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His gaze wandered around my face. Leaning toward me as he was, he seemed impossibly close. Impossibly real.
My lips parted as I took in every detail of his eyes, and nose, and jawline. A few light freckles speckled his cheekbones. For a man who acted so hard, he sure had some soft features. Adorable features.
That wasn’t supposed to be possible.
My attention traveled to his lips as I remembered how nice they’d felt against mine, just as he said, “Oh, but weren’t you aware? The devil knows everything.” Then he reached up and touched a piece of hair that was resting against my cheek before tucking it behind my ear and adding, “Gabby.”
“Holy shit,” I whispered, meeting his gaze, where the skin around his eyes crinkled to provide me with a dark perceptive stare.
He knew my name.
How the fuck did he know my name?
Just when I thought I was going to get sucked into his gaze forever, he pulled back to his side of the car, casually rested his elbow against the window frame of his door, and flicked a finger toward my apartment. “You better get inside. I’m sure Miguel’s ready for a little of that treasure you stole.”
Good God. He even knew my brother’s name. What the hell was going on here? I’d never met this guy before in my entire life.
I would definitely remember him.
So, how did he know my name, Miguel’s name, and where we lived?
I should’ve asked. I mean, that was the logical next step, right? How the fuck do you know so much? But, yeah, I didn’t ask. And I honestly have no idea why.
I just gaped at him, not sure what to do.
He frowned slightly, as if my undivided attention unsettled him. Finally, he shook his head as if confused. “Why are you still here?” He glanced out the window as if the answer to his query was out there on some neon, flashing sign. But he found no solution to his quandary and returned his attention to me. “Was there something else you needed?”
“Yeah,” I said slowly, though no, I didn’t need anything else. I didn’t even really know what I was going to say until I blurted, “I need an apology from you.”
His eyebrows quirked curiously. “You need an apology? From me?” His mouth pursed with amusement. “For what?”
“You kissed me,” I told him, narrowing my eyes. “Without my permission. I don’t let guys just get away with that.”
He blinked once. Then the right side of his lips quirked up in a cocky grin. Leaning in toward me, he murmured, “How about this? Next time, you can kiss me without my permission, and we’ll call it even. Okay?”
Oh, boy. That actually sounded tempting. Except, wait. No. I should be pissed right now. Not tempted. How the hell was he tempting me when I really wanted to be mad at him for handling my body in any way before getting a green light first?
This man was dangerous, I realized. And I had no idea how to handle him.
I was so in over my head right now.
Blindly reaching behind me to fumble for the door handle, I warily kept my gaze on him as I shook my head. “There won’t be a next time.”
“Hmm.” Pressing the pad of his thumb against his lips, he watched me intently. “Now that would just be a tragedy.”
The door finally came open, and I scrambled out backward, retaining him in my sights the entire time, in case he tried anything funny. “Thanks for saving me, anyway, though.”
Free and on the sidewalk, out of his car, I heaved out a relieved breath.
“Any time,” he answered, only to hold up a finger when I started to shut the door. “Oh, and, Gabby?”
I rolled my eyes over his smarmy tone even as I met his gaze. “What?”
“Don’t forget your things,” he murmured, pulling my trash sack full of stolen goods up from the backseat and handing it out to me. “You worked your very nice ass off for them, I believe.”
I took the sack, nodding to him, and spun away to hurry inside my building. I didn’t glance back to check on him until I safely had the front door sealed shut between us. Keeping my hands on the knob, as if that would bar him from coming in after me, I turned to watched him through the window as he pulled away from the curb and drove off.
Red taillights disappeared from sight, and a shudder consumed me. I don’t think I’d ever met anyone who’d made me feel so safe and yet so endangered at the same time. A part of me trusted him implicitly while another part questioned everything. He was just so suspiciously dark. And exciting.
