Don’t Play With Odin by Cynthia Eden

Chapter Seven

The bedroom door creaked open. Odin saw the small sliver of light trickle into the den. He was on the floor, turned toward her door, and, hell, no, he hadn’t been sleeping. It was hard for a man to sleep when his dick was at full attention and he kept thinking about what a straight-up fool he’d been.

She wanted you. She’d stared into his eyes, looking at him like he’d just saved the fucking day, and said that she wanted him.

She was trying to put him in the role of the hero. That wasn’t who he was. He had blood on his hands. Scars on his soul. She didn’t get it. Didn’t understand that he’d joined the military not to save the world but because he’d needed someone—something—to control him. He’d needed—

Maisey was tiptoeing across the floor.

“Where are you going?” Odin growled.

She yelped. Jumped a good foot.

He hadn’t meant to scare her. Story of his life, though. Sooner or later, he wound up scaring most people. His buddy War was probably the one exception to that rule. Then again, nothing had ever scared War.

Correction. Rose scared him. The woman who’d stolen War’s heart.

“I was coming to check on you,” Maisey admitted.

He sat up. He’d taken off his shirt, stripped down to just his boxers, and the blanket she gave him was shoved over his hips. “Why?”

“Because I wanted to make sure you were still here.” She crept closer. She wore jogging shorts. Loose and sliding around her hips. A thin t-shirt.

No bra. Odin swallowed. He could see her tight nipples poking against the front of her shirt.

Breathe, man. Breathe and get your eyes off her chest!

“I was scared,” Maisey added in a quick rush. “I couldn’t go to sleep.”

He’d been horny as hell and not able to sleep. Three hours had passed since the scene in her bedroom, and he’d been sure Maisey had slipped off to dream land.

“Every time I close my eyes, I think about the things that could have happened.”

“Told you, don’t do—”

“Yes, well, it’s easier said than done.” She rocked forward onto the balls of her feet. “I’ve done reports on some of the worst crimes in history. I watch every kind of crime show I can find but…it’s different, when it happens to you.”

Yes, it was.

“This might sound crazy but is it okay if I leave my bedroom door open? That way, if I get scared, I can just sit up and see you and I can—”

He stood up.

Her gaze immediately dropped to his chest. “What…” A fast expulsion of air. “What happened to you?”

The scars. Hell. He raked a hand over them. “Gunshots.”

She hurried forward. Her hand lifted and pressed to his chest. “That’s a lot of gunshots.”

Yes, it had been. If War hadn’t dragged his ass out of that firefight, Odin would be dead. “Always thought I was stronger than him.” It still stunned him that War had hauled him so far. “But no matter how many times I told him to leave me, War wouldn’t let go.”

Her fingertips traced lightly over one of the scars.

A surge of heat lanced right through Odin.

“War saved you?”

“Yeah, and he never lets me forget it.” Odin knew he should have stopped fighting after that scene from hell, but he hadn’t. He’d gone back into the field, despite War’s protests. He’d gone back because he’d wanted to prove that he still had what it took to get the job done.

But I just found more death.

He’d found that it was too easy to get lost in battles. For that brutal return, he hadn’t still been Delta. He’d been working with a different unit. Even bloodier and more dangerous and so far removed from the official books that no one ever heard a whisper about them.

“Sounds like War is a good friend.”

She was still touching him, and her touch was making him crave her even more. “You should stop.” Rough.

Maisey’s eyes widened. “I just—oh. Didn’t realize I was, uh, doing that.” She snatched her hand back.

“War’s not my friend.”

She cleared her throat. “When a man saves your life, I’d count him as a friend.”

“He’s family. My brother. Not blood, but who cares about that?” Not Odin. Every time he’d wanted to sink into the dark and get lost—when he’d wanted to give in to the bloodlust that always seemed to call to him, War had been there, pulling him back. Control had always been so easy for War. He didn’t have to fight like Odin did in order to keep it in place.

With Maisey, Odin found that he had to fight twice as hard.

Never wanted someone so badly. Want to take and take and let the rest of the world burn away.

She’d backed away. Two quick steps that put space between them. Only her delectable scent lingered in the air around Odin. She put her hands behind her back. “The door,” Maisey said, absolutely confusing him because he’d gotten lost staring at her. “Is it okay with you if I leave it open?”

Her fear. She’d come out because she was afraid. “No.”

“Oh. Okay.” A jerky nod. “It’s ridiculous to be afraid of being alone. I’ll just—I’ll let you get back to sleep. Sorry for bothering you.”

He was an asshole. Why did things always come out wrong when he spoke?

