Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

to look up at her face. “You have to do it, lyubimaya, because evidently I’m not man enough to do it myself.”
    She would have laughed at the drama of his words, but there was too much pain on his face, when he rarely, if ever, displayed emotion. She smoothed the lines there as if she could wipe away the past for him—
    pursing her lips as if to kiss it away.
    “You shared something beautiful with me tonight, Rikki. I want that sharing. I even need it. But I’ve got nothing so beautiful to give you in return. I’ve been thinking a lot about that, about what I’d bring to you—and I don’t have much of anything useful to give you.”
    “That’s for me to decide,” she challenged. “If you need to talk about your childhood, you’re safe with me. If you need to break into a million pieces, I’m right here, Lev. I’ll find them all, I’m good at details, and I’ll put you back together. You’re safe here.”
    The rain beat down and as usual she had the window open wide, needing the soothing sounds and scents. If a few stray drops hit her face or body, she was fine with it. She always made certain there was nothing too important near the open window during a storm. She sat in silence just listening. Usually the rain called to her and carried her away, but now she was too focused on Lev. His ragged breathing. The seduction of his fingers.
    The need in him.
    In his own quiet way, Lev was as desperate to be saved as she had been before Blythe and the others reached out to her. Whatever revelation he was thinking of giving her, it was something he protected fiercely. A piece of himself—the last piece. And he was handing it into her keeping. She recognized the enormity of what he was doing. She remained silent, just waiting, unsure of what he was going to say, but knowing it would change her life forever if he said it, because she would never turn her back on him, never walk away, no matter how difficult it was. If he gave her such a gift, 187

    made himself that vulnerable, she would treasure and protect him with every breath in her body.
    Lev continued to stroke his fingers along the satin length of her thigh. It was a gift to do something so simple, to lie in bed with a woman, touching her skin, inhaling her scent while the rain poured down on the roof. He wanted her more than anything in his life. He wanted this woman, this life with her, yet he felt guilty knowing she didn’t see the killer in him. That wasn’t fair. He was a violent man, a cold one, his emotions were buried deep, allowing him an expertise few could achieve. He’d watched the suffering of others, his need to go to their aid suppressed in order to focus on accomplishing his goal.
    He was risking everything, yet he could never live with himself if she didn’t go into this knowing what kind of man he was. He wanted one person to know him. To see him. And if she took him as he was, broken, tainted, twisted even, he would never give her up. She had to see into him. It was the only real gift he could give her. He would love her fiercely, protect her with everything in him, but she had to see and accept who and what he really was.
    “When I was a boy, we lived in a tiny apartment. It was cold most of the time. Not like this, but really cold. I remember ice on the inside of the door.”
    Her fingers stilled in his hair, curled and held on as if she realized the story he was telling her was going to be ugly and horrific but told in a matter-of-fact voice, because he could never face it other than looking at it as if from a great distance and from behind a transparent wall, where emotions had no place.
    “There were seven of us, all boys. We were very close in age and we slept together in the same bed, except for the baby. It was how we stayed warm, I think. I can barely remember the faces of my parents, but my memories of them are good. They were good to us. My father was a man who had amazing gifts and he passed them on to all of us. Gifts that allowed us to do things most people can’t do.”
    “We have a family in this town that has extraordinary gifts,” Rikki conceded. “Remember, I mentioned them to you.”
    “That doesn’t surprise me,” he murmured, turning back to nuzzle her thigh. He rested his head on her lap again. “Sea Haven has a powerful energy. I can feel it every time I walk outside. It’s stronger the closer to the ocean we get. Power attracts power, just as elements attract elements. I wouldn’t be