She glanced back at the restaurant. “What?”
He hustled past her toward the parking lot. “Inside. Now.”
Whether she figured out there was danger or saw his gun, she listened. He turned the corner into the alley on full alert. Charli’s car was third from the street, and besides an empty can rolling in the breeze, everything appeared to be still. He crept forward, his eyes and ears in full scanning mode. But after one step, the backside passenger door on the rental car jolted open and someone barreled out, dressed in all black and running full speed in the other direction.
Grant drew his gun and climbed over the hood of the first car, trying to catch up or at least get a description. But the thief had too much of a head start on him. The guy reached the end of the alley and disappeared into the greenbelt that stretched along the back of the buildings.
“Fuck.” Grant ran to the edge of the trees but knew it would be pointless to go traipsing after him. No doubt the guy was a local and would know the landscape better than him. After one last fruitless search of the periphery for any kind of evidence, he headed back to Charli’s car to see if there was any damage.
The rear passenger door was still wide open, and as Grant frowned down at it, a creeping feeling raised the hairs on his neck. What in the hell would a car thief be doing hiding in the backseat? If he had wanted to hot-wire it, he would’ve been fooling around the driver’s side. Grant ventured closer and peered into the backseat. A shiny roll of masking tape sat on the floorboard. His grip on the frame of the door tightened, lividity burning a path through him. He looked back to the trees, ready to hunt the bastard down and show him all the torture techniques he’d perfected.
“Is everything okay?”
Grant backed away from the car, making sure not to touch anything else, and gave Charli, who’d poked her head around the corner of the building, a wary look. This was getting completely out of hand. This was more than someone trying to scare Charli. Someone was trying to harm her. And that shit was completely unacceptable. He wanted to grab her, put her in his car, and not let her out of his sight again until he could personally maim and dismember whoever the fucker was.
Even monitoring Charli this closely, he’d barely had time to step in before she’d gotten into the car with some kidnapping psychopath. Whispers of the night someone had broken into his and Rachel’s home prodded at his mind. No. Don’t go there. He swallowed past the panicky, choking feeling that always accompanied the memory. He didn’t have time to have a freak-out. Charli needed him operating at a hundred percent.
Time for a new plan.
Charli wanted training? Well, she was about to get the session of a lifetime.
He tucked his gun back in his waistband. “We better call the cops, freckles. I thought someone wanted to steal your car, but it looks like someone wants to steal you.”
Charli sat on Grant’s couch, trying to rub the chill from her arms, but the too-cold feeling wouldn’t go away. She stared out the front window, watching the rays of late-afternoon sun slant over the front yard. Someone had been hiding in the backseat of her car. If Grant hadn’t been there…well, she couldn’t stop thinking about the what-ifs. It had been stupid to go off on her own just to prove a point. She’d started to believe the threat wasn’t real, that everyone had been overreacting. But now she was thanking the heavens that her brother had a paranoid streak and that Grant was so relentless in his mission.r: Roni Loren
His pace turned NASCAR worthy, and his talented fingers did a move that made her nerves sing. Her body rocked against the counter, her back arching, and the glowing ball inside her burst into a hundred flecks of illuminated sensation. She lost conscious control of her body. Her head lifted and a sound unlike any that had ever come out of her filled the quiet cabin.
A deeper groan came from Grant, and his grip on her arms turned demanding as he reached his own release. Her name tumbled from his lips, and she couldn’t ever remember her own name sounding so sexy. She closed her eyes and let herself fall into the afterglow with him.
Seconds—or maybe minutes—passed with both of them locked in that dreamy place of dwindling bliss, his body draped over her back. She wasn’t sure she ever wanted to get up. But once the only noise in the cabin had returned to the droning fridge and the ticking clock, Grant freed her arms and slipped out of her. His voice was low. “Stay there. I’ll be right back.”
No problem. She wasn’t sure she could move. Her muscles may have dissolved.
Before she knew it, he was back with a warm, wet cloth, attending to her. Then his palm was sliding over the spots where he’d hit her, rubbing in some sort of balm that cooled her skin. She knew when she looked back at this moment, she’d probably feel embarrassed, but right now she was buzzing too much from the orgasm to care.
“Can you stand up, Charli?” he asked, his voice all soft, rounded edges now.
She pushed herself onto her elbows then rose. He wrapped a robe around her from behind and rubbed her arms, making them tingle and bringing some feeling back into them.
“You okay?” he asked.
She turned around to find him looking like she’d left him. Fully dressed and wearing a frown. For the first time, she registered that he hadn’t let her touch him or see him naked. He probably had only pushed down his pants and taken her. And he still hadn’t kissed her. She’d let him hit her, restrain her, and fuck her, yet they hadn’t had a first kiss.
The realization dampened her buzz. “I’m…fine.”
He put his finger beneath her chin and studied her face, her eyes. “You’re upset.”
“I’m not.” But the declaration sounded hollow even to her own ears. She didn’t know what she was. Confused, mostly.
He deepened his frown, staring at her for another moment and apparently confirming whatever it was he was sensing. He lowered his hand and sighed. “I’m sorry, Charli. This was a bad idea.”
The words sent a sharp snap of disappointment through her. She looked down and knotted the belt on the robe. “Always what a girl wants to hear after she’s gotten naked with someone.”
“I thought you would call the safe word from the get-go. Then I—” He paused, and she glanced up as he raked a hand through his hair.
“Then you what?”
“Then I couldn’t resist taking you over.” He shook his head and looked away, as if he was giving himself a firm lecture only he could hear. “Why didn’t you stop me?”