to reason. The magic on his skin sung to my own and the fire of his touch lit up my body, burning away any thought of bruises or pain, burning away the hurt that he’d caused me by turning away from me after the fight. His mouth and all of him made me hot and twisted up, left me wishing there were a bed in the corner of the room with those soft sheets he favors that slithered over naked skin so very nicely.
No, I didn’t plan on letting him off the hook—at the very least, he owed me a better explanation—but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to soak up the fiery kisses he planted on me, just in case . . .just in case there wasn’t another time.
Just in case the police had their way. That’s what I told myself.
Trust me, you wouldn’t have turned down the opportunity either.
Even so, I was the first to pull back, just enough so I could breathe. “You really hurt me, Crash. I’m not sure I’m ready to forgive you. You’re going to have to work for it.”
His hands smoothed down over my arms to take my fingers, and he stepped back, his chest rising and falling rapidly as if he couldn’t quite catch his breath. At least I wasn’t the only one so affected by this thing between us. “Shit. You’ve gotten under my skin and I was . . .you are . . . damn it, I can’t even talk properly.”
He didn’t let me go, but instead pulled me closer and set his chin on top of my head, his breath ruffling my hair. “I don’t want you to die, but trouble keeps finding you, or you keep finding it. I don’t know how I can keep you safe. . .” He trailed off and I looked up at him.
“Everyone dies, Crash. Maybe not you, because you’re fae, but everyone else dies. And me, I’m going to live full speed, foot on the pedal until that moment. Even if that moment is here and now.” I grabbed his face and kissed him hard even as Alan gagged in the background, muttering about kissing a troll.
Crash kissed me back, but this time he pulled away first. “I’ll get the bail set up. Your trial date is set for three days from now.”
Alan walked through the door again and began to pace, cursing a blue streak about the abuses being done to the system, which was kind of rich, really, considering he’d manipulated the court system plenty to stick it to me in the divorce. Crash, of course, didn’t hear him, but he frowned as if he could pick up on the energy Alan was throwing off.
“You going to tell me why you kicked me out of Gran’s house? Or ignored me as if I were beneath you?” That last one was the real stinger for me, because I struggled more than I liked to admit with my sense of self-worth. I mean, being forty-one and divorced because the ex you hated cheated on you is bad enough. Add in a little extra weight, a dead-ended career and an uncertain new one, and a girl’s left feeling a little uncertain now and then. I wasn’t perfect, you know. I still struggled with the ups and downs.
Some days, I was strong as iron.
Other days, I was as squishy as overcooked pasta.
Crash didn’t let me go. “Because you’re not the only one with enemies. The closer you are to me, the better your chances of dying—” He paused. “There is more at play in the shadow world than the problems with the council and the O’Seans causing a ruckus. You’re right. We all die at some point. I just don’t want your death to be because I let myself get too close—”
The door banged open, cutting him off. The officer who’d brought me in strode across the small room and grabbed me by the cuffs, dragging me out of Crash’s arms. “Time’s up.”
3
Officer Cuffs (as I thought of him now) hustled me to the holding cell with the other women. Crash must have followed, something I guessed solely based on the way their eyes looked past me and went all dreamy and soft. Which was interesting.
Alan saw Crash as a troll, hideous and ugly.
Women saw Crash as sex on a stick made for licking all night long.
I looked over my shoulder at him. “You make the guys think you aren’t competition, then show off