Desired (10 page)

Kyler chuckled, rising from his seat. “Which I’m sure will lead to a hundred questions that will annoy you.” He opened the door and turned to his father. “I’m off this weekend, so I’ll see you Monday.”

Before Kyler could step out of the office, his father asked, “Is Ella a nice girl?”

Kyler glanced over his shoulder and grinned.
She’s sexy, and a little vanilla with a sweet submissive side
. “Yeah, she’s nice.”

In a restaurant located in one of the top casinos along the Vegas strip, Ella folded her napkin over her lap. She looked to the glass wall with hundreds of wine bottles behind it. Then she glanced around the fancy five-star restaurant, enjoying the romantic atmosphere, with dim lights and candles on the white linen tables.

Wowzers
.

Savannah had upscale restaurants, but she’d never been to one this grand. From the sleek black marble bar, to the crystal chandeliers, to the overall luxurious modern décor, she was in awe. And yeah, she was more than slightly stunned by the man sitting in front of her.

Kyler watched her with those piercing eyes and his mischievous smile, and she experienced the weight of his stare right down to her toes. He always seemed to be looking right through her, reading into her in a way that no one had before him.

With a dry mouth, she reached for her wineglass and took a large sip of her red wine. Part of her liked how he examined her. It made her feel special. The other part of her wanted to run away from his long studies. It sure seemed like he wanted to know everything about her, and he appeared to be on a full mission to do exactly that.

While most women might like his attentiveness, it induced nervous butterflies to set flight in her belly. Her past she wanted to keep to herself. She didn’t want to get that emotionally entangled.

Maybe Rory’s phone call earlier remained on her mind, but unease was like a cloud hanging over her. She almost wanted to talk to Kyler about it. He was a police officer. If anyone understood what she was going through, it’d be him. But her past was embarrassing, and the idea of sharing it made sickness roll through her.

Don’t look weak
.

She’d always been a strong woman and had prided herself on that. She’d been through a lot in her twenty-six years, and she didn’t want sympathy to cross Kyler’s face when he discovered she was a woman who once had been pushed around. She wanted to leave the past behind her and live in the present.

“Are you ready to order?”

Ella broke eye contact with Kyler and realized they’d been staring at each other for a few minutes saying nothing at all.
Seriously, Ella!
Why in the hell was she thinking about Rory? She swallowed the heady emotion, looking to the young waiter.

“What’s the special tonight?” Kyler asked in a tight voice.

She felt his stare on her, but she kept her attention on the waiter. Desperate to pull herself back together, she pushed the thoughts of her past deep inside her. For some reason—and she couldn’t pinpoint why—being around Kyler made her want to shed it all.

Besides, wasn’t that a rule: Don’t talk about past lovers while out with other men?

“Our special tonight is the Trippa alla Fiorentina,” the waiter said.

Ella had no idea what that was, but that’s what she was going for.
Try things you never would have done before
. “Okay, I’ll get that.”

“Do you know what it is?” Kyler asked with an amused voice.

She turned to him and pointed. “Don’t tell me.” To the waiter, she said, “Just get me that Trippa thingy.”

With a smile, the waiter wrote it down on his notepad, then he asked Kyler, “And for you?”

“I’ll take the Brasato,” Kyler replied.

“Very nice.” The waiter took the menus off the table. “The beef short ribs are delicious. Your dinners will be out shortly.”

As the waiter strode off, Ella glanced to Kyler and spotted his frown. She laughed. “What?”

“You have strange ordering habits,” he muttered.

She continued laughing, somewhat glad all his intensity had faded. She also understood; her habits were odd. “It’s my live-my-life-like-I’m-going-to-die-in-six-months challenge.”

Kyler’s brows shot up to his hairline. “Come again?”

“I know how weird that sounds.” She glanced to the couple who strode by their table, led by the hostess. “I took up a challenge I heard on the radio. The announcer offered a dare that each person live out their life like they’re going to die in six months.”

He regarded her. “Because you’d live differently?”

“Wouldn’t you? I mean, if you only had six months left, wouldn’t you do things
differently?”

“No.” He slowly shook his head, and his expression showed very little. “I wouldn’t change anything.”

Somehow his answer didn’t surprise her; he seemed to know himself, inside and out. While she’d always been strong, she also hadn’t been that put-together until recently. Only now did she live on her terms and engage in daring things to learn more about herself. Her life had been consumed by death and pain, which clouded what she wanted for her life.

Of course, it took a challenge to make it happen, but she believed things happened for a reason. Maybe it was providence she’d heard the radio show that day. “Really? Nothing at all?”

“Nope,” he replied flatly.

“You’re lucky, then,” she said and sighed. “The day I heard that challenge, I realized I would do everything different.”

His head cocked, eyes brightened. “Is that why you moved to Vegas?”

“Exactly.” She ran her fingers over the stem of her wineglass. “This city is so alive. I always thought it’d be fun to live here.”

He stared at her fingers working over the glass before his gaze lifted. “You fulfilled a dream, then?”

“Absolutely.” Squaring her shoulders, she leaned against the back of her chair. “For the past months, I’ve been trying new things and doing things that the old me wouldn’t have dared to do. Which includes ordering strange things off the menu.”

His gaze held hers, an unknown emotion crossing his face. “Why? Is there something wrong with the
old
you?”

“Not necessarily wrong, but I lived in that comfortable, safe zone, where I never pushed myself.” She shrugged, trying to find the right words to explain it. “I didn’t want to be a different person; I like me. There was just something in that message that affected me. I realized I needed to start living for
me
. Doing things on my terms that make me happy.”

“Who were you living for before?”

