“I didn’t want anything until I got a good look at you—and that mouth of yours.” His eyes flicked down to my lips, and he stared at them for a while, his own jaw hardening with desire.
A shiver moved down my spine. I was both aroused and terrified at the exact same time.
“I don’t do this often.”
“What?” I whispered.
“Save a damsel in distress. Normally, I just keep walking.”
“I’m not a damsel,” I shot back.
“But you were certainly in distress until I came along.” He took a step closer to me, bringing us in together until our mouths were practically touching. “Or would you rather me hand you back over?”
This man was certainly more dangerous, but I preferred his company over the others. I didn’t like him, but I was still affected by his sheer magnitude, his gravitational pull that rivaled the sun. “If you think I’m gonna suck your dick as a thank you, you’re wrong. I would rather fight my way to freedom than submit to any man.” My pride would get me killed someday, but I would rather die with honor than submit out of fear. As a Barsetti, I held my head high and bowed to no one.
That slight look of amusement was there again. He stared into my face like he was transfixed, mesmerized by the backtalk coming out of my mouth. “You know how to make a man hard, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me sweetheart.”
He sucked a breath in between his teeth again, like my mouth was only making him want me more. “Carmen.” He said the name slowly, feeling it across his tongue as if he were tasting it.
I hadn’t told him my name, which meant he’d been listening to the confrontation for minutes before he intervened. Why did he wait so long? Did he consider walking by and ignoring it?
“I didn’t want anything in exchange for saving you. But I changed my mind.”
“You aren’t getting anything.” Somebody else would be thanking him from the bottom of her heart, but I wasn’t that stupid. I knew this guy was bad news.
“I want that smartass mouth on mine. I want a kiss, the kind packed with as much fire and spunk as your words. Give it to me, and I’ll let you go.”
After all that, he just wanted a kiss?
He kept watching me, waiting for me to give my answer.
“A man should save a woman because it’s the right thing to do.”
“I’m not a man—I’m a monster.” He said it casually, like he was even proud of it. “As I said, I don’t do this. I normally would have walked by and ignored this confrontation in a heartbeat. I don’t give a shit about a stupid woman who walks home alone at night. If you were smarter, you wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“A woman should have the right to walk wherever she wants, whenever the hell she wants. Don’t blame this attack on me. Blame the assholes who wanted to rape me. They’re the problem, not me.”
“Spin it however you want, sweetheart,” he said coldly. “That’s the world we live in—and you know it. As a Barsetti, you know better. Imagine the disappointment of your father if he knew.”
“Don’t talk about my family.” This man didn’t know anything about me, and I wouldn’t let him bring my father into the mix. “If you don’t care about saving an innocent woman, why did you save me?”
His broad shoulders looked muscular in his jacket, and the thick stubble on his face matched the nighttime shadows. It was cold that night, but there was so much adrenaline in my bloodstream that I’d forgotten about it until now. Now that I could see the vapor coming out of his nostrils as he breathed, I remembered it was a freezing night in winter. I was still standing in a small piece of fabric, this man growling at me like a hungry wolf. “Bones is your brother?”
My family name hadn’t meant anything to those men, but Bones’s certainly did. A ruthless hitman who wasn’t afraid of anything, his reputation acted as personal security blanket around me. Maybe my fate would have been completely different if I’d never mentioned him. “Brother-in-law.”
He nodded slightly, like that was the information he was looking for. “I owe him a favor. My debt is repaid.”
Now I was truly afraid. I’d just stepped into the underworld, and the reality was cutting off my air supply. I could barely breathe because there just wasn’t enough oxygen in the air. If this man knew Bones, that meant their characters must be the same. He could be a killer, a rapist, anything…and I was alone with him.
“But I still want that kiss.”
My breathing had increased because I couldn’t hide my physical needs. Unfortunately, the vapor rose out of my mouth at a quicker rate, showing him just how nervous I’d become. “And if I say no?”