Dax clasps my chin between his thumb and index finger, beckoning me to look up at him. “I’ve got time,” he says. “Olivia, there’s a lot you’re not telling me.”
“Can’t a girl keep a few secrets?” I shoot back with a light laugh.
“I’ll get it all out of you, eventually,” he replies.
It sounds like a promise with the subtle edge of a threat. His gaze darkens as he kisses me again. Our tongues clash, the kiss deepening as I wrap my arms around his neck.
This is reckless. Too fast. Too much. And yet—I can’t stop.
I lose track of the rest of the steps getting us home. I recall briefly us stumbling through my front door and shutting it with a dramatic bang before we tear each other’s clothes off. It is primal, it is unstoppable, and it is wonderfully intense.
“I think I had one too many cocktails,” I gasp.
Dax lifts my dress up, his breath heavy with longing. “They’re mild as hell, Olivia. Don’t blame alcohol for what you’re about to do.”
“WhatI’mabout to do?”
“Whatwe’reabout to do,” he chuckles mischievously and captures my mouth in another kiss.
And that’s when I see it. A flicker in the window. A moving shadow. My heart stops, ice sliding down my spine.
“Olivia?” Dax asks, immediately feeling the shift in my body.
I stop moving. I’m frozen, staring at the window. My ears twitch, waiting for a suspicious sound to reach them.
“Olivia, what’s wrong?” he insists, placing his hands on my shoulders. It’s only when he gives them a good squeeze that I’m able to escape the trance and look up at him. “What’s wrong?”
“I thought… I thought I saw something,” I mumble.
“Saw what?”
“Outside—I think there’s someone outside.”
Or maybe I’m just losing my mind, but I can’t tell him that. Dax immediately leaves my side and heads out the door. I stand in silence, listening to the sound of his thundering footsteps. In seconds, I see him through the same window.
What I spotted earlier may have been nothing. It could’ve simply been a branch casting a shadow in the night breeze. There’s a streetlight several feet away, after all. Dax circles the house and does a full perimeter search before he returns.
“There’s no one out there,” he says.
“Are you sure?” I ask, though part of me knows he’s sure.
I’m still reeling, still trying to put a nightmare Dax knows nothing about behind me.
I’m the one who ran for the hills and right out of Devon, scared for my life. Dax doesn’t know about any of it. He doesn’t understand. I take a deep breath.
“Olivia, I’m sure,” he says.
The way he says it soothes my panicked nervous system. It glazes over my soul and gives me a sense of safety, something I’ve never felt before.
He locks the door behind him.
5
OLIVIA
“I’m not done with you yet,” he says.
It only takes the blink of an eye for Dax to set another fire within me.
