AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Damn you, Malone,” I mutter when he releases me. “What’s wrong with you?”
“That’s a loaded question. Same things as you, I’d guess. We both like to play in dangerous waters.”
“I don’t.” But I can’t quite meet his eye.
“Think of it this way. Soon you’ll be free of me.”
There’s something in the way he says it that makes a weight in me shift, and the last shimmery filaments from my orgasm vanish.
But I’m not sure I want to know what he means or whether it’s simply because when he finds who’s threatening my family, he’ll just keep his end of the bargain and end things.
That’s not a thing I want to explore. Especially not my reaction to that.
Because I don’t really want him.
My stomach knots.
Do I?
“Where were you sneaking off to?” he asks. And this time, I know as I take in the hardness in his eyes, that the punishment for giving him hell won’t be pleasure-filled. It’ll just be pain.
“Uncle Grant’s.”
He narrows his eyes. “Why?”
I breathe out. “Amelia, she… I think something happened today. I said I’d go see her.”
“She’s fine where she is. There are people watching.” But he looks at me, silent for a minute. “Okay, you’re actually worried. We’ll head there now.”
He calls out to the driver again and the car is on the way to my uncle’s.
He doesn’t ask where Uncle Grant is when we arrive and I’m glad, because I don’t know. Maybe he went in to work, maybe he’s got a woman. But when we walk inside the duplex, I find myself watching Malone with a growing wonder.
“Hey, kid,” he says to my cousin. “The cavalry’s here.” He introduces himself and asks what happened. She shakes, her eyes teary, voice cracking as she recounts what she saw. When she’s done, he takes her into the living room after asking me to get her a snack and a drink.
I shake my head. Amazing. Amelia was instantly captivated by him. Sweet Jesus. He’s like a ridiculously sexy Pied Piper.
When I come back, Amelia’s staring at Malone with adoration and she’s clearly less stressed. Telling him what she saw made her so upset. But now? She’s completely at ease. He makes soothing sounds and then gets up.
He’s a man who wears many hats.
And he’s calming and nice to Amelia.
I don’t know where the hell he’s been hiding that side of himself.
Because it both fits him but doesn’t fit the man I know intimately.
When he leaves the room to make a call, I sit next to my cousin. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” But her lip trembles, just a bit for me to notice.
I take her hand. “What really happened?”
“Like I said, some guy was hanging around across the street from the house. Or at least, I thought he was. He was staring at me. And he looked evil. So scary. I was getting out of the car after school, and…” She stops. “I’m overreacting. It’s not like he came after me.”
“Amy, it’s me.” I pause after using the nickname I gave her. “And I don’t think you are overreacting.”
“Malone said the same thing, but Dad keeps telling me I am.” She nods at a card on the coffee table. It just has a number on it and I know instantly it came from Malone. She looks over her shoulder, pulling her hand free. “Where did you pick up Mr. Gorgeous, anyway?”
