”
“Dare I ask?”
He side-eyed me, that look of mischief on his face that made it impossible to believe just how grumpy and standoffish he’d been when we’d first met. “Well, normally after a fight like that, I head home to shake it off and spend the night alone thinking about how I could have hit the guy harder or better. It’s not often I get to take a walk on the beach with a beautiful woman like you after that kind of madness.”
As tempted as I was to acknowledge his compliment, I stopped in my tracks and turned to face him fully. “You make it sound like you fight like that a lot.”
“Consequences of the job.”
“What job?” I frowned.
Henry pushed his hands into the pockets of his shorts. “Another secret you’re getting out of me. Fine, but this has to stay between us.” He leaned forward, whispering conspiratorially. “Andy and Jace don’t know about it, but sometimes I work freelance as security—a bouncer, if you will—in several nightclubs across London.”
A bouncer? I couldn’t believe it, even if his moody persona fit well for that kind of job.
