Page 19 of Shamelessly Loyal

Yep. Everything had a cost. “I’ll allow the conversation,” I told him. Didn’t mean I’d agree to anything.

Surprise flickered across his face. “You will?”

“Yes,” I told him, granting his request. “Go shower, I’ll wait.”

With that, I took a seat on the sofa and flipped open the latest book of his I’d discovered. This was all about the art of dance. The fact he spent so much time researching all of this stuff about his sister was downright sweet.

The man was a tapestry of contradictions. It took him almost five minutes of staring at me before he finally vanished into the bathroom. I wasn’t sure if he thought I’d just randomly vanish or what, but I waited, ignoring the sound of the water and the instant images the sound conjured of water sluicing over him.

Right, drooling over Emersyn’s brother was about as far from classy as I could get. At the same time…

I glanced toward the closed bathroom door. Damn, he was a beautiful man. The hostility crackling in the air around him just added to the attractiveness. Between Ezra and Adam, I’d always thought my issue was just proximity. That was why their damage was so attractive. So what was my excuse with Pretty Boy?

No answer readily presented itself before he finished his shower and came out dressed in fresh clothes. I hadn’t even noticed him take any inside. I’d gotten my purse ready when the water cut off.

“You’re going to change, right?” The question caught me off guard.

“No,” I told him, giving my jeans and turtleneck a dismissive wave. “This is as casual as I get, Pretty Boy. Take it or leave it.”

The ankle boots were flats and offered me plenty of support. If I needed to move, I could.

“Fuck it,” he said after a beat, then grimaced. But he didn’t apologize.

Good.

When he opened the door for me, I hooked my purse over my shoulder and sailed out the door. Or I attempted to, at least. He caught the bag’s strap with two fingers and tugged it right off my shoulder. He’d already set it down inside the room and closed the door before I could react.

The sound of the tumblers locking into place told me I wasn’t getting the purse out of there. When I stared at him, he just returned the look blandly.

“You don’t need your purse unless you’re leaving.”

I snorted. “Nice try.”

He shrugged, then motioned for me to go ahead, and I rolled my eyes before marching ahead of him down the hall. Awareness of his nearness pursued me, but I didn’t look back.

When we reached the bottom of the stairs, he took the lead, and I hardly got a good look at their living space. Nevertheless, I remembered it well enough from my first day that no one else was present and three of them were on their way to get Em.

“Have we heard from them?” I asked abruptly. We could resume our game, but three days could be an eternity in a facility like Pinetree.

“Yes,” he said as he opened the exterior door and stepped down into the cold warehouse. I followed him out, studying him. “They’re there, and Freddie is in. Now we wait.”

Wait.

Ugh.

“I know,” he said before I could even comment, our gazes clashing. The worry in his plain for everyone to see. “They will get her.”

“You trust them that much?” It wasn’t a challenge to his authority so much as I needed some assurances here. I’d been second-guessing my choices the last few days, and I needed to know that coming to them had been the right thing to do.

“Absolutely,” he responded without hesitation. He led the way over to a black muscle car. It wasn’t sleek or low-slung. It was heavy iron and tactical. I had a feeling it would growl a lot like the man who held the keys in his hands. “They will burn that place down to get her out if they have to.” Then he captured my gaze as I put a hand on top of the open door. “Feel better knowing that?”

“Actually?” I didn’t need to play or pretend regarding this issue. “Yes.”

Once I was inside and buckling my seatbelt, he gave me another long look before closing the door and circling to the driver’s seat. No sooner did he start the engine than the vibrations rocked through me.

Yes, his car indeed growled and my thighs clenched. The smell of motor oil, dust, and leather cleaner hung in the air, but not for long. An outer door opened, and then we were accelerating out into the watery sunshine. It wasn’t really bright, but after several days of artificial light, I squinted away from it.

The snap of something in front of me had me squinting to see the sunglasses he held out. They were mine. Thoughtful. I tucked them on, yet it still took me a minute to adjust.