Maisey spun away and practically ran for her bedroom.

He grabbed the blankets and the pillow.

***

Her body was completely straight and stiff in the bed, and her heart was racing so hard that every thunderous boom filled Maisey’s ears. The booms were so loud that she almost didn’t hear her bedroom door squeak open.

Almost.

Maisey bolted upright in bed. “Odin!”

“Yes?” Calm. Quiet. The total opposite of her cry.

Her chest heaved. “What…what are you doing?”

“Going to bed.”

She’d left her bedside lamp on, and she could see him clearly as he stalked across the room—with the blankets and pillow curled under one arm—and he settled down on the floor near her bed. Maisey blinked, then immediately grabbed the side of the mattress and lowered her head so she was peering down at him. The angle put her almost right on top of him. “Why are you in here?”

“Because you’re afraid.”

“I…” She was afraid, yes. But… “You said no.”

“I meant…” His words were halting. “No, you didn’t need to leave the door open. If you didn’t want to be alone, then I would just come in here with you.”

She stared at him.

He smiled at her.

Hold up. Had he smiled before? She couldn’t remember, but his smile had some of the tension sliding from her shoulders. “That’s really sweet of you.”

His smile slipped.

Right. He hated being called sweet. Salty. “I appreciate it,” she quickly corrected.

“Try to sleep.”

Her hair was hanging forward and she was half-off the bed. She pushed back. Settled against her pillows. Her hands slid over the sheets. Smoothed them unnecessarily.

“I’m glad you’re…okay.” Again, his voice was halting. “I would never want anything bad to happen to you.”

That made two of them. Not like she wanted something horrible to happen, either. Not to her. Not to any of the people she cared about. Like Whitney. “Do you think…” She licked dry lips. “Is this what happened to Whitney? She was taken. Maybe tossed into a car. Driven away.” Killed?

“Your friend Whitney…” He stopped.

She rolled toward him. “My friend Whitney—what?”

“How well did you really know her?”

The question caught her off-guard. “As well as you can know someone, I suppose. I mean, we all have secrets.” Wasn’t that the way of things?

“What secrets do you have?”

“Tell me yours,” she heard herself say, “and maybe I’ll tell you a few of mine.”

Silence.

Fine. She took that as a no. It was not secret-sharing time.

“Whitney frequented a bar about thirty miles away. It’s a hangout for criminals and people looking to hire criminals for dirty jobs.” A pause. “Since you hired me, I’ve spent some time looking into her life. Tracing her last steps. Got a few acquaintances who knew some info about her—like that she visited Ramsey’s every Friday. Just like clockwork.”

Ramsey’s. The name clicked. Relief filled her. “That wasn’t something shady. That was just research.”

“What?”

“Research. She told me that she wanted to get more field work under her belt. She’d been going to Ramsey’s to observe—”

“Ramsey’s isn’t a place where you go to have a damn tea party,” he rumbled.

“Whitney didn’t go there for tea. She had an interest in criminal psychology.” Once more, her fingers slid over the sheets.

“You get that her interest might have led to her disappearance?”

No, because she’d been so sure that Clay—

Maisey stopped the thought. She’d wanted to find proof of Clay’s guilt or innocence. Odin was telling her there might be other suspects. “We’ll go to Ramsey’s?”

“I was planning to go tomorrow—”

“We’ll go,” she said definitely. “Because you said you were going to be staying extra close to me, remember? What better way than to take me with you?” Maisey held her breath.

“Tricky,” Odin finally said. “Fine. You go with me. But you do not leave my sight, not even for a second, got it?”

“Got it.” She slid onto her back and smiled up at the ceiling. All too quickly, her smile fled. The moments seemed to slowly tick past. Maisey strained but she couldn’t even hear the sound of Odin breathing. Carefully, she inched over to the side of the bed and cast a quick glance down at—

He was staring right up at her. His hands were behind his head. The blanket fell around his hips.

“Hi,” Odin told her softly.

Her stomach did a little quiver. “Hi.”

“Still can’t sleep?”

She was wired. Her fingers kept wanting to tremble. “I’ve never been nearly abducted before.”

“You’ll crash and when you do, it will be hard.” A pause. “You know I won’t let this happen again?”

Because he was staying close. Her fingers tightened around the edge of the mattress. “I don’t want to let this happen again. I need to learn how to protect myself.” She would be enrolling in a self-defense class, ASAP. She should also buy some mace. Maybe a knife that she could hide in her bag or even a taser. There were even taser-like guns, weren’t there?

