Be cool, Harper. Don’t stare like a freak. I smoothed my forehead and plastered a comically casual expression on my face. Don’t mind me, folks. Just strolling through the store with no particular purpose.
As discreetly as I could, I started browsing in a direction that would let me get a better look at him. Fairhope was a small enough town that a man like this didn’t just escape notice. So who was he?
I heard a little lisping voice cry out, “He’s not my daddy!”
My heart stopped for a beat. There were only a few other people in the store, but every one of them could’ve got the senior discount at Teddy’s theater without showing I.D.
The man turned around and tried to say something to defend himself, but I barely heard. This was exactly the kind of situation I’d taken self-defense classes for. It was the kind of thing I ran mental exercises for in the shower. What would I do if someone tried to kidnap a kid in front of me?
I took a few quick breaths, trying to calm my nerves as I got a tighter grip on my purse. Thankfully, I was planning to cash some coins in at the bank later, so my purse was feeling particularly beefy. The man was much, much bigger than me, but I’d have the element of surprise.
My heart hammered against my chest. I could feel hot blood pumping through me like lava, preparing my mostly untrained body for the moment of attack.
I crept closer, inching around an aisle and using a display of potato chips as cover to get within a few steps of him. Then I saw him reach for a little boy who clapped his hands to his face and screamed.
They need my help. The thought came with a clenching of every single muscle I was able to clench. Every. Muscle.
I took a few more quick breaths, then rushed forward and swung my purse overhand at the man. He turned just in time to catch it square in the cheek instead of the back of his head.
I saw it all in slow motion. The graceful arc of my attack zipping through the dusty air in the shop. The shockwave of his skin where the edge of my purse met his cheek. The furious surprise in his dreamboat eyes…
Time returned to normal, and all the sights and sounds came along with it.
Suddenly I was standing there with a purse in my hand that I’d just used to smack a stranger in the face. The stranger was tall. So tall. He was gorgeous, angry, and glaring right down at me.
He staggered backwards and both the kids stopped yelling. The little girl squeezed his leg. “Sorry, daddy!” she said over and over.
“Dad, I didn’t–” the little boy said.
Dad? “You said he wasn’t…” I muttered.
“What the hell is going on?” McDermit asked. He’d come out from behind the desk and the three old ladies were all cowering behind him like they were expecting a bomb to go off.
The man’s face was covered by his big hand. He tilted his head back and let out an irritated growl. When he lowered his hand, I saw an already-forming red welt just below his eye. “That was their idea of a joke,” he said. He had a deep voice that rumbled through my chest.
And God. That face. He was breathtaking, with cheekbones so defined it was no surprise my purse had been drawn to them. I bet flocks of birds were sucked in by the gravity of his supernatural sexiness. Instrument panels on airplanes probably malfunctioned when they flew overhead…
An irrational part of me wanted to hop on my tiptoes and offer to kiss it better.
No, no, no. Because I saw there was also a patch of gray at his temples and in the scruff around his chin. He wore it well. Distractingly well, actually. But he was way too old for me. He was also probably married, even if he wasn’t wearing a ring. He probably took it off to work out. Like six times a day, if his muscles were any indication.
“Um,” I said, slowly moving the purse to hold it behind my back. “I’m sorry I overpowered you.”
He blinked like he was still shaking off the disorientation from the blow. Then a very dangerously charming smile formed. “Overpowered me? Is that what happened?”
I lowered my eyes, embarrassment touching my cheeks. Were we flirting? “I did get you to stop trying to kidnap those kids.”
“My kids, you mean.”
I shrugged, and that smile of his wasn’t going anywhere. Oh my goodness. This man was practically a narcotic. What was it they said about hard drugs in school? Just try them once? For some reason my brain was struggling to recall.
He touched the spot on his cheek and a hint of anger flashed in his eyes. “What the hell do you have in your purse? Bricks?”