Dangerous:Made & Broken (A British Bad Boy Romance)(34)

I blinked at his nonchalant tone. "Er …  sure. Thanks." I sat down at the  small cafe table in the corner by the window overlooking the river while  the twin began to cook breakfast. "He was quite nice to me, actually."

"Marcus? Huh. That's a first."

"That's not very nice, Louis," I chided, feeling a bit protective of the  man who had shown me kindness when I'd needed it the most.

"Liam. And maybe not, but it's true. There's a reason Blaine noped right  out of having you stay with him. Again, he's my brother, but if I had a  pregnant wife I wouldn't let him within fifty yards of her, either. You  think Blaine's bad? He's a fucking puppy dog in comparison."

Huh. "What happened to the nurse?"

"Louis is with her-it's his turn." Liam poured two mugs of tea and  brought one over to me, before he returned to the frying pan as if he  hadn't said anything out of the norm. A promising scent of bacon was  beginning to spread in the kitchen.

"His turn? And she's okay with that?" I regretted asking the second the words left my mouth, and flushed hotly.

The redhead flashed me a wicked grin. "Who says she knows? We're identical, after all."

"That's … " Exactly the sort of shit I could imagine guys like the Steel  brothers getting up to. I shook my head and cradled the hot mug. It  wasn't my concern-I had enough to deal with right now, without trying to  school Blaine's brothers on how to treat women. "Never mind."

Liam winked at me, but thankfully didn't comment further.







Blaine got out later that afternoon.

Louis-who'd come back sometime during the late morning-poked his head  into Liam's bedroom just past two to let me know he was on his way to  get me.

I spent the next forty-five minutes quietly freaking out.

I had no way of knowing how this would go down-how he would react to  seeing me, now that there was no immediate danger. I was positive what  I'd seen in his eyes in that warehouse was love, and for him to risk his  life and the entire Steel empire to get me, there had to be more than  hurt pride in it. But I was under no illusion that Blaine Steel was  happy with me. There had been pure fury in his eyes too, and I was  pretty certain it wasn't all reserved for my father.         

     



 

I had left him, after we'd bared our souls to each other. I'd run away with his child.

Whatever he may feel for me, I wasn't sure it would be a positive outcome for me.

And then there were my own messed up emotions.

I had wanted him from the very start. I'd thought it was pure, physical  attraction, because I'd been too scared to even consider the  alternative. And then, when he'd finally let me in …  I had been so  overwhelmed with everything, so wrapped up in the way he made me feel  safe and protected. The way my entire being sang for him.

The next time I'd seen him, he had been brutally torturing a man.

Even now, the thought of seeing the man I'd let myself be vulnerable  with be so savage made my heart flutter with fear. If he was capable of  such violence, would I ever truly be safe with him? Would my child?

As if the baby knew I was thinking about its father, it moved restlessly inside. I put a hand against my stomach to soothe it.

I wanted to be with him more than I had ever wanted anything else. No  one had ever made me feel like he had. But I couldn't let my own  feelings come ahead of my child's safety. I couldn't be that selfish.

Maybe if my mother had been strong enough to put her children ahead of  herself, none of all the horrible things in my life would have happened.  Maybe Michael and Devlen wouldn't have been messed up beyond repair.

I couldn't repeat my mother's mistakes. Even if it meant ripping out my own heart instead.

The faint sound of a knock on the front door tore me out of my thoughts.

I swallowed thickly and climbed off the bed, wiping my sweaty palms against my thighs.

There was no more time for thinking. Blaine was here.







He stood just inside the front door, arms folded across his leather-clad  chest when I came out from the bedroom. Both the twins were talking to  him, and from the frown on his face they weren't discussing the weather.  Marcus was nowhere in sight.

Blaine looked up as I came around the corner, his frown only deepening as he locked eyes with me.

My heart flip-flopped in my chest at the look in his eyes. It was dark. Yearning.