“I’ll teach you. I can show you moves that will make a man twice your size cry like a baby.”

That sounded promising.

“War taught Rose, and the tricks he showed her damn well came in handy.”

Rose. The name was familiar. Rose Shadow had been the reporter who’d first led Maisey to Odin—or rather, to Trouble for Hire Investigations.

“The trick is that you can’t be afraid of hurting your opponent. You can’t hold back.” A pause. “Though it’s always the fucking opposite for me.”

“I don’t understand.” She was still peering down at him.

One hand moved from behind his head. He held his hand up to her. Stretched out his fingers. “Put yours against mine.”

She did. A shiver darted through her.

“I’ve always been bigger. Stronger. Holding back is the only way I don’t hurt people. That’s why I made my rules.”

Her fingers slid over a little. Curled with his. She wasn’t even sure why she’d done that, but now they were holding hands. She expected him to pull away.

He didn’t.

“What are your rules?” Maisey asked, curious. A heavy lethargy pulled at her, and she yawned.

“Don’t ever hit first. One hit from me can be enough to knock someone out. So I make sure the person I’m fighting has it coming.”

That seemed like a good rule. “What else?”

“Finish the fight. Never walk away when your opponent can still attack.” A beat of silence. “If you show mercy to the wrong person, it can come back to bite you in the ass.”

She thought of the scars on his chest. “Is that what happened to you? Did you show the wrong person mercy?”

His hand pulled away from hers. “If we keep talking, you won’t ever get to sleep.”

She’d liked holding his hand. But he didn’t want to talk anymore, she got that. Maybe she’d pushed too hard. She’d been getting him to reveal personal information, but she hadn’t told him much about herself. “I like solving mysteries,” Maisey admitted. She let her eyes drift closed.

“I did notice that about you,” he murmured.

“Want to know why?” Another yawn. Hmmm. Maybe Odin had been right. Maybe she was about to crash.

“Why?”

“Because I’m a mystery.” Her breath rustled out. “Don’t know where I came from. Just appeared at the hospital. Left right outside the emergency room doors.” She’d always wanted to find her birth parents. She never had. “The local sheriff and his wife raised me. Pop sure loved solving mysteries, too.” But he was gone now. So was her mom. Some days she missed them so much it just physically hurt.

“Maisey?”

“Thank you for making sure I’m not alone.” Sleep pulled at her. “Night, Odin.”

Silence. So much silence that she was drifting off just as—

“Good night, sweetheart.”

***

“Odin!”The scream tore from her.

“Right here.” His hand closed over hers.

Her heart stuttered. “He was coming for me again.”

“Only a dream. A bad dream.” His hold tightened. “I’m right here. No one is taking you. I swear it.”

She drifted back to sleep.

***

Sunlight trickled through the blinds. Maisey rolled over and slowly stretched. Then she carefully peeked over the edge of the bed.

No Odin.

Her gaze darted around the room. The blankets had been neatly folded and placed on her reading chair, with the pillow stacked on top. But there was no sign of her PI. “Odin?” She slipped from the bed. Shoved her hair out of her eyes and headed for the bathroom. Maybe he was in the kitchen, getting some breakfast.

She swung open the bathroom door. It took her sleep-fuzzed mind a moment too long to process the scene before her.

The blurry form of a man behind her foggy shower door…

Steam drifted in the air around her. Steam, but there was no water because he’d just turned off the shower and he was—

Opening the glass shower door.

“Odin!” Her cry of alarm came too late. Maisey got a full-frontal view. Full, frontal, and fabulous because obviously that had not been a cold shower. Oh, no, mega hot. Not just because of the steam in the air but because of—

“Wanna hand me a towel?”

She grabbed a nearby towel and threw it at him. She didn’t even wait to see if he caught it. Maisey had already spun around. “I am so sorry! I had no idea you were in here. I—” I should go. I should definitely go.

“I’m covered.”

Immediately, she looked back.

Gah. Why had she looked back? Now the towel was draped over his hips, but beads of moisture darted their way over that amazing muscled chest of his and down his abs. Abs for days and days…

“Feel free to have your turn.” He motioned for the shower. “And since I know how much you like for things to be…even…” He winked at her. “Maybe I’ll get my turn, too.”

What was he talking about—oh, right. Their first kiss. Then their second. And her saying they needed to be even and… “Are you asking to see me naked?” Her mind was not functioning properly. She hadn’t gotten even a sip of coffee yet. It was too early for this.

Or…maybe not early enough?

He closed in on her. “Why?” His hand curled under her chin. A careful, tender touch. “Are you offering?”