Big Dick Energy - Cindi Madsen Page 0,28

car.”

Ron didn’t budge from his post at the door, and my feet remained glued to the elevator floor.

“You’re not honestly planning to walk barefooted through the lobby and down dirty city sidewalks.” Not that I cared so much about the hygiene aspect, but she would, and discarded items like cigarettes and broken bottles often littered the cement, and that was without taking into account the pain she’d be in the entire time.

“I’ll just…” She scrunched her button nose. “I’ll slip on my shoes. The ankle look’s much worse than it actually is.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I removed the high-heels dangling from her fingertips and thrust them in the general direction of her dopey-eyed ex. “Hold these.”

A tiny squeal came from her as I snaked my arm around her lower back and then bent to slide my arm behind her knees.

“Wait. What are you do—ahhh,” she said as I lifted her into my arms and straightened to my full height. “Archer, this really isn’t necessary.”

“Better hold on if you don’t want to faceplant for the second time today.”

Penelope squeaked out a protest, but she also slung her arm around my shoulder. I stepped into the lobby and swung her laptop bag in the general direction of the gawking couple. “Toss her ridiculous shoes in her bag.”

“Please,” Penelope added… or prompted perhaps, but she’d be waiting forever if she thought I’d parrot her.

We all stood in the lobby for an awkward beat. “You two go on ahead,” I said. “I’ll make sure she gets home safely.”

Ron didn’t take his eyes off her, something the woman at his side definitely noticed. “Why don’t you just hop in with me and Madison. I can drop you off before we head to dinner, and then pick you up tomorrow morning. Your car should be safe for the night.”

“Where’s your car?” I asked Penelope, ignoring the suggestion from Ron that’d caused panic to bleed into her features. She pointed to the right. “Four blocks down and two south. No wait, north. Whichever one is that direction.” She pointed west, and a smile spread across my face.

One she evidently took offense to. Considering it reopened the split on my lip, I wasn’t the biggest fan either, but the damage had already been done, so I kept it on my face just to annoy her. “You sure scowl a lot.”

“You sure interrupt and boss people around a lot,” she shot back, and I shrugged a shoulder. The first part of the walk passed mostly in silence, with a few people stopping to gape at us and Penelope ducking her head as though the Paparazzi might show up and document her walk of shame.

Or my walk of shame, I supposed, since I was the one doing the walking.

Suddenly, she reached up and brushed her fingertip over my mouth, and I nearly stumbled on a crack in the sidewalk. “How’s the lip?”

“Better than your ankle.”

“How incredibly vague of you,” she said, and damn it, I’d smiled again without thinking, causing the lip in question to scream at me.

“Ouch.” I ran the tip of my tongue along the cut, as if that’d do any good. “Don’t make me smile or laugh, or I’ll have to make you walk.”

“If you recall, I insisted on walking in the first place.”

“You’re welcome, Penelope. It’s not a big deal. My pleasure, really.”

She rolled her eyes, but then she placed her hand on my chest, stirring up an internal tornado that caused my heart rate to skyrocket. “Thank you.” Then she patted my pecs and swung her arm to the right. “It’s down this street.”

I decided not to comment on the fact that it was three blocks, not four.

“Now that you’ve gotten me this far, you can put me down,” she said, squirming in my grip. “I’ve got to be getting heavy.”

“Not happening.”

“You don’t have to pretend to be all macho.”

I bounced her higher in my arms, happiness pinging through me as she tightened her hold around my neck. “When it comes to machismo, I simply am.”

A laugh burst out of her, similar to the one I’d overheard as she’d talked with her friends at the bar. Victory hadn’t felt this sweet in a while.

As we neared a silver Honda, she gestured toward it and told me it was her car. I opened the passenger door, glad I guessed right about it unlocking with the key fob near, and lowered her into the seat. She frowned up at me, as though I obviously had a few