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I mean, fuck, I’d brought her down here, and not exactly under her own free will. I was responsible for her, and I was letting whatever this feeling was cloud my judgement. It wasn’t like me to let someone get under my skin like this.
But there I was—itching.
Itching to touch.
Itching to explore.
My reaction to her verging on inappropriate.
I turned the doorknob, knowing I had to get the hell out of there. Only her throaty voice hit me from behind and stopped me in my tracks. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
Reluctantly, I looked back at her, my throat thick. “Everyone needs a little extra help once in a while, Savannah.”
She blinked like she wasn’t sure she could accept it. “Thank you,” she finally said.
I gave her a tight nod, the words gruff, “Get some rest.”
Then I walked out the door, flicking off the light as I went.
FOUR
SAVANNAH
“Savannah. Wake up.”
I struggled to blink my eyes open at the low, grumbly voice that prodded me from sleep. Confusion rolled through me as I tried to discern where I was at. It only took my sight landing on the rugged face peering down at me to send the events of last night careening back through my brain.
Hot Cop finding me out in the field.
My quasi-arrest.
Sleeping on this couch that should have been the most uncomfortable thing on the planet but instead had felt like I’d splurged and rented myself a room at The Four Seasons.
Waking up to this…
Ezra Patterson leaning in close, brown eyes washing over me in a vat of warmth and concern that appeared way too genuine for my own good.
Because on all things holy, he looked so good in the morning. Lit up in the bare rays of sunlight that slanted in through the slats that covered the window. His scruff coming in thicker than it’d been since the last time I’d seen him.
How was it possible his face was even more handsome than I’d thought last night?
It took me until then to realize I’d been staring up at him like I was coming out of a dream, and I shot upright to break myself out of whatever trance the man had me under.
It sent him reeling back where he was sitting on the coffee table, and he rubbed a gigantic palm over his face like he needed waking, too.
Maybe we both were suffering the same affliction.
“What time is it?” My voice sounded groggy, eyes squinting as I tried to adjust to the dimness that filled the room.
“Early.”
Groaning, I stretched my arms overhead and yawned. “I don’t do early.”
“Well, you do now if you want this job. I have you an interview at eight.”
A disorder billowed through me.
Right.
He thought I was broke. Sleeping in my car because it was my only option. Honestly, I was surprised he’d bought the lie.
But the truth was, I wasn’t exactly loaded. My whole life had been spent trying to keep afloat. Caring for my sister and myself the best that I could, but it’d always been an uphill battle.
And when I’d finally risen above my circumstances, believed in myself enough to chase a dream, that had been snatched away from me, too.
I had a small savings that I’d stashed away for a rainy day, but it wasn’t going to last forever. And if I was going to stick around here for any amount of time…?
“How long do I have?” I asked.
“An hour.”
My eyes popped open. “Wait, what? I’m supposed to be ready in an hour, and I don’t even have a place to get ready.”
I’d checked out of the motel where I had been staying yesterday morning since I’d decided a hunt was in order, desperate to find a thread, a hint, an innuendo…anything.
But my clues were few, and I was terrified I was only going to continue running into dead ends.
Ezra climbed to his feet, a freaking mountain that towered over me where I sat on the couch wrapped up in a blanket that smelled far too much like him.
Pine and citrus and all things man.
“There’s a shower here where you can get ready.” He dug into his pocket and dangled my keys in my face. “Your car is here, as promised. You can grab your things, and I’ll show you to the locker room.”
He turned on his heel and started for the door, calling, “You’d better get at it, Little Trespasser. Time’s ticking, and I’m guessing you might not want to go into your interview with your hair looking like that.”
The nerve of this guy to look back at me with a smirk.
My hands flew to the matted mass, and I patted it down like I could cover up the bedhead.
I scowled at him. “You’re kind of overbearing, do you know that?”
Okay. Sweetly overbearing. Like a big, burly, grumpy teddy bear who probably just needed a good snuggle.
