Book Blitz: Every Night Without You – Violet Duke

Copyright (c) 2017 Violet Duke

“Stop reading my mind,” she whispered.

“No.”

The softly growled word was the only warning she got before his arms snaked around her waist and pulled her to him. “There hasn’t been a single night since you left that I haven’t thought about the way you felt in my arms the first time I’d slept longer than a few hours in years.”

She gasped.

His eyes flared. “That right there—that’s why I’m never going to stop reading your thoughts, baby. No matter how well Alec taught you to hide, knowing that even now, after all this time, you still can’t hide all your feelings from me completely? That’s the one thing that’ll help me sleep tonight. It still won’t be for longer than an hour or two, but at least in that short time, I’ll have something to hold onto again.”

Tidal waves of emotion slammed into her, one after another, crashing through every last barrier she’d built around herself, stripping away every protective layer she’d hid behind for the last seven years. Until all that was left was her.

A low, harsh sound broke free from Caine.

Feelings and thoughts, fears and hopes—she bared it all to him.

For so long, she’d kept everything from everyone, herself included. Now, disarmed and defenseless, anyone with eyes could plainly see the one unmistakably distinguishable part of her that she’d had to work the hardest to hide.

Her heart. Which was still irrevocably tethered to the man standing before her.

“Go inside, Addison. Right now. While I’m still able to let you.”

Every cell in her body rebelled against the command.

“Please, honey. Don’t do that. Don’t flash that look at me. That stubborn rebel-in-stilettos sass will have you under me in your bed in two seconds flat.”

He groaned at whatever her eyes were telling him next.

To be fair, he started it with that panty-melting threat.

“Baby, you’re killing me.”

Right back at you.

He pushed open the door the rest of the way for her, one hand holding the top of the frame as if physically stopping himself from doing anything else.

For a while, the internal battles they each faced with themselves kept them both cemented where they stood.

But eventually, the growing torment and tension racking his entire frame made her back up a single step and clear the doorway.

“Lock the deadbolt.”

These overprotective demands just shouldn’t be this sexy.

She shut the door and laid her palm against it.

Knowing he was still out there, she confessed quietly to the wooden barricade between them, “That memory stayed with me, too. Even now, the only way I’m able to eventually fall asleep is to imagine your arms around me. Holding me. Keeping me safe.”

Loving me.

It was a full minute before she finally heard his heavy tactical boots walk away.