Page 55 of Lethal Attraction

“One and a half.”

The poor guy he clipped shoots him a glare while Reed flashes an apologetic smile so charming it should honestly be illegal. I watch the interaction with narrowed eyes.

Mine.

Mine, mine, mine.

Reed winces dramatically before looking back at me. “I’m trying to seduce you here, Thalia.”

“You’re doing terribly.” I giggle.

“Devastating news,” his hand squeezes my waist tighter anyway, fingers spreading against my back possessively enough to make my heartbeat stumble. He dips his head closer until his mouth brushes near my ear. “You’re smiling, though.”

Because every second you touch me makes something feral pace circles inside my ribcage.

Out loud, I only hum thoughtfully. “Maybe I’m easily entertained.”

“By public humiliation?” He asks.

“By you.”

That catches him off guard for half a second. It’s barely noticeable, but I see it. Reed recovers quickly, grinning as he nudges his thigh between mine in time with the music. Heat curls viciously through my stomach.

He’s flirting.

I’m fantasizing about carving his skin with hearts like a teenager doodles her crush’s name in a notebook.

Different love languages.

“You’re perfect,” I purr. The double meaning nearly chokes me alive.

Reed snorts immediately. “I would hardly call this perfect.” Right as he says it, he missteps again and nearly eats shit on the slick wooden floor. I burst into laughter loud enough that nearby people glance over, and he catches himself by grabbing my hips.

“Oh my God,” I gasp. “That was almost incredibly embarrassing.”

“A fall like that could be fatal to an old man like myself,” he muses before brushing my hair behind my ear and slowing us to a gentle sway. “At least the last thing I saw would have been you.”

The line is stupid. So stupid. And yet my heart twists around it like barbed wire, clawing desperately to remember every damn word and burn it into my psyche.

I snake my hands behind his neck, interlocking my fingers as I push up on my toes and nip at his bottom lip. His eyes flutter at my administrations, and I love the way his body goes pliant against mine. As if he knows he belongs here in my arms.

“Reed,” I whisper between us, my eyelids lowering as something dark curls around me.

He inhales, the sound so abrupt it makes my spine shiver. “Yes, Little Devil?”

Awareness zips down my spine. That sixth sense I’ve developed over the years blares an alarm, almost shattering our moment as I catch sight of unidentified newcomers lingering around the opposite end of the bar. They’re big, ugly, and if the sleek guns tucked in their waistbands are anything to go by, they aren’t here to enjoy the football game at the bar.

No, I think Brooks has finally caught up to me.

Just when I was about to steal my doctor away until his friends hung missing person posters…

Chapter fifteen

Thalia

“Thalia?” Reed questions, attempting to pull away.

I tighten my hold on him, dragging his face down into my neck as I smooth a hand between his shoulders. The deathly calm of a hunt washes over me—my pulse evens, muscles loosen, every distracting emotion burns away until only precision remains.