Secret Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

softly.
    “Naomi…”
    “No, don’t bother.” She stood up. “I can smell the smoke on your clothes. I know you were there, and that you and your team killed those seven people. Hell, for all I know, you offed every one of those men all by yourself, maybe beat them to death with your bare hands. Please don’t insult me by coming up with some evasive answer or bullshit story of your whereabouts. I know where you were, and –” She nodded at the TV, “– I have a pretty good idea what you were doing.”
    “Hey.” King grabbed her around the waist and hauled her in to his lap, wincing a bit as she made contact with the bruising along his ribs. He wasn’t about to let her go, though. “I’m sorry.”
    She was stiff in his arms, and he didn’t like that at all. It reminded him of Naomi when they first met, back when she was so defensive and abrasive around him.
    Back then, she’d still been in the first year of her recovery from alcoholism, and she’d fought hard against his attentions. She’d been so damn determined to push him away, to keep him at arm’s length, and King had finally understood why when Naomi had told him about her struggle with alcohol.
    Since then, she’d been so open with him, so trusting, soft, and warm. But the woman he held right here and now was hurting and afraid, and when Naomi felt that way, she withdrew emotionally. She just slammed the doors shut, closed up inside herself, huddled up in the corner and went silent.
    “Naomi…” King smoothed her hair back off her forehead, needing to see her eyes. “Don’t do that, OK? Don’t pull away from me.”
    “Don’t pull away from you ?” she said, disbelieving. “ You’re the one who won’t talk to me, Matt.”
    “Come on, now,” he protested. “That’s not true. I’m here , baby, I’m right here. I can’t talk about the shit I’m involved in, but I’m with you.”
    “Oh, really?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Then why am I up so early?”
    He faltered, suddenly feeling like he’d missed something big. He was sure that whatever he said was going to be wrong, but he gave it a shot anyway.
    “You were worried when I didn’t come home last night?” he said. “You were waiting for me?”
    “You’re half-right.”
    “OK.” King grinned up at her, relieved that he hadn’t messed up completely. “What’s the other half?”
    She shook her head, jerked away from his embrace. “I have a flight to Miami in three hours.”
    King froze. Fuck, fuck, fuck. That’s today?
    “Oh. Oh, yeah,” he said. OK, that was fucking lame, and he knew it. “Yeah, I remember.”
    “No, you didn’t.” Her voice was soft, but he heard the hurt below the words. “You forgot, Matt. If you’d come home an hour later, I’d have been at the airport, and you wouldn’t have had a goddamn clue that’s where I was.”
    “Honey…”
    “No.” She stood up now. “I have to go and get ready.”
    “I’ll drive you to the airport,” King said, desperate to make this right. “I’ll take you, yeah?”
    “I booked a taxi,” Naomi said. “So don’t worry about it.”
    She walked across the living room, and he watched her go. She paused, turned, glanced at the TV again.
    “I love you for going out there night after night and taking down the bad guys, babe,” she said slowly. “I love you for saving people trapped in horrible situations, for getting kidnapped kids home, for protecting the defenseless. I love knowing that every time you come back from whatever you were doing, and wherever you were, the world is a safer place.”
    King heard the ‘but’ coming a mile away.
    “But ever since you struck that deal with Ace Cuddy and he started feeding you intel, you’re coming home badly hurt, and you won’t tell me what happened. You’re quiet, and you look angry all the time. You don’t pay attention when I talk, you don’t remember things that I say.”
    “Naomi –” He cleared his throat. “I can’t slow down, baby. Not yet. Too