The Dangerous Thief (Stolen Hearts #3)(53)

“I’m happy you have faith in my mental capacity for craziness.”

“You survived getting stabbed,” he pointed out.

“Barely.”

“Barely stabbed still counts.”

It was hard to argue with that considering her side was still sore where the knife had gone in, even though it had been healing great.

She twisted in his arms until she faced him. “So what now?”

He narrowed his eyes, as though thinking it over. “Well, it’s late but I have a good two rounds left—”

“Not tonight. I mean what now? They’ll find my father’s body sooner rather than later and Toni is sending off the evidence to the Department of Defense right now.” Toni had asked Willa what they should do and Willa agreed that it should be done. Even though Jadon couldn’t be specifically punished for killing Jules, the information contained on his servers could help break up a lot of the criminal enterprises he was involved in. Just because he was dead didn’t mean the crimes he was participating in would stop.

“You can stay here with me.”

“Think I could be a desert dweller? It is pretty with the mountains and everything.”

“I have a place on the beach in Florida too.”

She stiffened in his arms. “You what?”

“The Florida house. For when I want an ocean breeze.”

“How many houses do you have?”

“Three,” he said. And then he added, “In the States. I have some stuff overseas.”

“Wait a minute. You’re rich?”

“I have a healthy savings account,” he said nonchalantly.

“And you never thought about mentioning this earlier?”

“Well, I would hate for you to fall in love with me for my money.”

She snorted as she pressed a hand to his chest and pushed him over so she could straddle him. “Silly. You know it was your body that made me fall in love with you.”

His hands skimmed up her thighs and came to rest at her waist. “I guess I still have to work on winning you over with my warm personality.”

She bit her lip and looked down at him. It was still so surreal to be here with him. She kept on waiting for the other shoe to drop or for James to get sick of her, but so far he had been nothing but a perfect gentleman. A perfect gentleman with a few caveman-like tendencies, but she’d grown quite fond of his caveman side....

“I wouldn’t get too comfortable,” he said, as though reading her mind. She tensed and started to crawl off him, but he stopped her with his firm grip on her waist.

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because as long as Hart is locked up, Toni is going to be on the warpath. I don’t care what she said about keeping you out of the way. We could be called back any minute. She’ll burn the entire city down if that’s what it takes to get Hart out. And if Hart and Sterling are in the same city together?” He tsked his tongue. “I think hell is about to come to Chicago.”

Oh. He was worried about Chicago falling apart, not their strangely intense relationship. She relaxed and fell forward, pressing her palm into the mattress next to his head. “Then we’ll face hell together.”

He reached up, cupping the side of her face with his big palm, and looked into her eyes. “You’re a terrifying woman, Willa.”

She couldn’t tell whether he was joking or not, but she played along with it. She leaned into his hand and smiled at him. “You better watch yourself, James Weston. I’m a dangerous woman.”

She expected him to laugh or make some other sarcastic comment, but he didn’t do either of those things. Instead, he leaned up and brushed his lips against hers before he whispered against her, “That’s why I love you.”

~~~THE END~~~