His narrowed eyes made her shift against her seat. This conversation was getting far too serious. She sipped her wine before answering him, “I guess I lived for everyone else. You know, staying in my job because I didn’t want to leave my boss. Living in Savannah because my family is buried there. That kinda stuff.” She paused, as laughter drifted across the room from
another couple at a table. “Now things are different and much more exciting.”

Kyler didn’t seem to notice the laughter; his gaze remained fixed on her. “That’s what you’re looking for, excitement?”

She chuckled softly. “Isn’t everyone?”

His gaze became focused as he leaned his elbows against the table. “Let me get this straight. You dare yourself to do crazy things you never would have done before?”

“That’s right.”

“Is that why you were so willing to join me at the wedding and acted so bold, considering you had never done casual sex before?”

She nodded.

One eyebrow quirked. “So, you are daring yourself to do outrageous things because you’re looking for new adventures and craving to learn more about yourself?”

“Exactly.”

A slow, dangerous smile crossed his face. “Well, now, that
is
an interesting challenge.”

Before she had a chance to dig into the reason behind that smile, or understand his keen interest in her personal dare, a glass shattered to the ground next to their table. Ella’s heart leapt into her throat as the noise struck her right in the soul, like a knife cutting into her belly.

A sound that had been imprinted in her mind, one she’d never forget. A wave of fear raced through her, sending ice spilling into her veins. She pinched her eyes shut and froze in her chair, as she absentmindedly tumbled into a memory.

“Rory, this isn’t you. Don’t,” she managed to shout before firm hands shoved her forward
.

The world spun around her before she went tumbling. A crashing sound came first. The shards of glass breaking as her face crashed into the table became the only noise in the air. When the rest of her body hit the table, her scream echoed in her ears as her forehead ached from the blow
.

She blinked, groaning in agony from the fierce throb by her eye. A second later, she lay on the floor with warm liquid rushing down her face. She glanced to her hands covered in red from the tiny shards of glass broken beneath her. Raising her hand to her face, she cringed at the deep gash near her eye. Then she realized the warm liquid on her face was blood pooling from the wound
.

So much blood …

Tension rippled through Kyler in alarm. His Dom and cop instincts set off warning bells. He stared at Ella, alert to her every move. As the waiter cleaned up the broken glass from the floor, Ella finally opened her eyes. She looked to him for only a second before her gaze cast down.

His jaw tightened, watching her harsh breathing. She grasped the table, knuckles white, mouth drawn in a straight line.
Terror
. Kyler managed to rein in the concern flickering through him, and he placed his arms on the table, reaching for her.

When she flinched away from him, a frown pulled the corners of his mouth. “Are you all right?”

Her gaze lifted to his, wide-eyed fear ragging in its depths. Keeping his hand close to hers, he hesitated. His stomach roiled under a reaction he’d seen before, too many damn times. The first hint of the reason behind the pain he’d seen in Ella was showing itself, and he wondered if Aidan had seen it, too. “Has someone hurt you, Ella?”

Her face became ashen. “P-p-pardon?”

Drawn in to protect her, he inhaled a slow breath to control his voice. “You behave like a woman who’s been abused. You can trust me. Is someone hurting you?”

“No, you’re wrong.” Her breathing returned to normal and clarity removed the tension around her eyes. “No one is hurting me.”

He didn’t feel like he had it wrong. His instincts told him he’d discovered exactly what had happened to her. “Why did you become so frightened at the sound of glass breaking and then just flinch away from me?”

She stared at him for a long moment. “I startle easily.”

Lie.

Kyler noticed the flush creep over her face. He wondered if she simply didn’t want to talk about it. While he wanted to dig a bit deeper and show her he dealt with abuse cases and would understand, he also thought it wasn’t his right to push her,
just yet
. He forced a smile to reassure her. “In my job, I take everything in the worst way sometimes. You seemed scared. I must have been mistaken.”

She laughed shakily. “No. No. It’s okay.” She waved him off with a dismissive hand. “I’m fine. It’s fine. Really.”

Kyler allowed her the escape, not wanting to ruin the night. That reaction was something he’d look into further. A person didn’t startle in fear and look absolutely terrified over a shattered glass. He wondered if maybe her family had a role in this. Perhaps a shattered glass in her home had been a call for punishment from her grandfather. “Tell me about your grandparents.”

She seemed relieved by the change in subject and leaned back into her seat, exhaling slowly. “They were my mother’s parents and were really lovely. Pops was a lawyer and worked for years longer than he should have. Nana was sweet, and did a lot of charity work in Savannah.”

Only warm affection touched her gaze, telling Kyler her grandparents were not the cause of her fear. More and more, he considered the darkness that lived inside her. He only wished Aidan was in Vegas so he could talk to him about it. If anyone had insight into Ella, it was Aidan. He’d normally call or text him, but since Aidan was honeymooning, that seemed inappropriate, at least at this point, anyway.

Kyler smiled, running his hand along the table, finally reaching her hand. This time she didn’t flinch away, though he noticed the slight tremors rattling her, which told him he wasn’t off in his assumption of abuse. “They sound like wonderful people.”

She gave a soft grin. “They were.”

“What of your parents?” he asked, digging deeper.

“It’s hard to remember them, because I was young when they died.” She took a very long sip of her wine. When she lowered the glass, her hand shook before she tightened it around the wineglass. “But my mother loved scrapbooking, so she did leave me with a lot of pictures. Those stir some great memories.”

Family is not the problem
.

Kyler pondered this new development. His Dom instincts begged her to let him in. He wanted a deeper look, which could be developed between a Dom and a submissive. Ella didn’t trust Kyler with that dark part in her soul. He knew he had to earn the right to hear her troubles. His cop’s instincts wanted to find whoever had hurt her and damage them in return.