Page 11 of Collateral Damage
Bess stared up at the man who just saved her life, heart racing. “What just happened?”
Whitt held her a little tighter as his attention turned from the car to her face. “Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I?” His hands moved over her head, down her neck and arms, gently squeezing as he went.
“I’m fine.” Bess watched as he checked her over, hands moving with an odd amount of efficiency as they covered all the spots that hit the brick wall of the building at her back. “What just happened?”
Whitt’s eyes barely lifted to hers for a second before going back to the road behind them. His jaw set. “I think someone had a little too much to drink tonight and decided to drive home anyway.”
Yeah. She’d figured that part out.
“I meant how did you know that was going to happen?”
She hadn’t even heard the car coming, let alone seen it. Somehow Whitt not only realized it was heading straight toward them, he also managed to get them both out of the way.
Without ever looking behind them.
The set of his jaw tightened and his already dark eyes went darker. “I heard him.”
Bess shook her head. “I didn’t hear anything.”
“Then you weren’t listening.” Whitt took a step back, scanning the street before taking her hand again and pulling her from the wall. “Come on.”
Bess let him lead her away, past aNo Parkingsign laying bent and broken on the sidewalk, and across the street. “Why were you listening?”
“I’m always listening.”
Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe Whitt wasn’t just some devastatingly handsome man in a bar, looking for a night of...
What was he looking for? Was he really only here because he simply didn’t want to be alone?
Bess stopped, digging in the heels of her boots as Whitt continued to walk a few steps before turning to face her. “What’s wrong?”
“What are you hoping to get out of tonight?” It shouldn’t matter. She shouldn’t give two craps why he was taking her back to his hotel, and initially she didn’t.
But suddenly now she did. Maybe because he just prevented her from being roadkill.
Or maybe it was something else. Something a little deeper.
The real reason she needed to know was there and gone in an instant. A flash of something she’d chased her whole life.
The desire to be understood.
In just the small amount of time they’d spent together, Whitt made her think he might be able to do that. See her in a way no one else could.
A brave woman might be able to offer him the same in return.
“I don’t know.” The honesty of his answer was unmissable.
Bess took a step closer to the man who wasn’t at all what he wanted the outside world to see him as. This time she paid closer attention to the way he stood, the way he watched.
The way he breathed.
All of it was intense in a way she’d never seen before.
On alert.
As if he expected something bad to happen any second.
Like it just did.