He crouched in front of me, his gaze searching my face beneath a fierce scowl. “Damn it. Don’t look like that. Do you think I want to micromanage you? Especially knowing how smothered you’ve been by your mother? I know overprotectiveness is a trigger for you, but there have been extenuating circumstances. Give me credit for trying to find a balance between your independence and keeping you safe.”

Wow. Hindsight didn’t just make things crystal clear; it smacked me upside the head and knocked some sense into me. “I get it.”

“I don’t think you do. This” –he gestured impatiently at himself– “is just a fucking shell. You’re what drives me, Eva. Can you understand that? You’re the heart and soul of me, the part I can’t live without. If something ever happened to you it would kill me, too. Keeping you safe is goddamned self-preservation! Tolerate it for me, if you won’t do it for yourself.”

I surged into him, knocking him off-balance and onto his back. I kissed him hard, my heart pounding and blood roaring in my ears.

“I hate to freak you out,” I murmured between desperate kisses, “but you’ve got it real bad for me.”