The wrinkles next to his eyes creased.
“We need to get you some food.”
I nodded in agreement.
His grim thoughts were gone and so was his anger. His face had changed, the tightness relaxed, something entirely different there.
One of his hands went to my temple by where Terrible Teddy socked me in the face and Lee tucked my hair behind my ear. Then he let his hand rest against my hair with his thumb splayed and gentle on the underside of me cheekbone. His gaze rested on my cheek for a couple of beats then he looked in my eyes.
“First, maybe we should do the nap,” he said quietly.
I ignored his soft touch and his words, which held a little promise of what might happen before or after the nap (or both).
I’d had enough.
I needed a bottle of red wine and a darkened room and the Disco Nap to beat all Disco Naps. And not one that happened with Lee next to me, preferably one that happened with Lee not even in the same state as me.
“I’d like to go home please,” I requested, trying to sound calm and rational, over my tirade and unaffected by his intimate gesture.
He changed the subject.
“I told you this morning to stay in the condo,” he said this with just a hint of soft menace but more accepting-yet-frustrated-annoyance (yes, I could read all this in his tone, I’d known Lee a long time).
“I don’t often do what I’m told,” I noted.
He shook his head, likely a gesture to indicate he thought of my stupidity as irritating but cute (at least I hoped so).
Then he brushed his lips against mine (that counted as a half a kiss too, which put me at four kisses from Lee in one, single day).
“These are really bad guys. They may seem like imbeciles, but they’re not nice guys,” he said. “You don’t mess with these guys.”
“They’re scared of you,” I told him.
“I can probably protect you from them, I likely can’t protect you from yourself. What did you think you were you doing?”
“I was looking for Rosie,” I said out loud.
“I thought I was looking for Rosie.”
“If I find him first, then I don’t owe you anything.”
“You owe me for this afternoon.”
“That wasn’t that hard, you just walked in and took me out. That’s only worth, say, me making you a batch of cookies.” His lips twitched. I decided to change the subject. “Please take me home.”
He shook his head and watched me for a beat.
“Leave Rosie to me,” he demanded.
I didn’t respond. I may have been shot at, stun-gunned and kidnapped which would make any logical-minded person back off. Not me. Now, I was on a mission. I was going to find Rosie, beat the crap out of him, turn the diamonds over to Terry Wilcox and then move to Bangladesh to avoid Lee, and, possibly, Terry Wilcox.
“I don’t like what I’m seeing,” Lee said. “You look like you looked when your Dad told you that you couldn’t go to Vegas to see Whitesnake in concert.”
Hmm. That was a good concert and very worth the month’s grounding I got when I returned.
Lee’s arm around my waist brought me closer, in direct, full-frontal contact.
“You better be worth the trouble you’re undoubtedly gonna cause,” he said softly, his lips very close to mine.