“Shit,” the officer at the computer says, glancing up at one of his co-workers. “Go and release Cruz. We’ve got bigger issues here.” He looks down at me. “Have we got a deal? Slade is released and you keep this out of the media.”
“Sounds good to me, but I can’t guarantee that I won’t be pressing charges. Once my aunt gets a look at this, she’s going to be pissed.”
“You do what you have to do,” he says with a nod.
Damian and I take our seats and after the longest five-minute wait, Slade comes strutting out with a mischievous grin on his face. He walks right to me and sweeps me up out of my seat. “That was so fucking sexy,” he tells me.
I push out of his arms and he laughs before tossing his arm over my shoulder and leading me out the door with Damian on his other side. We start making our way over to Slade’s Dodge RAM and Damian hands over the keys, but as we start climbing in, Damian hangs back.
Slade looks over at him with furrowed brows. “You coming, man?”
Damian grins wide with a knowing sparkle hitting his eyes and lighting them up with mischief. “Nah,” he says. “I think I might go and see what Rachel is up to. She’s all yours.”
Well, shit.
Chapter 22
Slade pulls his driver’s door closed and I glance across at him. “Damian’s not really going to see Rachel, is he?” I ask as Slade starts the engine and I feel it rumble beneath my seat.
“Nope, he was trying to be discreet,” he explains as he pulls away from the curb and starts heading toward my place. “He wants to give us time alone.”
“To do what?”
“Figure shit out.”
“There’s nothing to figure out,” I tell him.
“Oh, there’s plenty to figure out.”
I glance across at him. “Like what?”
“Like why you love it so much when I kiss you.”
My cheeks flame and I feel like a child again. I don’t think I’ve blushed since I was twelve years old yet here I am, beet fucking red with a guy staring at me, proud as punch. “For the record,” I say, needing to bring his ego back down to earth. “I don’t love it, I just like it a bit, and it has nothing to do with how I feel about you because you drive me insane. You just happen to know what you’re doing with your tongue and I’m taking full advantage of a good situation.”
“You’ve got a lot to learn, Virago,” he tells me. “Rule number one, if you’re going to lie about something, at least put a little effort into it. Makes it more believable.”
“Dare I ask about rule number two?”
He glances across at me and the smile he gives me nearly blows me the fuck away. “You’re not ready for rule number two.”
I roll my eyes. Why is this guy growing on me so much? How is it possible to go from wanting and desperately needing to hate him to feeling something so pure and good? He’s still the Slade I met on that very first day, still lethal, sinfully wicked, and unpredictably wild, but I no longer want to fear those traits. They once made my heart race with adrenaline but now they make it race with something else.
I get lost in my thoughts and look up just in time to see my home zoom by. “Where are you going? You just went past my place.”
“I’m taking you to my place.”
Bad fucking idea.
“No. Flat out no. That’s a terrible idea. Are you insane?”
“What’s the matter?” he teases. “Scared?”
He meets my eyes and the one word I thought I’d never say comes shooting out of my mouth. “Hell freaking yes, I am.”
“Don’t worry, Virago,” he says, reaching across and taking my chin between his thumb and forefinger. His eyes bore into mine and for a moment I wonder just how good his driving skills are but as he opens his mouth, the world falls away. “You never have to be scared again.”
His hand drops away and just when I think he’s about to focus back on the road, he pulls into a driveway at the end of my street. “Where the hell are we?”
“My place.”
My eyes bug out of my head as I wonder how the hell I missed that. “No shit. All this time I’ve been living right up the street from you? The same fucking street?”
He grins as he cuts the engine and swings his door open wide. “Yeah, you’re pretty damn oblivious to everything around you,” he laughs. “It’s not like I’ve been hiding it. My truck is always in the drive and I come past every single day.”
“To be fair,” I tell him. “I never really drive down this way.”
“Uh-huh.”
He climbs down from the truck and I open my door and jump down, praying I don’t fall. It’s been a shit afternoon and my hand and leg aren’t exactly feeling magical. Slade meets me around the front of his truck and he leads me toward his home.