“Oh my God,” I breathed.
“‘Mornin’,” he said to me, like we woke up next to each other every day.
“Oh my God,” I breathed again.
His hair was not in a ponytail but falling around his face and shoulders and, I kid you not, he looked like a Native American Warrior God.
“Do I have your attention?” he asked.
Yes, he had my attention. He seriously had my attention.
“How did you get in here? My alarm –” I started.
“I disabled it.”
“Oh my God,” I said again.
My alarm was a good one. Nick had it installed for me. It had settings for when I was home and when I was not. The motion sensors had been specifically placed so Boo wouldn’t set them off, even if he used his kitty flap. When an intruder tripped it, an alarm sounded and it immediately called a security dispatch then the police. It was not a rinky-dink alarm, it cost a fortune, not only installation but monthly maintenance fees.
“How did you disable it?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, instead he gave me his shit-eating grin.
Then it came to me where I was, where he was and I bucked to throw him off.
This didn’t work.
“Get off me!” I yelled.
“We’re gonna talk,” Crowe replied.
“No… we… are… not. Off!” I was using my Law-at-the-Shelter-telling-off-the-kids voice.
This had no effect on Crowe.
“Don’t make me hurt you,” I warned, mostly for show.
The shit-eating grin spread to an amused smile and that pissed me off.
“Like to see you try,” he said it like he would, indeed, like to see me try.
It was a challenge and, because I was all kinds of fool, I took him up on it.
Heavy and Frank had shown me a number of moves and they’d made me practice them until my body ached. Unfortunately, these moves were mostly done standing up but I used them all the same.
We wrestled and I realized Crowe knew all my moves, knew also how to deflect them and he had far more moves in his arsenal, not to mention he was a hell of a lot stronger than me.
Nevertheless, I pushed him off, got my opening and surged to my feet on the bed in order to run. This was not smart considering the platform where my bed sat had a five foot ceiling.
I slammed the top of my head against it and then went down, hard, on my knees. I saw stars and my right palm went to my head, my left palm came out to steady my body and landed on Crowe’s chest. I settled my ass on my calves.
“Jesus, Law, you okay?” Crowe asked, coming up from his back, taking my hand with him.
I blinked to take the stars away. This didn’t work so I blinked again.
“Jules?” Crowe called, using my real name for the first time. One of his hands went to my hip, the other one was sliding up the arm that was lifted toward my head.
With effort, I focused on him. “Yeah, I’m okay.”