I nearly dropped the screwdriver in my hand. I hadn’t expected a reply like that, so quick and…raunchy. “Got quite a mouth on you, Kitten.”
“I’m not a kitten, I’m Jade Fletcher, and for your information I’m late for a dinner that’s supposed to be celebrating me as the youngest junior partner at my law firm.”
“Is that so?” I felt emotion tug at all the ravaged nerves in my stomach. Randy wasn’t kidding when he said you never know what you may run into at The Clifton–wealthy socialites, angry valets, the ghosts of past loves. “Well, Jade Fletcher,” I lingered on a name I hadn’t let my tongue wrap itself around since the last time I’d set foot in this town. “You sound like a busy lady, I guess we need to get you on the road then.”
“I’ve only been working there for two years.” I could see her shifting out of the corner of my eye as she spoke, peeling the arms of her white button-down shirt off and stuffing it over the enormous case that sat in the corner. “I didn’t expect to move up so soon. When they announced my promotion at the monthly meeting, I wanted to melt into the chair.”
“It must have taken a lot of hard work to get there.” I shifted, aware of her proximity in an entirely new way. “Do you practice at Fletcher and Pane?”
“How did you know?” Her tone was lighter, less fearful, as long as I encouraged her to talk.
“It’s the only place in town–also, the last name was a clue.”
“Oh yeah,” she hummed softly. “How long have you been a paramedic?”
I cleared my throat, about to answer her when a soft snick sound echoed through the cramped box of the elevator, before the entire cage swayed a moment. The lights flickered once, and Jade Fletcher’s fingernails clutched into my bicep.
By the second flicker, she was clutching at my chest.
And when the lights finally flickered out, she was already in my arms.
Lucky for us, it may have been just the thing that saved her when the elevator began to fall.
Chapter 2
Jade
“This can’t be real, this can’t be real, dear Jesus tell me this isn’t real right now.” Tears choked all of my words.
“Oh, this is real as fuck right now.” The rugged paramedic’s voice rumbled through my body like a train.
“God, your de-escalation techniques suck so bad.”
“No offense, but your ability to chill sucks even more,” he shot back.
I tried to push myself off of his chest, but the elevator box was too damn small. I could hardly keep from touching him from the moment he’d first crawled in here. And not because I wanted to get freaky with the sexy paramedic–I hadn’t even seen his face–but from behind he looked impossibly chiseled, with muscles that rippled and bunched across his back.
The fact was, he was just the eye candy I’d needed to chill the fuck out in that cramped box.
“If I would have known you were a dick, I wouldn’t have let you into my box.”
He chuckled, and I didn’t need lights to hear the smile in his next words. “I can’t say I’ve felt very welcome in your box, Kitten.”
“Ugh,” I hissed, trying again to pull myself out of his arms. “I hope I don’t have whiplash from that fall.”
“That fall couldn’t have been more than eight feet, tops, something tells me you’ll be fine.”
“It’s surviving you that’s my problem,” I said, the words under my breath and I regretted them as soon as they were off my lips.
“What’s that, Kitten?”
“Are you just saying that to piss me off?”
“Are you going to keep huffing like a cute little sea lion?”
“Sea lion?” Irritation ratcheted up a thousand notches. “Where the hell did you come from, medic man?”
“Right here.”
I grouched, suddenly finding the darkness less sultry and more suffocating. “You mean you’re from here?”
“Sure am, home town boy.” He shifted, nearly toppling me and forcing his hands to clench my waist.
“Didn’t strike me as the type, you’ve got a worldly arrogance about you.” I shot, easing myself off of his lap in small movements, careful not to stab him in the thigh with one of my heels. I’d worn my only designer pair–something I’d scored on consignment at a shop in the city and was saving them for just the right time.
Tonight. My promotion.
“I’m a helluva lot more arrogant than I let on, Kitten. If you’re lucky you’ll get a taste one of these days.”
I huffed at his cocky attitude, and I swear I could hear the smile on his lips.
“Huff again, Kitten, and see what happens.”
I did huff, louder this time, but only because my heartbeat was slamming inside my ears.
I couldn’t see a fucking slice of light in this elevator. His body pressed against mine so closely for the last five minutes had done a number on my lady parts, but the idea that I was truly stuck in here with him now was becoming unbearable.