It made me forget every reservation and every fear I'd had for the past  hour. Without thought, I launched myself across the room and into his  arms.

The soft leather of his coat pressed against me as he closed his arms  around me and lifted me up. I cradled my head against the side of his  neck and closed my ankles behind his lower back. My bulging stomach  pressed firmly into his, keeping me from getting as close as I needed to  be fully secure, but Blaine put a hand underneath my backside and  another around my back, supporting my weight perfectly.

He held me close, his head buried in my hair. His breath huffed against  the shell of my ear in deep, shaky draws, and I knew he was fighting to  stay in control of the onslaught of emotions that currently warred  inside my chest, too. It took all I had not to start bawling like a  baby.

Home. I was home.

"So …  we're gonna head out then," one of the twins said. "Give you two some time to catch up."

They both gave Blaine a pat on the shoulder before they left, leaving us alone in the apartment.

When they were gone, Blaine pulled his head back a little, and when I looked up, he brushed his mouth gently against mine.

My heart sped up at the tingling spreading in my lips from his  featherlight caress. Mindlessly, I tightened my fingers around his  shoulders and kissed him back with every ounce of need and every drop of  desperation in my body and soul.

Blaine's grip on me tightened as our tongues met, and I moaned with bliss.

Yes, yes! This was right-this was what I needed more than the air in my lungs.

When he finally pulled back, we were both breathing hard.

"Hey," he whispered.

"Hey," I answered, my lips pulling up in an involuntary smile.

Gently, he let me slide down to the floor again, and I winced when my  wound made itself known through the haze of bliss. Right. No steamy  make-out sessions right after getting shot.

"Does it hurt a lot?"

"Not really. The hospital gave me excellent drugs."

"Hmm," he rumbled, his brows knitting into a frown as he looked down at me. "Don't ever take a bullet for me again."

"I wasn't planning to," I said. "But maybe don't provoke any more crazy men with guns, either."

Blaine made a noncommittal noise.

"So …  what now?" I bit my lip as the bliss of being in his embrace slowly  withdrew. As good as it had felt to kiss him, and as much as I wanted  to just stay in his protective arms forever, reality began to seep  through the cracks.

I was still pregnant with a baby who didn't deserve to grow up in the brutal world I had.         

     



 

He shrugged. "You tell me. You're the one who ran away. What happens next really depends on whether or not you want to stay."

I blinked. "You would let me go?"

"No." Blaine's lips flattened, but he kept his voice calm and business  like. "I won't force you to stay as my wife, but I can't let you leave  again. It wouldn't be safe. Especially not …  with the baby." His eyes  flickered to my stomach for the briefest moment, but I saw the yearning  in them clear as day.

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. "It's not that easy, Blaine. I … "

"I love you," he said softly.

"I love you too," I whispered, sniffling. I was quickly losing the  battle to the tears. "But I saw you hurt that man. I know you …  I know  you hurt people all the time. It's what men like you do. And I can't …  I  can't put my baby through that. I can't hurt it like you and I were hurt  by growing up like this."

Blaine reached out and wiped the tears from my cheeks with a thumb. His  other hand curved around my belly. "It's our baby, love. And I don't  want him to grow up like we did, either. I want him to grow up with love  and safety. That man you saw me …  saw me torture-he was scum. He's  kidnapped and brutally raped countless women. But more importantly, he  had insider information about your family's connection to the Belfast  prostitution ring, and I needed him to tell me so I could nail your  father for what he did to you as a kid. Make sure he never walked free  again.

"I'm not sorry for what I did to that guy, and I'm not sorry for every  sleazeball I'm going to hurt in the future to make sure you're safe. But  I will promise you this, Mira: if you stay with me, if you let me be  the husband you deserve, I won't hurt anyone who isn't a threat to you  or our family. And I will spend every moment of every day worshiping  you. You are the only one who has ever made me feel whole-like there is  more to me than what my father created with his violence and terror. You  are the only one I could ever love. You, and our little one.