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“Hm?” She couldn’t exactly ignore his pointed gaze so she looked up at him.
“I think we’ve been out of synch and I’d like to propose a refresh.”
“Oh?” Her heart was doing funny things in her chest. He knew so much about her.
“It’s not that I don’t approve of what you’re doing. I think the best way to resolve all of this is by following the law. My issue is that you take too many risks with yourself. I just want you to have a little more care for yourself. You’re irreplaceable.” One side of his mouth lifted. “If you got hurt, what would I tell Robin?”
She chuckled and part of her relented. If she wasn’t so cold, she’d even think she might be warming to him. After all, he had gotten hurt trying to protect her best friend. What wasn’t to like about that?
“I imagine Robin would be mad at me, not you,” she said ruefully.
It was his turn to chuckle. “Robin is perceptive.”
Jessica stared up into his deep brown eyes and knew she was fucked. The one thing that had helped maintain the status quo was that despite her crush on Samuel, he didn’t like her. Now he’d listed out what might be considered her most admirable qualities.
He held out his hand. “What do you say? Can we try again?”
She held her breath and placed her hand in his. His fingers wrapped around her palm and despite the chill, his skin was warm to the point she wanted to feel his hands on other parts of her body.
“Okay. I will consider taking fewer risks, but I don’t make any other promises,” she said.
He squeezed her hand and his thumb swiped over her knuckles. “Good.”
They stared at each other and for a moment she felt as though a string were pulling her forward, toward him. But that was silly. Just because Samuel admitted she wasn’t all that bad didn’t mean he had the same kind of crush on her she was harboring for him.
A distant popping sound made Samuel whirl away from her.
“Did you hear that?” he asked.
“Yeah.” She frowned. “What was that?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he prowled toward the door and peered out. The way he moved was… Predatory. She didn’t know how else to describe the way he moved, but she knew one thing for certain. She was glad Samuel was on her side.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said softly. “Stay here.”
“Oh, no I’m not.”
He glanced back at her with a frown. “What did we just agree on?”
She rolled her eyes. “Please. What is this, a test? It’s probably just the storm.”
The wind and rain were beating on the windows something fierce.
“Jessica, I’m not playing around.”
Something about his tone made her pause.
A loud bang resounded through the building. Jessica yelped and staggered back.
“We need to go,” Samuel said.
“W-what?”
“Something’s wrong. We need to go. Get your jacket. Do you have anything warmer to put on? We need to go right now, Jess.”
For a precious moment, she froze while Samuel grabbed her puffy jacket and the backpack with her laptop. He snagged the plastic bag from her snack delivery and wrapped the backpack in it before shoving it at her. That snapped her out of her daze.
