lose the homicidal maniacs behind us first, though—don’t you?”
Thorn gave a wordless mutter of assent, and Ruse jerked the wheel, spinning us in an abrupt ninety-degree turn—and then, an instant later, another. I still hadn’t gotten the chance to fasten any of the seatbelts around me. The momentum threw me into Snap again, the second lurch landing me right on his lap.
I guessed I’d just have to resign myself to being a ping-pong ball for this ride. It beat whatever the sword-star bunch wanted to turn me into. “Sorry,” I said to Snap again as his buffering arm came up to support me. He shook his head with a smile as if to say he didn’t need any apology.
As the SUV jostled back and forth with more of Ruse’s quick maneuvers, I swayed and gripped Snap’s knee. The moment we stopped rocking around, I attempted to squirm off him to give him at least a little personal space. My shoulder knocked his chest, and all at once Snap’s body went rigid against mine.
I held myself still, my gaze darting to him to check if I’d inadvertently hurt him. I’d never been quite this close to his divinely handsome face before, just inches between us. His chest hitched against my arm with a stuttered breath, and his moss-green eyes stared at me, as bewildered as if I’d suddenly transformed into a polka-dotted caribou.
Something was obviously not okay. I shifted my weight to get off him, and another swerve of the car sent me sliding back into his lap. My ass pressed into Snap’s groin—into a solid form that was even more rigid than the rest of him.
Oh. Oh. My eyes caught his again, just as they flashed with a glimmer of brighter green, like that glimpse of neon I’d gotten in the collector’s room. His hand braced against my thigh and then pulled back as if he wasn’t sure where to put it. Heat seeped between us everywhere our bodies touched, which at this point was quite a lot of territory.
So he did have it in him to get turned on. From the uncertainty in his expression, he hadn’t been any more aware of that fact than I’d been. But now that I’d noticed it, there was no mistaking the bulge of his erection.
His pupils had dilated slightly, his breath coming shallower and faster than usual. A tingle quivered through my lungs and down to the apex of my thighs in response. He’d gotten this turned on, probably for the first time in his existence, because of me. And every part of me was totally on board with that. I just couldn’t tell how on board he was.
It wasn’t as if we were in any position to explore the possibilities further. The awkward intensity of the moment broke with a screech of the tires. Ruse hauled the SUV in the other direction, and I flew off Snap onto my back, just barely catching myself before my head banged into the opposite door.
After one more burst of speed, the incubus slammed on the brake and cut the engine. “They’re not going to find us here for at least a little while. Now we just have to figure out where we’re taking off to next.”
We’d stopped in a laneway so tight I could barely squeeze out of the SUV. Good thing the shadowkind, especially Thorn, didn’t have to bother with the doors. The backs of brick buildings loomed on either side of us; the glint of streetlamps shone only faintly in the far distance. I had no idea where we’d ended up, but it definitely didn’t look like an easy spot to stumble on.
“We’ll want another vehicle.” Thorn motioned to Ruse. “Why don’t you slink around and see what you can turn up that couldn’t be easily linked to us? I’ll patrol the area to ensure our enemies haven’t followed us too closely.” He glanced at me and Snap. “You two get ready to flee if we need to, but stay here for now in case we don’t find another vehicle in time. I won’t be long. Ruse had better not be either.”
“I can take a hint,” the incubus said. They both slipped away into the darkness, leaving Snap and I in silence.
In the tight space that was as much as I could open the door, I picked my purse off the floor and gave Pickle a comforting pat through the fabric. He murmured his displeasure.
Snap flitted into the shadows and out again