Crash (Sinners and Saints #1)

by Kathy Lockheart

“I was there, Tess.” His voice was rough. “Right there on the other side. The whole night.”

“You always made me feel safe.” My fingers found his jaw, traced the familiar line of it.

His chest was just as warm as I’d imagined it would have been. A sanctuary where nothing existed except his skin, the beat of his heart beneath my ear.

“I wish you would have trusted me with it back then.”

“I wish I’d held you because I would neve...

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you.”

Pulling back, Blake dropped his eyes to my mouth, lingering there with an intensity that reminded me why he was the one I wanted to run to that night. Ghosting his thumb along my lower lip, he stared at my mouth with unmistakable longing, and instantly, I could feel the heat of him everywhere. But there was something else in his eyes. Doubt? Fear that kissing someone with my history might be triggering?

“I’m glad you’re here, Tess.” He motioned to the shower with his chin. “If you need anything …” The words hung there, weighted with possibility.

Blake: You okay? Me: Why wouldn’t I be? And where are you? Blake: In my car. Your heart rate spiked. Me: You’re watching my heart rate? Blake: You knew about the monitor.

Me: For my CARDIOLOGIST. Also, isn’t that considered texting while driving? #Dangerous. Don’t you work in an ER where crash victims are taken? Blake: Answer the question. Me: Saw a spider. No big deal. Blake: I’ll call an exterminator. The humane kind that won’t make you sicker with chemicals. Me: That’s overkill. Blake: Fine. I’ll help the spider fill out a rental application.

Jace: You’re not friendly with anyone. That’s your personal brand. Me: You gonna make me beg? Because I’ll send a voice memo of it and you can use it as your ringtone.

“Blake?” “Just perfect.”

“Now I’m going to have to stop and get stapled up. And change my damn suit.”

“Blake sen...

“How the hell did you think I got in...

“I’ll be sure to tell him you’re just fine.”

“He sent you to check on me,” I realized. God, of course he did. My phone was charging in the bedroom; he was probably trying to get ahold of me, and now that I was looking, I did recognize blueberry face. “You’re Jace,”

“I’m so sorry. I thought you were …” Not important. “Here, let me help you with that.” “I got it,” he snarled, holding his palm out to me to keep me at bay. “Next time, answer your phone, okay? And maybe turn down the music so you can hear someone announcing themselves.” “I’m sorry,”

“What happened is, it turns out, your houseguest is just fine. So was I until I checked on her. I have a board meeting in three hours, Blake. I’m in the middle of acquiring a company worth half a billion, and instead of prepping my strategy, I’m sitting in your ER with my brain possibly leaking out.” “Tessa did this to you?”

“If you ever have an intruder, you should send her in to protect you. She’s five foot nothing and nearly decapitated me with a mixing bowl. A mixing bowl, Blake.”

“I have security teams that couldn’t react that fast.” “What did you ...

“You’re taking her side? I’m the victim here. I have plenty of enemies: corporate rivals, that senator whose company I took from him. Yet it’s your petite baker who managed to assault me.” “You must’ve scared her.” “I’m showing up with a bloody head, and that’s what you have to say to me? My PR team is already drafting a statement about a ‘minor household accident’ becau...

“So, this will scar.” “Too early to tell.” “Great.” “So, she was okay?” “You’re still worried about her?”

“Ryker’s going to kill you if you date his sister.” “I’m not dating her.” “Whatever.”

“Just get me out of here. Fast.” “I’ll call a plastic surgeon down so you look just as handsome as before.” “Yeah, well, watch your ass, Morrison. If she can do this with a mixing bowl, you should keep her away from your knives.”

“And for the record, when you end up murdered in your sleep by Kitchen Ninja Barbie, I’m telling the detective everything. Right after I send flowers to your fu...

“I’m sorry I woke you,” she said, voice scratchy, embarrassment flooding her cheeks with red. “I haven’t had a nightmare in a while.”

“Something triggered it.”

“Sometimes, sleeping can be the hardest when you don’t feel safe,”

“I don’t want to invade your space,” I started. “But … would it be okay if I lay with you? Just until you fall asleep?”

“I won’t get any sleep, worrying you might be in here, unable to sleep alone.”

“What if I can’t sleep at all?” “Then we’ll be inso...

“Blake?” Her voice was quiet, embarrassed. “Would you … would you hold me?” My throat tightened. “Cupcake,” I murmured, “I’d hold you every moment of every day if it meant you felt safe.”

“Besides. Your touch would never trigger me.” She nuzzled her face into my chest as if those words hadn’t penetrated my soul. That my touch would be different. Safe. Even if all other men might scare her.

“Tell me what triggered this?”

“You’ll freak out.”

“Stop trying to protect me from having feelings.”

“Promise you won’t do anything rash?” “Tessa.”

“He sent another letter.”

“What do you mean, another letter?”

“After I filed the police report, he started showing up on campus, demanding I drop the complaint. Then he went quiet. Long enough that when the letters began appearing, the police said there was no way to prove it was him. Especially since the first ones were typed, self-sealed, slipped directly into my mailbox. Untraceable.”

Jace: Your cleaning service deserves hazard pay for those sheets. Now Blake said move, so move. And, Blake? You STILL owe ME a favor, don’t forget.

“Who?” Jace’s voice was arctic as he reached for his phone, as if preparing to mobilize his financial empire at a moment’s notice. “The man who assaulted my sister,” Ryker answered.

“I know exactly how to destroy him. We’ll start with his investors. I’ll buy their silence, their shares, so fast that he won’t know until he’s bleeding out.”

“I’ll protect his employees though. Move them to subsidiary companies before the kill shot.” “Good. This is about him.” “I can have preliminary documents drawn up by morning,”

And that was Jace in a nutshell: a billionaire who still believed in earning his place.

“The guy assaulted you. Now he’s threatening you. You honestly think I’ll let that go?” “How have you made it this far in medicine with that temper? Last I checked, doctors weren’t supposed to moonlight as vigilantes.” “Studying medicine never changed who I am, Tess.”

“I don’t understand why you turned back into this alpha, vendetta guy, stealing that letter and beating something until your knuckles are bloody. Is that all this is? Saving me? Because I don’t need to be saved, Blake.”

“I don’t understand why you’re so upset?” “You mean, aside from me being bad for you?”

“This is what we’ve always done, Blake.”