Page 29 of The Viper
For the first time, a real smile ghosted across his face—quick, dangerous, and gone before I could decide if I imagined it.
Maybe this assignment was supposed to make me safer.
But I didn’t want safe.
I wanted him.
And something told me, sooner or later, I’d get exactly what I wanted.
10
LUCAS
Noah handed me the keys to the armored SUV, clapped my shoulder, and left me standing on the dock with Lexi Montgomery. When we got to the lot, the vehicle loomed like a tank in the fading Charleston light, its black exterior absorbing the last rays of the sun.
Lexi tilted her head, eyeing it with a smirk. “Subtle,” she said, her voice laced with that teasing edge I was already starting to recognize.
I couldn’t disagree. The thing screamed warlord or crooked politician, all reinforced steel and tinted windows, built for battle zones, not Lowcountry film sets. I was an under-the-radar guy—blend in, disappear, strike when needed. First chance I got, I’d swap this beast for something plain, a beat-up sedan or a pickup that wouldn’t draw a second glance.
“Not my style,” I muttered, opening the passenger door for her.
She slid in, her sundress catching the light, and I felt the air shift, like static before a storm.
I climbed into the driver’s seat, the leather creaking under me, and started the engine. The hum was low, powerful, but it did nothing to drown out the electricity crackling between us. My skin prickled, the hair on my arms damn near standing on end. She was right there, close enough to touch, and it was messing with my head in ways I didn’t have time for.
We drove in silence for the first few minutes, the waterway sliding past, its surface glinting like molten glass in the dusk. The tension was thick, heavy, like the humid air pressing against the windows.
Lexi reached over and flicked on the radio, her arm brushing close enough that I caught her scent—clean, fresh, like the beach at sunset, with a faint undertone of sweat from a hard day’s work. It hit me like a shot of bourbon, warm and dizzying, and my mind went places it had no business going.
Her skin, flushed from the set’s heat, the way her body might feel after a day like that—worked up, alive. I gripped the wheel tighter.Snap out of it, Dane.I was here to do a job, not act like some horny teenager who couldn’t keep his eyes off the pretty girl.
“What’re you thinking about?” she asked, her voice cutting through the southern rock twang spilling from the radio.
I lied, keeping my eyes on the road. “Trying to figure out what car to get instead of this warlord-mobile.”
She laughed, a low, throaty sound that sent a jolt straight to my gut. “Something flashy. A convertible, maybe. Red. Draw all the eyes.”
I glanced at her, ready to call it the dumbest idea I’d ever heard, but her smirk stopped me cold. She was fucking with me, those eyes dancing with mischief.
Damn it.
Was it going to bethiseasy for her to get under my skin?
“Funny,” I said, my voice drier than I meant.
Her phone dinged, breaking the moment. She glanced at the screen, her lips twitching. “My sister,” she said, typing a quick reply.
“Hannah?” I asked, remembering the name from Noah’s brief rundown of her team.
She nodded, sliding the phone back into her bag. “Yeah. Pain in the ass sometimes, but she’s blood.”
“You two close?”
“Close as you can be when one of you’s a control freak and the other’s a …” She trailed off, smirking. “Well, me.”
I snorted. “Sounds like family.”
“You got siblings?” she asked, her tone light but curious, like she was testing the waters.
