Page 49 of Merciless Heir
Struggling, I manage to find my breath if not my center. “I had a reason.”
He sits back, dark gaze on me. “Pardon?”
“For coming here.”
“And you remembered now?”
“I got distracted.”
A smile touches his mouth. “So I see.”
I can still feel his kiss. I can feel the slight burn from the stubble, the softness of his lips. The heat of his mouth and the slide of his tongue.
“I have a lead on the tiara.”
Chapter Thirteen
Kingston
I’m aware her bringing up the lead was nothing more than a way to get out of the kiss last night, and I’m glad.
At least, I think I’m glad. Because who knows where that stupid drinking game I came up with might have led if I hadn’t gotten distracted by her.
It’s still raining the next evening when I stare up at her apartment.
This isn’t part of her plan, but fuck that.
I ring her buzzer and it takes a while before she buzzes me in without asking who it is.
That tells me she knows it’s me. She’s probably got security up the wazoo. That means she’s got reasons to watch things closely, or she’s got a secret room packed full of jewels and treasures from many heists.
Though the pirate booty room appeals to a part of me I didn’t know existed, I’m betting it’s the former.
She leans against her open door when I arrive on her floor. Sadie’s arms are crossed. Her expression might well be a universe from the woman I kissed and who kissed me last night, and I’m glad. I think.
Glad because it shouldn’t have happened. I had too many drinks and let my guard down. Glad because kissing her is disturbing in the most lose yourself, lead into the best sex ever, and more kind of way. It’s the more part that worries me.
Yet I want more.
“We’re meeting later, not now.” Her voice is cool and calm.
“You follow me last night, drop a bombshell, and then walk away,” I say, coming in close because I want to shake that cool and calm right out of her and bring about the high stakes buzz of awareness that’s inside me to her.
Something I suspect is there. Hidden away.
“I said what I needed to say.”
“Right before you ran off.” I deliberately drop my gaze to her pretty mouth. “Like a scared child.”
“I didn’t run.” She turns and steps inside and I follow, closing the door behind me. The rain hits the window opposite and a trickle of water runs down my nape. Serves me right standing outside without an umbrella.
I lean against the door, my hands in my jacket pockets as I contemplate her. She really is beautiful, the dark hair of her pixie cut curling in the dampness, her eyes big and blazing now, even if her expression is one of placid disinterest.
I’m giving her room to move, to get some rope, to step into the untested darkness I can feel beckoning at the edges.
She takes the bait and storms up to me, stopping short of me touching her even though I make no move to do so. “I didn’t run. I said what I came to say and I left. There’s a difference.”
“After we kissed.”