Read Online Secrets and Sins: Chayot: A Secrets and Sins novel (Entangled Ignite) by Naima Simone - Free Book Online

emotion, “when you get back on a motorcycle, it will be your cup of coffee.” She loosed a short bark of laughter. “I would’ve never pegged you for riding a bike, though.”
    “Yeah?” He lowered to the stool opposite her and across the wide landscape of the kitchen island. “And what would you have ‘pegged’ me for?”
    She shrugged, twirling her free hand in the air as if attempting to conjure a sensible answer to him and for herself. “I don’t know. Golf, maybe?”
    He coughed, choking on the gulp of coffee he’d just swallowed. She grinned. “Golf?” he rasped. “What the hell? Why in the world would you say that?”
    “Wow.” She blinked. “Not a fan?” Her smile widened. “Must be the whole clubs-whacking-the-balls thing. I can see how that would make you squeamish.” Laughing at his baleful stare, she held a hand up, palm out. “Take Raphael. He’s got the whole badass thing going on. He can go from teasing and sarcastic to scary as hell in zero seconds—I’m still halfway convinced he was an enforcer in a gang somewhere, and there’s a wanted poster with his picture on it in somebody’s police department,” she muttered. “But following him around today and listening to him go over the alarm and security system, I saw his passion. His eyes lit up, he grew animated. All that techie stuff? It’s his love. Well, that and his wife. The man was absolute mush with her. But you…”
    Uncharacteristically, she hesitated, cradling her mug while studying Chay. Speaking her mind had never been an issue. But purposefully hurting someone, poking into old wounds…so not her. She’d read the headlines and the numerous articles online about the twenty-year-old murder of his mother’s boyfriend. Attack. Stabbing. Pedophile . The secrets, pain, and memories locked away behind Chay’s aloof mask—Jesus, she could only imagine the depth of darkness. The ugliness.
    Yet… She examined the lovely hazel eyes in a face as beautiful and stoic as an angel’s. She wanted to smash through the defense, to finally see the man behind the façade. Like the great and powerful Oz, the cool, detached security expert persona was the huge talking head. She longed to meet the man behind the curtain.
    “You,” she continued, “remind me of golf. Solitary. Intense. Reserved. It’s almost like you hide—your emotions, your likes, dislikes, your thoughts, your passions. Yourself. You hide yourself behind this armor I bet very few people are allowed to pierce. And even they probably have limited access. I’ve known Raphael almost as long as I’ve known you, have been in his presence half as many times, and yet I know more about him than I do you.” She flattened her palms on the island and leaned forward. “And I want to know you.”
    Silence permeated the large room, filling every nook and corner. Not a muscle ticked in his face or body. His hooded gaze pinned her to the stool, and she stifled a shiver. Heat emanated from that stare. Anger, desire. A mixture of the two. Damn . Sweat prickled her palms. I might’ve pushed too hard, too fast this time .
    “What do you want to know, Aslyn?” he murmured, the low, sexy rumble sliding over her skin like the stroke of knowledgeable fingers.
    One side of her mouth quirked into a half smile, and she straightened, placing much-needed space between them. Needed by her. “Ooh, so not fair,” she drawled. When his eyebrow kicked up, she shook her head. “The first time you actually flirt with me, and it’s to deflect. Like I said, not fair. Especially since I’m so susceptible.” Talking with him resembled a sexy tango: gliding close, brushing and grazing against one another. But the time came when the partners danced away. Now was one of those times. “I—” A thought struck her, and she jerked. Her breath catching in her throat, she narrowed her eyes. “Are you involved with someone? Is a girlfriend waiting on you while you’re sitting here with