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“You okay?”
His touch, despite wearing her heavy winter coat, seared through her. Electrified her. Zapped a feeling she hadn’t felt in—well, never.
She trembled.
He pulled her a bit closer.
Did he feel the same intense emotions she was feeling? By the worry in his eyes, yet the slight disgust, she figured no, he didn’t. He thought she wasn’t steady on her feet and didn’t want her to fall down the stairs. Well, neither did she, but she was fine now.
She pulled her arm toward her, giving him no choice but to let go.
“You startled me. I’m fine.”
“And where’s Julio?”
“Julio?” She frowned, wondering what the hell he was talking about. Then her cheeks flamed hot.
He had heard her talking to Mrs. Reverson one floor below. She had mentioned Julio as her plans for the night. Little did he know, Julio was the latest hero in the book she was reading. There was no way she was admitting that to this man.
“Will he be here soon?”
She laughed. “No. No, he won’t.” Unless she pulled out her book and started to read in front of him.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, needing to change the subject. Had his fiancée, the cop, manage to change his mind and he was going to tell her hewaspressing charges. Oh, God, she hoped not.
Her heart pounded and she desperately wished he couldn’t hear the heavy bam, bam, bam that she could feel threatening to climb right out of her chest.
This was cruel. So very cruel of him. He wanted to tell her directly in her face before his cop friends showed up to finish the job they started a few days ago.
Thankfully, no one in her building had seen the detectives and asked her about it. It was bad enough her entire family knew. She still was dodging calls from her brothers. She could only take so much badgering about her idiocy until it got to be enough. To the point she felt like screaming her head off until her voice went hoarse and their hearing went bye-bye.
“We need to talk.”
She eyed him, wondering what that meant. Talk about her upcoming arrest? Yeah, no, thanks. Although, in the slight off-chance that’s why he wasn’t here, she didn’t want to upset him and change his mind. So she nodded and unlocked her door.
He followed, shutting it. She waited to hear the lock click and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t lock the door as well. Why would he? She didn’t think he was here to hurt her. Or was he? She didn’t know him. He had a record. One that involved assaults. She should send her brothers a text, or better yet, call one of them and tell them to come over.
She nixed that idea as soon as it entered; having her brothers in the same room as Corey would be a terrible idea. They knew she had been in the wrong, but they also wouldn’t hesitate to show Corey some pain if he did the slightest thing to hurt her in any way. Better just to get this conversation over with and get him out of her apartment.
Light classical music drifted into the space, calming some of her rattled nerves.
“Is that Beethoven?” Corey asked, cocking a brow. “It’s super loud.”
Wow. She was impressed—and surprised—he knew his classical music. Dressed in a light-brown leather jacket, his hair mussed up from the wind—she assumed—and an edge of danger flickering in his gaze gave the impression he didn’t even know what classical music was. Which was so judgmental of her, and she should stop it. She didn’t like it when people judged her—or her friends—so she shouldn’t do the same thing. All she’d been doing since the moment she met him was judge him. Very unfairly. Everything she’d seen thus far had been way off her assumptions.
“It is. Mrs. Reverson, who lives below me, likes it. She says it helps her plants live longer lives.”
“It’s loud.”
So he already said.
She shrugged. “It doesn’t bother me. It’s soothing.” She cracked a grin. “Now, if it was heavy metal or something, then that would be another story.”
To her amazement, a short grin appeared. It was fleeting, but she had seen it. Knew it existed. Oh boy, it enhanced his already handsome features.
Silence filled the air. Awkward tension-filled silence. Both stared at each other, neither speaking. She finally broke the gaze, hating how she couldn’t decipher what he was thinking or figure out why he was here.
She unzipped her coat and tossed it toward the couch, missing it by an inch. It plopped to the floor with a quiet plunk. Well, that was embarrassing. Deciding to play it off like she meant to miss, she left it on the floor and went for the stove.
