Staking His Claim (Line of Duty #5)(6)

A beat passed. “What’s that?”

“My plans for the week. Or former plans, I should say. I doubt I can bike tandem through Central Park by myself.”

“Lucy left you in the lurch.”

“Hot guy. Lake house. Cruel Intentions on DVD.”

Matt snorted. “What else is on your list, Sasha?”

Something in her chest pinched when he used her roommate’s name, but she determinedly cast it aside. “Do you really want to know?”

He frowned at the windshield. “That bad, huh?”

She held the list, pretending to read it. “Crash a wedding at the Waldorf. Rappel down the side of a forty-story building. Break a billionaire’s heart.”

When he sent her a dark look, she merely winked at him to assure him she’d been joking.

“Very funny.”

“About time you noticed.”

“Oh, I noticed.” His gaze raked her thighs, moved up her belly and over her breasts. The air-conditioning blasting through the interior of the car became totally inadequate as Lucy’s body heated like a furnace. “Believe me, I noticed.”

Her breath escaped her in a shaky puff. “Yeah? Are you planning on doing anything about it or ignoring me until we reach New York?”

“Ignoring you isn’t exactly an option.” He sounded almost angry. “Not when you’re sitting that close, smelling that damn good, with your thighs falling open to f*ck with my head every other mile.”

Oh my God. Who the hell was this guy? In the wake of his words, her body began to hum like an electric generator. “Y-you only answered half my question.”

His jaw flexed. “I’m dropping you off in New York the same way I picked you up.”

“Bored?”

He shook his head. “Clean.”

Lucy reeled a little under the impact of his unexpected answer. That single word told her so much about him while at the same time, spawning a hundred more questions. He thought touching her would…tarnish her? It didn’t fit in with the arrogance he wore on the surface. She opened her mouth to ask him to clarify what he’d meant, then decided against it. The set of his mouth told her she’d be wasting her time. Delving any deeper would just shut him down completely.

She took a breath and glanced back down at her itinerary. “There’s only one important activity on the list. The rest is just funny business.”

“Funny business.”

Lucy nodded. “Correct. Thursday, however, is important. It’s the sixtieth anniversary of my grandfather proposing to my grandmother.”

“You’re celebrating with them?”

“Actually, Matt, they’re dead.” She shook her head. “Way to bring up a painful subject.”

He shot her a look, smirking when he saw she was kidding.

She let her head fall back on the headrest. “He popped the question on a bench in Central Park. I’m going to be there for the exact minute it happened.” She shrugged. “Kind of like a tribute.”

“You won’t be alone for that, at least. Someone will probably be asleep on it.”

She covered her eyes. “Please, stop. Your optimism is blinding me.”

Without missing a beat, he handed her his sunglasses. Lucy put them on.

Before she could ask him how he saw through such dark lenses, something under the hood of the car snapped, screeched and fell into a thumping pattern.

“Serpentine belt,” Lucy said automatically as Matt cursed, pulling the car onto the shoulder.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” If Matt had spent any amount of time with Brent, he knew about the Mason family obsession with cars. Diagnosing his engine trouble would definitely tip her hand. “I said…I don’t like how that felt.” He shot her a suspicious look, but ultimately climbed out of the car. She debated a moment, then joined him under the hood he’d propped open. Seeing the frayed belt, she let herself enjoy a little surge of pride at being correct. “Uh-oh. That looks bad.”

He was already dialing his phone and didn’t answer. When what Lucy assumed to be roadside assistance answered, he rattled off their location perfectly and described in exact detail the engine’s condition. His words were clipped and precise, telling her how close attention he paid, even when he appeared to be lost in his own world. She needed to remember that.

“How much is it going to cost to tow it back to New York?” Matt asked into the phone, before wincing at the answer. “How about the closest garage? Fine.”

He hung up.

“That sounded promising. Tow back to New York too expensive?”

Matt cast a look down the busy highway. “It literally would have been highway robbery,”

A laugh bubbled from her throat. “At least you’ve maintained your relentless sense of humor.” She stepped back as he closed the hood. “So, what now, Chuckles?”

His throat worked as he grazed her with another head-to-toe perusal. In that moment, she got the odd impression that she made him nervous, but that couldn’t be right.

“Good question,” he finally answered, with all the enthusiasm of an undertaker.





Chapter Three


He was actually checking into a roadside motel with the rosy-cheeked girl next door. If she knew, if she had even an inkling of the thoughts bombarding his mind, she would have taken her chances hitchhiking the rest of the way to New York City.