A Harmless Little Ruse (Harmless #2)(26)

So does she.

Four years of wondering are about to end.

Four years of trying to atone are about to be redeemed.

She stands in front of the window, turned toward me, eyes wide and glistening. A small, dim light next to her bed is the only way I can see her, the moonlight behind her crowded out by the curtains, which slowly swish as she steps forward, abruptly cutting off the outdoor light.

Her nightgown is open at the neck, an oddly feminine article that isn’t the norm for her. Then again, what’s normal for Lindsay?

She moves like sunshine, like stardust, her feet bare and sweet, her arms at her sides.

“Drew,” she whispers.

By the time she starts to say another word, she’s in my arms and my mouth is on hers, silencing her. I’m brutal, and I don’t care. I need to take this kiss. I need to pull it out of her, gasp by gasp, moan by moan. I need to make her give it to me until she begs me to stop.

Until she’s ready for more.

Until her pain is gone.

“You taste like sweat and alcohol,” she says with a laugh.

“Guilty of both.” I roll my lips, biting them. “Alcohol’s long out of my system from the run. That okay?” I want her to know I’m clear-headed.

She shrugs and frowns. “I didn’t – God, Drew, that was close. Why did you beat him up?”

She wants to talk.

Huh.

Okay...

“How could I not?” The words are wrenched out of me, pulled like a tug-of-war, scraped across my tongue. I cool my jets. That kiss fired them up. “That bastard was right there, Lindsay. He f*cking dared to talk to you. He doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air. Not from a continent away.”

Her eyes search my face, asking for something. I don’t know what.

“Thank you.”

“For hitting him? No need to thank me. I didn’t do it for you. I did it for me.”

“You did it for both of us. When I saw him talking to you, some part of me died inside.”

“You’ve had more than enough parts beaten and broken. You don’t need more.”

“But I can’t forget.”

Her face burns with revenge.

A prickly heat starts at the base of my spine and shoots up. “Lindsay, stay out of this.”

“Stay out of what?”

“Whatever you’re planning.”

She gives me a hard look.

But doesn’t deny it.

I try a different tack.

“We can work together.”

“What?” She’s genuinely surprised.

“Together. This is bigger than both of us. Getting back at them is, too. You stole my gun, Lindsay. You’re afraid my guys and I can’t protect you. You’re trying to be a lone wolf. You don’t have to. Don’t you see? That’s why I’m here. Why my guys are here.”

“I thought you were here because my father hired you.”

“That’s the surface reason.”

She narrows her eyes, studying me, all traces of crying gone.

“I still don’t know who to trust. Mom and Daddy said I did well today. Mom was horrified by the strange ‘accident’ you and Blaine had.”

I let out a grunt.

“And they don’t want me on any more campaign stops for a while.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“Relieved.”

I would be, too. None of this is what she wants.

“But I have this big feeling of ‘now what?’ hanging over me.”

“So do I,” I tell her, voice low, body language clear.

Her face turns, looking out the window, but she steps into my body space again. I wrap my arms around her. She sinks into me. The heat of her skin makes her so soft. So yielding.

“I’ve missed you,” I say.

“I was a complete bitch to you earlier,” she says with a cold laugh. But she doesn’t move out of my arms.

“That’s fine. It turns me on.”

She smiles and shakes her head fast, like she can’t believe me. “Pervert.”

I just shrug.

We go silent. As seconds tick by, the stakes get higher. I did punch Blaine today. That was a tactical move motivated by pure revenge. I need to up my game. Planned attacks are one thing.

Impulse will get me killed.

Or worse.

Acting on impulse could get Lindsay harmed.

That is unacceptable.

I bury my nose in Lindsay’s hair and inhale.

The moonlight shimmers as she pulls the curtains closed. Without another word, she turns, reaches up, and presses the full length of her body against mine. Long and languid, like hot caramel being poured up my body, she seals the embrace with a kiss.

Not just any kiss.

Her lips open and her tongue insists on getting my full attention.

Which isn’t a problem.

At all.

We kiss, a slow, wet connection that makes my sweaty shirt soak into her. Lindsay doesn’t seem to care. Her fingers thread through the wet hair at the nape of my neck. Her little sounds of pleasure drive me further. Soon, my hands are on her breasts and she’s grabbing my shoulders, one hand riding down to my ass.

This escalated fast.

Thank God.

“What you did was so powerful,” she gasps against my mouth. Pulling back, her eyes blaze as we look at each other. “I haven’t felt that protected in -- ”