Fuck. Damn her. She was ripping into his soul and there wasn’t a damned thing he could do to stop her. No one had ever cared about his protection.
With the exception of Cameron, there had never been anyone who gave his life a thought above their own. Until Kia. It was her life in danger. She had been attacked, hurt, everything she owned brutalized, but she was worried about his protection?
“You watch my back, and I’ll watch yours.” He lowered his head and whispered the words to her as Khalid and Cameron found something fascinating to watch outside the car windows.
He felt her start, her eyes dilating in surprise. The slightest lessening of tension, the hint of her heart rate easing.
“You would let me?” Her whisper low enough that he knew only he heard.
He touched her cheek, experiencing the same rush he always felt when he touched her skin.
“Any day of the week, any hour of the day. Keep your eyes on me, Kia. Mine will always be on you.”
Kia let her head rest against his chest then, inhaling with a slow, measured breath. Nothing could happen to him, not because of her, especially because of her. She couldn’t live with herself if it did.
The drive back to Chase’s apartment was made quickly and Kia had nearly managed to regain her balance when they pulled into the underground parking lot and she realized her parents were there.
“Who called Dad?” She wanted to scream in frustration then.
She loved her father and her mother. They were the bedrock of her life, but she knew exactly what was coming.
“Kia, I couldn’t not let your father know,” Chase chastised her gently. “He’d kill me.”
“He’d only hurt you a little,” she snorted as the chauffeur opened the door. “I would have made it worth your while.”
She was aware of the surprised looks as the men moved from the car and Chase helped her out gently.
“He would have killed me,” he reiterated. “And then you’d really have to make do with just the electric blanket.”
“There was more than that.” The brief byplay was easing her nerves, giving her more to concentrate on than her mother’s tearful face.
“Remind me to spank you again for that one,” he murmured in her ear as they neared her father’s limo.
And of course he made certain he got in the last word.
“Kia, sweetheart.” Her father pulled her into a bear hug, his big arms wrapping around her like they used to when she was a child. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Oh God, Kia, I can’t believe this is happening.” Her mother was next. Her small body trembled as she pulled her daughter into her embrace. “Thank God, Chase was there.”
“I’m fine, Mom.” She pulled back, shaking her head. She didn’t want to talk about it. She couldn’t bear to.
“We brought the clothes you had at the house.” Her mother gripped her hand. “Your closet was full there, remember? I brought your favorites for now.”
Her father and the chauffeur were pulling several suitcases and dress bags from the trunk of the limo.
God, all her clothes. She shook her head and lifted her hand. “I need a drink.”
“Let’s get her upstairs.” Chase’s arm came around her again as he led them to the elevator that she knew was rarely used.
Not that the drink helped. Kia drank the wine Chase poured for her, then as the men gathered in the living room to discuss her, she escaped to the bedroom, Chase’s bedroom, where Chase had directed the chauffeur with her luggage.
“Kia, come home.”
Her mother didn’t waste time. The moment Kia stepped into the bedroom to unpack her bags, her mother was there, worried, her face still damp with tears.
Kia shook her head before setting her wineglass on the dresser and moving to the bags.
“I can’t do that, Mom.” She wasn’t going to do it. Whoever had destroyed her home had done her a favor in one way. It had forced her to stay exactly where she had wanted to be in the first place. With Chase.
She had opened the first case when her mother laid a hand on her arm.
Kia turned her head, staring into eyes similar to her own, into a face that was merely an older version of her own.
“You’re in love with him, aren’t you?” her mother asked softly.
Chase paused by the door, freezing as he heard Cecilia ask that question.
“I’ve always loved him, Mom,” she said softly, and the admission tore through him with a slash of emotion.
Her voice was thick, filled with emotion, and it had his heart clenching in his chest.
“Kia, do you know what you’re doing?” her mother asked. “Moving in with him? Has he told you he loves you?”
“He doesn’t have to love me.”
Chase could almost see her expression. That stubborn tilt to her chin, the way her sapphire eyes brightened with determination.
“If it’s all over tomorrow and he asks me to leave, then it will have been worth it, Mom. I hid all this time, not because of Drew, but partly because I can’t stay the hell away from Chase any longer.”
“He’s going to break your heart.” Cecilia sighed.
“Probably.” Kia’s voice was soft. “But at least I’ll know, Mom. It won’t torment me any longer.”
“Knowing could torment you worse.”
Kia shook her head at her mother’s sympathetic look.
“I don’t think it could,” she told her. “He’s tormented me for years, Mom. Now, I just have to deal with it.”
She saw the understanding in her mother’s face then, the elemental woman-to-woman communion; she understood that Kia could do nothing other than reach out for what completed her. If she managed to live long enough, because it sure as hell looked like someone wanted her dead.
Chase wasn’t certain how the hell he managed to survive the hours, too many fucking hours, with an apartment full of people keeping him away from Kia.
He watched her as she helped her mother put together sandwich trays from the food that was delivered. She was still too pale, too fucking wounded.
He would never forget, as long as he lived, the feelings that had swept over him as he realized she was more worried about him than she was about herself.
She had been brutalized in that apartment. Her very existence ripped to shreds and threats sprayed in blood-red letters on her walls, and she had been worried about him.
And then later, hearing her admit she loved him, that she fully expected him to ask her to leave when this was over. Equal parts anger and lust had filled him.
She was wrapping herself around him in ways he knew he was never going to recover from. Because he couldn’t imagine letting her out of his life now.
When her parents finally left, leaving them alone in the silence of his home, he turned to her, watching as she stacked the dishwasher, her movements graceful, though she appeared tired.
Hell, she was exhausted. It was nearly midnight. The detective had arrived for her statement, and that had worn her down. Her parents’ worry and concern hadn’t helped much. Her mother’s pleas that she return with them to their home had been even harder on her, Chase thought.
Chase watched as she closed the dishwasher and set it to start before straightening up. Her expression was somber, her eyes still too dark, too filled with fear.
She had changed out of the slacks and sweater she wore upon arriving at the apartment into a lounging set her mother had brought her. The soft, thin black velvet pants and long-sleeved loose black top made her look even paler.
“You’re tired, Kia,” he told her as she turned and stared back at him quietly. “Let’s go to bed.” He held his hand out to her.
Kia inhaled slowly. “I think, for tonight at least, I’m sleeping in the guest room.”
His brow arched. “Really?”