My heart was hammering as I drove here. It’s still beating fast, even though I can see with my own eyes that Klein’s standing on her own two feet, no blood, nothing broken. The scene reminds me of my nightmares, where I can’t save Ares in the burning cabin.
If Chad possessed even a tiny bit of decency, he’d show some sympathy, even if he had just cause to be upset with her. But obviously the finer emotions are beyond a two-faced asshole like him. Even if she said she was in love with him for some reason, I’d never let her be with a guy like him. He doesn’t deserve her.
“That bee must really like you. It’s going right for your neck,” I call out.
Screaming, he covers his neck then hops into his car and drives away like Satan’s coming for his soul—assuming he has one.Loser.
Klein blinks as the Lexus swerves along the road. “What’s wrong with him?”
“He’s highly allergic to bees. We used to call him Chadaphylactic back in the day.”
She frowns. “But…there aren’t any bees around.”
“But there are some flies buzzing back and forth. I saw, and decided to use them. Hope he likes being tricked as much as he likes tricking others,” I say, narrowing my eyes with petty vindictiveness and satisfaction.
Klein laughs. The sound is as beautifully soft and direct as a lover’s caress, and something hot and volatile knots in my belly. I realize abruptly that I’ve never heard her laugh. She smiles a lot, but doesn’t laugh.
I want to hear her let loose again. Then kiss her happy, relaxed mouth. My head says that’s a bad idea, but the rest of me thinks it’s fucking fantastic.
“That’s karma for sure,” she says. “How do you know him so well? He isn’t your dentist, too, is he?”
I shudder. “No. I wouldn’t trust him with my worst enemy, much less my teeth. We went to the same high school. Met on the boxing team.”
“Ah… And that’s when you broke his nose,” she says, finally putting it together. She was probably too overwhelmed yesterday.
“Uh-huh.” I study her, from head to toe then back up. She doesn’t sound too bad. Was it just the phone making her sound weird earlier? No soot on her. Her curls are gloriously untamed and frame her face like a cloud of spun silver.
The T-shirt is worn, but looks surprisingly nice and comfy on her. The boxers are cute with heart prints. Her shoes don’t match, and my heart aches in sympathy. She must’ve been in such a panic. I’m surprised she didn’t fall during the evacuation and scrape her knees.
Klein flushes under my scrutiny and crosses her arms tighter, self-conscious. “I’m fine. I swear.”
“The burn?”
“Like I said earlier, nothing serious.” She shows me a Band-Aid on her wrist.
Okay. If that’s all the treatment the EMT gave her, then she really wasn’t that badly hurt.
“I probably sounded bad earlier because my throat was so dry,” she says.
Relief crashes over me. As the worry for her recedes, I start to notice other things. The freshly scrubbed face with bright violet eyes and a soft, rosy mouth, the lips full and pillowy. The long, pretty legs—I’ve never seen so much of them before, because at work she either wears skirts that end an inch above her knees or slacks. The softness of her breasts presses against the shirt. I can see the outline of her nipples, and suddenlymythroat is parched.
She isn’t wearing a bra.
My blood heats, draining from my head to my dick.For God’s sake, control yourself. She just had a major crisis. Plus, it isn’t like I’ve never been around a braless woman. My dates have shown up in clingy dresses with necklines so plunging, they couldn’t wear anything underneath, and I felt nothing but mild interest. But with Klein, it’s irresistibly erotic. Her breasts are just big enough to fill my hands, and I can already imagine how they’d feel.
The tips of my ears grow hot, and I bite back a curse. She doesn’t need me to act like an immature teenager right now. “Is there anything I can do? Anything you need?”
“Um… I guess I need a ride.”
“Is your car damaged?”
“No. But the fob’s…” She makes apoofmotion. “I only grabbed my phone before leaving.”
“Good, although you shouldn’t have wasted time to grab it, either. The only thing that mattered was you getting out safely.”
“It was right next to me, on the nightstand.”
I take her to my Rolls and open the passenger door. She climbs in with softly murmured thanks and settles down. I shut the door and get behind the wheel. “Where to?” I start the engine.
