we should take the motorcycle tonight. As much as I love your ride, I feel like we’d be better served with another vehicle.”
“That means I’m driving.” Marie’s voice.
He glanced to the side and saw her standing near the entranceway. “Of course, you are.” How could it be a party without Marie and her glares?
She waved a hand vaguely in the air. “I’ll stay close in case there is trouble.” Her eyes were on Chloe. “You need me, all you have to do is call.”
“Hopefully, that won’t be necessary.” She looked over at Reese. “You’ll be good tonight?”
“Good enough. Don’t worry about me.”
With a nod, Chloe pulled her fingers from Joel’s grip. “Then let’s get moving.”
He fell into step behind her—
“Take care of my sister,” Reese fired out.
Joel inclined his head. That was his job, wasn’t it?
The night air was warm and heavy against them. All too soon, they were in the back of the limo and heading for their destination. Marie had the privacy screen up as she drove.
Joel waited for Chloe to speak.
She didn’t.
He waited a little longer. Still nothing. Hell. “I’m an asshole.”
“Are you now?” Her stare was directed out of the nearby window. She was staring at the buildings as they drove past them.
“I wanted you fucking badly, and stopping like that—I said stuff I didn’t mean. I…” She wasn’t looking at him. “I’m trying to apologize here.”
“Is that what you’re doing? Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
Her head finally turned toward him. “Usually, when people apologize, they say things like, ‘I’m sorry.’ I didn’t hear that.”
“I’m sorry,” he rasped.
“Your apology isn’t necessary. And again, I’m not so sure that’s what you’re really doing.”
“Then what is it that you think I’m doing?”
“Trying to figure out a way to say that you still want to sleep with me.”
He leaned toward her. She smelled delicious. “I don’t want to sleep with you.” Faint illumination came from the soft lights in the back of the limo, so he could see her face as he flatly said, “I want to fuck you. Sleep doesn’t exactly come into play in the equation.”
Her tongue swiped over her lower lip. “I see.”
“You think we can do it?” He wanted to touch her skin. Slide his fingers over the curve of her cheek.
“Yes, yes, I think it should be quite possible. Why wouldn’t it be? Unless you have some sort of anatomical anomaly that—”
A surprised laugh burst from him.
What the hell? Did I just laugh?
Before Chloe, he hadn’t laughed, not in months. But…A smile pulled at his lips. “I assure you that, anatomically, I’m more than up for the job.”
Her brows climbed. “I thought so, given what I could feel last night. And what I could see.”
About that… “You didn’t say a word about my scars.”
“Why would I?”
“They don’t bother you?”
“They aren’t my scars. They’re yours. Why would they bother me?”
“Because they make me look like a freak. Because my body was sliced to hell and back, and I’m covered in white ridges that will never go away.”
Her hand lifted. Her fingers touched his mouth. No, the scar that cut across his lip. The only scar on his face.
“You mean scars like this one?” Chloe asked softly.
He wanted to lick her finger. To pull it into his mouth.
Why the hell am I in some kind of sexual overdrive with her?
He’d only fucked one woman since his attack. He’d picked her up in a bar, kept the lights off so she wouldn’t see his body, but when she’d turned the lights on and gotten a look at him…
She’d run as fast as his girlfriend had when she’d fled the hospital.
Chloe wasn’t running. She was leaning toward him, looking like the sexiest dream of his life, and her finger was sensually sliding over his lip.
“Yeah,” he forced himself to say. And his tongue did slip over her index finger. “Scars like this one.” Only the other scars were much worse than that little one.
A shiver slid over her at the touch of his tongue. Because he was watching her so closely, he caught the faint movement. Only he knew she wasn’t shivering because of revulsion.
Desire.
“I won’t lie to you and say that I don’t notice the scars. They mark you.” She lightly traced the scar on his lip. “But they do nothing to detract from you. I don’t know why you would think they do. If anything, they make you sexier.” Her hand fell away.
He shook his head. “There is no way they make me—”
“They show how strong you are.