AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Because she wouldn’t object to some mouth-to-mouth.
Grady held out his hand to her. She looked down at him in confusion. Then she slapped her hand against his.
He stared at her for a long moment before his lips twitched. “Key, Effie.”
Oh. My. God.
Why? Why did she keep doing that? What was wrong with her?
“Oh. Um. I . . . sure.” She handed over her key. She wasn’t even going to try and lock her door herself. No doubt, she’d drop her keys or make a complete idiot of herself.
Steele guided her out the door with his arm around her shoulders.
Another thing about looking like the abominable snowman while wearing about ten layers of clothing? She couldn’t feel his arm around her.
And she liked feeling him. Knowing that he was anchoring her to him.
But there was one thing missing. And that thing was Grady.
She looked back at him, worried that he was feeling left out. But if she held out her hand to him . . . would he reject her?
Effie had an issue with rejection. No matter how nicely it was packaged, it would still be a rejection. And she wasn’t sure that her heart could handle that.
And then Grady did something he rarely did . . . he offered her a small smile.
She gave one back.
And that . . . that felt more monumental than any touch.
Steele led down the path toward a huge, black truck.
“Where’s Raul?” she asked.
“Day off,” Steele replied.
“What?”
Steele’s lips twitched. “We give him days off, you know. He’s not in servitude to us or anything.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean. I just . . . I’ve ever seen you drive yourself before. Or this vehicle.”
He just shrugged.
Grady moved aheadof them and opened the back door. Before she could even figure out how she was going to get up into the cab of the truck without making an idiot of herself, Steele wrapped his hands around her waist and lifted her into the air, settling her into the seat.
She squealed and turned back to glare at him. “You could’ve warned me.”
“Seatbelt,” was all he replied.
Jeez.
“I was going to do up my seatbelt,” she muttered. “I don’t have a death wish.”
He froze and stared down at her.
Shit. She wished she hadn’t said that. She bit her lip, looking away. Gently, he grabbed her chin and twisted her head back around.
“Baby, we’d never risk you. Never. Not by driving recklessly. Not by acting stupidly. Never.”
