“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
He fumbled out a sigh, like actually being truthful might cause him discomfort. “The main reason is I needed to make sure that you were okay. You took off before I could find out if you were really injured or not.”
He lifted his chin in some kind of challenge. One I got the distinct feeling he was directing at himself.
As if he couldn’t actually believe he was admitting it. “I was worried about you, and that’s not okay with me. You didn’t give me the chance to ensure you were safe.”
So, he needed to wipe me off his conscience?
I narrowed my gaze at him. “Men like you don’t deserve that chance.”
He scrubbed his palm on his pants. In all his over-the-top arrogance, he somehow looked nervous. Agitated. All of it was underlined with the type of overbearing confidence that made it come off as if it made him mad. “I deserve that,” he said with a tight nod.
“And . . . what else? You said mostly.”
The man situated himself in the chair so he could pull something out of his front pocket.
My wallet.
My eyes went wide. “Oh, thank goodness, you found my wallet. I went back there yesterday to see if I’d dropped it on the ground. I thought I was going to have to spend my day down at the DMV trying to get things sorted.”
Then he dug a little deeper . . . and . . .
My hands flew to my mouth when I saw what he was holding. “My bracelet. Oh my God, you found my bracelet. I thought . . . I thought I’d lost it forever.”
My favorite bracelet.
By no stretch of the imagination was it valuable, but to me, it was a priceless heirloom.
Three dangling gemstone charms, as fake as could be.
A ruby, a sapphire, a diamond.
My babies I kept so close to me.
“I found them by the curb after you drove away.”
He waved the tiny, slim card-sleeve in the air as if it were the prize. As if it would mean more to me than anything else. Which under normal circumstances, I could totally understand, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth.
The only thing that mattered was that bracelet.
That was when I noticed he had one of the salon’s business cards resting on his knee. I’d stuffed a small stack of them into that sleeve, trying to shove one at Kenneth Millstrom.
Praying he’d take it.
That he’d call me.
Turned out, it’d been one of the smartest things I’d ever done. That was how he’d found me. Why he’d found me.
Maybe it was fate, after all.
A genuine smile pulled to my face, gratefulness swelling wide. For a fleeting moment, warmth filled the expansive, empty gulf throbbing at the center of me.
“I can’t believe you took the time to return my things. I . . . I thought I’d never see it again.”
I slowly reached out for the bracelet that he was rolling between his fingers, and he seemed to catch on to the fact I cared more about the bracelet than anything else. I met his curious gaze through the mirror as he held it up for me to take.
That energy shifted.
Doing something wild.
A thrash of attraction.
A lash of need.
Gulping around it, I took the small bangle and slipped it onto my wrist, emotion growing thick as I traced it with the fingers of my other hand. If I listened closely enough, I could almost hear their little voices shouting in my ear as they jumped around.
“Happy birthday! Do you like it? We saved all our money!”
Moisture gathering fast, I looked back at him, meeting those strange-colored eyes. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they glowed red. Like they matched that demon on his arm.
This unsettled feeling came over me, as if I were being sucked into the aura that radiated from his skin.
Cruel and evil and kind.
All of it swirled around him like a whirlwind. As if he were made of them all.
A toxic, mind-altering cocktail. A sip of bliss. A drop of wickedness.
“Thank you, so much, for taking the time to find me. To bring this back. I only took it off because it didn’t match that stupid dress,” I admitted.
Discomfort rolled from him, so different from the dominating stance of a few seconds ago. “It was nothing.”
“Well, it means something to me. Most people wouldn’t make the effort of hunting someone down like this.”
“Apparently, I’m good at hunting.” He said it as if he were saying it at his own expense, edged in more of that seduction and a measure of amusement.
I angled my head, trying to get a read on this man who I just couldn’t put my finger on.
He shook his head. “Never mind. Honestly, I couldn’t not return them to you. I didn’t know if it was something you’d miss or not.”