“No,” she rasps out, cutting through my fears. “Stepsister.”
I kick the door, not bothering to knock. Stepsister, I can handle. I give the door another hard kick, hearing someone yell, “Jesus Christ, Holly! You have a fucking key!” before roughly yanking the door open with a pissed-off look on her face. As soon as she sees me, her face changes, morphing into a smile. She’s so focused on me that it takes her a second to lower her eyes to a still-wheezing Holly.
“Get her inhaler,” I say, pushing my way inside.
“Huh?” She steps back, giving me room, and then shuts the door behind me.
“Get her fucking inhaler,” I growl, carrying Holly over to the couch and setting her down while her stepsister finally gets her ass in gear and runs for one of the bedrooms, returning with a red-and-white inhaler.
Holly paws for it, grabbing it and giving it a good shake before greedily putting it into her mouth to take a hit. Her small body is shaking, and I can’t help but think about how bizarrely this night has turned out. I’m used to my work going smoothly without a hiccup in sight, but this is most definitely a major hiccup. She sucks in another puff of medicine and holds it in her lungs for as long as she can before slowly exhaling.
“Better?” I ask, running my eyes over her for any sign that things aren’t improving. After a few minutes, her breathing is steady, the bluish tinge to her lips is gone, and I’m not hearing any wheezing. “We should go,” I say, seeing no point in drawing this out.
“Who the hell are you?”
I turn around to see her stepsister glaring at me. Her look is a mix of open curiosity, anger, and jealousy.
“It’s fine, Shelly,” Holly cuts in, trying to diffuse the situation, even though she’s still working on getting herself fully back under control.
“That doesn’t answer the question,” Shelly presses, giving me a pointed look, and I get the feeling that none of this is because she’s worried about Holly and being overprotective. I think she’s just pissed that she opened the door to a man carrying her stepsister.
“I’m her boyfriend,” I say, making Shelly’s eyes widen in surprise and Holly give a choked cough from behind me.
Shelly barks out a laugh and puts her hands on her waist. “Bullshit.”
“What the fuck is your problem?” I ask, unable and unwilling to stop myself.
I can tell she’s startled by my bluntness, but she covers it by giving Holly a nasty look and then turning her brown eyes on me. “Holly doesn’t have a boyfriend.” She gives another harsh laugh. “No man would ever be willing to look past her—”
She’s cut off by Holly who jumps up and says, “I’m going to grab a few things, and then we’ll get out of here.”
Knowing I can’t leave with Shelly even remotely suspicious about us, I grab Holly’s arm when she walks past and pull her towards me, angling her so only I can see her face. Cupping her face, I arch a brow at her, silently telling her to keep her damn mouth shut before I lean even closer and press my lips to hers. I expect her to struggle or remain stiff or, hell, even bite my lip for daring to kiss her, but she doesn’t do any of that. She freezes for a few seconds, but when I run my tongue over her lips, gently parting them, she lets out a soft moan and relaxes into me, opening her mouth for me and running her tongue along mine until I’m the one who feels completely off balance.
I pull back, knowing I need to get this under control, but when I see the desire in her blue eyes, I realize just how big of a mess I’ve really gotten myself into. I watch her face heat up in a blush when she realizes she just kissed the hitman who’s in the middle of abducting her, however poorly a job I may be doing of it at the moment.
“Hurry up,” I tell her, letting her go and turning to face her stepsister whose mouth has dropped open at the kiss she just saw. “She’s going to be staying with me from now on.” Thankfully, Holly is already in her room and doesn’t hear me say that. I’m guessing her acting skills aren’t good enough to hide that kind of shock
“You expect me to believe thatlittle miss I have to follow every rulewent out and got herself a buff boyfriend with a neck tat?”
“Yes,” I say, not feeling the need to elaborate.
“Whatever.” Shelly huffs out another breath and then goes to sit in one of the chairs. It doesn’t escape my notice that she angles her body so I’m getting a view straight up the short sleep shorts she’s wearing.
I turn away with a bored look on my face but not before I see the anger in her eyes. She must be a real blast to live with. I don’t know why I care enough to be pissed off on Holly’s behalf, but I am. I cross the small apartment and walk into the tiny bedroom that’s really more like a large closet. Holly is stuffing a duffel bag full of clothes, blushing even harder when she sees me walk in. Her room is tidy with a twin bed, a bookshelf stuffed to bursting, and a small dresser and nightstand.
Seeing a photo of a smiling Holly with an older man’s arms wrapped around her has me pausing. They have the exact same blue eyes, and when I hold it up to her, she grabs it and shoves it in her bag without a word, cramming a pair of big, fox house shoes on top. I run my hand over the fuzzy fox face.
“You going to need to call him to let him know you won’t be in touch for a while?”
“Nope,” she says, avoiding my eyes and scanning her room for anything else she might need. I want to tell her to take a good look because she’ll never be coming back here, but I don’t.
“Come on,lisichka, time to go, and make sure you have that damn inhaler.”
“What does that word mean?”
I look down at her, noticing yet again how damn stunning she is with her dark hair and blue eyes, and for reasons I don’t want to investigate, I can’t bring myself to admit that I’ve already given her a cutesy nickname of little fox, so instead I give her a smug grin and say, “It means pain in the ass. Now, hurry up.”
Her lips turn down a bit at my words, but I ignore it and wait for her to finish packing before grabbing her overly stuffed duffel bag. When we walk out, Shelly is sitting normally, no longer flashing me her panties, but she still has a sour, pouty look on her face. It makes me want to laugh, but I resist, and instead dig the knife in a little deeper by wrapping an arm around Holly and pulling her close to me. I’m guessing she’s been treated like shit for years by her stepsister, and I feel kind of like I’m doing a good deed by giving Shelly a taste of her own medicine. My one good deed for the year, I think as I lead Holly out the door, shutting it on Shelly’s gawking, angry face.