“She pays for what she did.She pays and that’s all I want.”
“Don’t send your guys after her.Don’t come at her again.Or it will be a fatal mistake for you.”Not a threat.A promise.
Then he turned and walked away.He could feel the Russian’s eyes on him, but Eb didn’t look back.He rounded the building.Headed back to his car and?—
Sure the fuck enough, a pickup truck waited by his ride.
Naomi had turned off her headlights, but the truck’s engine idled.
He went straight to the driver’s side of the truck.Rapped on the window.Prayed for patience with her.
She rolled down the window.“Fancy seeing you here,” Naomi greeted him.
Fancy, his ass.“You can’t follow orders for shit,” he told her.
“Pretty sure I mentioned that character flaw to you before.”She cleared her throat.“I didn’t want to leave until I was sure you weren’t going to die tonight.”
He squinted inside the vehicle.The dog sprawled on the seat beside her.On its back, belly in the air.Eb pulled his gaze from the dog and sent it back to Naomi.“Why would you care if I died?”
“Because you saved my dog.Now that good deed means I owe you.”She pointed to his car.“Get in.Follow me home.You’re spending the night with me.”
Hell, yes, he was.
“Then you’re explaining why you kissed me.”Naomi exhaled on a ragged breath.“Because I know you hate me.I know you think I killed your partner.”
Ex-partner.And most of the town believed she was guilty as sin.
“I don’t see you as the type to be turned on by hate,” Naomi continued.
He leaned closer.“So you want to know what turns me on?Is that what you’re trying to discover?If so, just ask directly, sweetheart.”Eb used the endearment deliberately.Mostly to piss her off.Also to see what reaction it would have on her.
Her hand rose.Slid against his jaw.For some reason, he felt the impact of that small touch explode throughout his whole body.
“Ebenezer…” Naomi sighed his name.The name he’d always hated.But when she said it, he didn’t mind so much.“I don’t have to ask.I already know what turns you on.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.”She poked her head through the window.Pressed her lips to his ever so fleetingly.Teasingly.Tormentingly.“I do.”
Fuck.“Yeah, you do.”Grim.
She sucked in a breath.“How about we get the hell out of the Russian gang’s parking lot while we’re both still living, huh?”
Great plan.
But first…
“I think I turn you on, Naomi.”Because she was still touching him.She’d just been the one to kiss him.
“That’s the thing.”She let him go.Put both hands back on the steering wheel.“You do.Now, watch the foot.”
She drove away.Barely, in fact, missing his foot.
You do.
That woman was trying to work a serious mind-fuck on him.
Too bad for her, when it came to mind-fuckery, he excelled.