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I hoped I gave as good as I got. Maybe that’s why I didn’t sniff the asshole when I woke. He probably slithered into the bayou like the snake he was to nurse his wounds. Or the lack of sussing him out may have been the liter of water currently stuffed in my sinuses.
Blinking away tears, I surveyed my unfamiliar surroundings—a plush-as-fuck room. The California king mattress I lay on dwarfed my frame even when I stretched my hands above my head and lengthened my body to full height. Black satin sheets under a gossamer red comforter caressed my skin. With a heavy sigh, I propped myself on my elbows and tested my body more as the aches from my fight with Kye bloomed all over.
Coming to in an unfamiliar bed was never a good sign for a woman, and this added to my surreal sense of disorientation. Only the pain felt real, one steady anchor to cling to. But that anchor came with a price.
The pain in my head screamed for relief, and I could not chase it away. It slowed my thinking, and I needed to figure out as much as I could about my location. I took slow, deep breaths as I surveyed my surroundings, searching for a clue whether this was a house, a hotel, or another layer of the same dream world I’d only just escaped.
“You’re awake. Good.”
Holy shit.
A man sat on the edge of the bed, and I scrambled toward the opposite side.
“Where am I?” And how the fuck did I miss a dude on my bed? I’m not helpless, but why do men not understand that the last thing you want when you’re waking up from a coma was a stranger encroaching on your personal space?
Even a hot stranger with black hair curling over his collar which could easily entice you to tangle your fingers in those locks and maybe let him in your pants. I chewed my bottom lip. Well, that’s certainly an unwanted thought. And now I feel a dampness heating my pants. No. I can’t be aroused. I’m obviously suffering weird side effects from the concussion.
Right?
The stranger sat taller but didn’t stand. “You’re in one of my safe houses.”
One of his safe houses? Right. I raised one eyebrow. Criminals and witness protection protectees need safe houses. Okay, Mr. Mysterious was not on the side of the angels. But the fact that he needs safe houses plural? That’s trouble.
I sucked in a deep breath. “Which is where?”
“That’s not important right now.”
I glared. “It’s important to me.”
“No, not right now.” He pushed his fingers through his hair and licked his lips, pausing a long moment before adding a rumbling growl that made my body quiver. “In fact, it’s the least important thing to concern yourself with.”
Yeah, like staying alive. And something tells me that tall, dark, and delicious was inclined to eat me first and ask questions later. And by eating, I’m not talking about the fun kind.
Damn.
I needed a new line of questioning to get through to tall, dark, and gorgeous because I was not sleeping in a strange man’s bed without knowing his name. A girl has her standards.
“Okay, who are you?”
He glanced away and pursed his lips as if I had asked him to explain quantum physics.
I studied him with growing hunger and couldn’t stop staring into his brown eyes. But they’re not just brown, just like he’s not ‘just tan.’ His skin was a flawless shade of bronze that offset the gold swirling in his chocolate irises. He was lean but not thin, and his shoulders appeared broad and strong.
But every one of his muscles was rigid, and his jaw set before he glanced at me with radioactive anger. And this surprised me.
“I’m the guy who hired you to get shit done.” He stared at me with the stone-cold intensity of a predator. “You didn’t.”
Oh, fuck.
Mr. X—here in the flesh. And despite my full body pain, my core registered he owned very sexy flesh. And worse yet, he wasn’t happy.
I sat taller and hissed at the pain as my vision swam. Fuck. Histhingwas sitting in my chest and if he already knew that I’d probably be dead. Best to fake it til’ you make it, right?
“Look, just give me a little time, and I can retrieve it.”
“No. Not possible.”
I gestured broadly at myself. “I can find it again. That’s what I do. Kye couldn’t have gotten it. I had it in my hand, so it must have fallen into the water by the cabin in the bayou.”
