Savage Craving - Cecilia Lane Page 0,31
so I went with the quickest option to get out on my own and still help others.”
He leaned back and cocked his head. “Rough time, then?”
“Yeah.” She stopped herself from saying more. How did he do that? She was trying to grill him, not the other way around. Something about the man made her feel comfortable enough to talk about her troubled thrust into young adulthood. Not a single therapist had accomplished that feat. “Yeah,” she repeated. “You could say that.”
He reached across the table and captured her wrist. There wasn’t any demand in the touch. The stroke of his thumb over her skin offered comfort. Solace. An understanding she didn’t find very often, and even less when she opened up with her life story.
“You’re not defined by what happened to you.”
“Sometimes I think I’m cursed,” she admitted.
“Oh, well, in that case, proceed with all caution. Curses are like being allergic to the world.” His mouth twitched into a half-smile and he winked. “You can’t pretend that peanut won’t try to kill you.”
Lilah let off a single note of laughter. Without knowing the circumstances, he’d already given her more support than she’d received from her parents. They’d wanted to fix her and put her back the way she’d been. Seth propped her up on her feet and offered her an arm to get moving again.
She glanced up and found him looking at her. Consuming her, more like it. She could practically feel his fingers ghosting over her skin as his eyes dropped from her face and swept down her neck.
Her heart kicked against her breastbone. She’d felt those touches. His thumb had grazed more than her inner wrist when he searched her for the stash of sleeping pills. Dumb. She’d been so fucking stupid to try that move. Even stupider to deny she’d done anything. She really needed to make a t-shirt out of it. I tried to escape my bodyguard, and all I got was this sexy, sexy pat-down.
His eyes had been dark, then, too.
Lilah snatched her hand back. Too shrill, she asked, “Are you close to your family?”
“It’s been a few years since I’ve been home, but I make sure to call my mother every week to catch up.”
“Momma’s boy? I’d never have suspected.”
“Damn right. That woman did everything in her power to keep me on the straight and narrow. That I didn’t listen is my own fault.” He snorted, and the teasing light in his eyes turned serious. “She deserved better than the son she had, so I’m trying to make up for it now.”
It was Lilah’s turn to sit back with surprise. His was such an honest, mature answer that added depth to the few things she knew about him. Troubled. Stubborn. Not afraid to admit he was wrong. That was her kind of catnip.
“I’m not interrupting, am I?” Jaime asked smoothly from the side of the table.
Lilah jumped, then dropped her eyes as a fine flush spread over her cheeks.
Thankfully, Jaime didn’t seem to notice. She shooed Seth to the side and took a seat next to him. “I didn’t expect to see you two so early,” she went on, “but while we’re here…”
Lilah leaned forward. “Has anything happened?”
Jaime flashed her a triumphant smile. “So, digging right in, pressure over the escape has obviously pushed investigations into overdrive. The former warden has confessed to sending one of the escapees to your apartment as a little last mission before freedom. On an unrelated note, if you ever come into bribe money, don’t spend it on a vacation home in Tahoe or a cherry red convertible you keep in your home garage. Those tells get you seated in an interrogation room before you can transfer bail money from your offshore accounts.”
“That’s it?” Lilah stared at Jaime blankly when she stopped speaking. “It’s over? I can go home?”
“Hold on a minute,” Seth objected. “I saw the state of her apartment. Has any of that been fixed yet? How are you so sure this fucker doesn’t have others waiting in the wings?”
Good questions. Ones she wished she’d asked.
“Repairs are scheduled to be completed today, with clean up finished tomorrow. You can pick up new keys from the front office. A security system has been installed, as well.”
“And Jasper? He’s still on the loose.” Lilah worried at her lower lip. They hadn’t heard any updates about his capture. If he could bribe the freaking warden in charge of keeping him captive, she didn’t want to know what lengths he’d go