Tall, Silent & Lethal (Pyte/Sentinel #4)(38)

“Let me think about it for a minute,” he said, folding his arms behind his head, not even bothering to open his eyes as he added, “No,” with a little smirk that had her eyes narrowing to slits and her hands twitching with the need to grab a pillow and smother the bastard.

“Christofer,” she said, pausing to close her eyes and take a deep breath before she continued, “I’m seconds away from killing you with my bare hands. Just give me my purse so that I can be on my way and you can continue breathing.”

“No,” he simply said, leaving her with no choice but to kill him.

Furious, she stormed over to the bed, grabbed a pillow and climbed onto the bed. She straddled his thighs just as she shoved the pillow down on his face. She held it over his face for a good thirty seconds or so before she asked, “Are you going to give me my purse?”

“No,” came the muffled reply and God help the bastard, but it sounded like he was laughing.

“Last chance,” she warned, giving the pillow a slight shake to show him that she meant business.

With a sigh, Christofer pulled his arms out from behind his head and grabbed the pillow. Before she could stop him, he flipped the pillow back and raised his head as he settled back more comfortably against it. When she went to grab the pillow away from him and finish the job, he grabbed her hands and carefully entwined their fingers.

“Let go,” she demanded as she tried to pull her hands free, admittedly not trying very hard and hating herself for it.

She liked where she was a little too much, which was just a reminder that she really needed to leave before she did something stupid like let herself fall for the jerk. As it was, she was already too close to liking him. It probably wouldn’t take much to push her over the edge and make her come up with a lame excuse to stay.

“No,” he said, gently caressing his thumb over the back of her hands.

“I need to go, Christofer,” she said, feeling herself soften as she looked down into his beautiful baby blue eyes.

“No, you really don’t,” he said with a simple shake of his head as he continued to caress his thumbs across the back of her hands.

“Yes, I really do,” she snapped in aggravation as she sat back on his thighs and glanced around the room again.

“Then leave,” he said with a careless shrug that she really didn’t care for, not one bit.

“I can’t,” she ground out even as she wondered if he’d snuck out of the house and hid the purse somewhere else.

“You could if you really wanted to,” he explained before adding, “Clearly you don’t want to leave,” just to piss her off.

“Really?” she asked, looking back down at him and cocking a brow. “Why don’t we put your little theory to the test then?”

“And how do you propose that we do that?”

“Give me back my purse,” she suggested in a challenging tone.

“And what would that prove exactly?” he asked as his gaze slowly left her face to do a slow perusal of her body and she swore that she could actually feel it moving down her body.

“Well, after I kick your ass and take off, I think it will prove that I wanted to leave,” she explained, noting the way her voice started to tremble at the end even as she prayed that he’d missed it.

Why did he have this affect on her? It wasn’t right. It sure as hell wasn’t normal. No man had ever made her feel like this, like she’d die if she had to go another minute without touching him. She liked men, loved sex, and enjoyed spending time with men and the excitement that led to jumping into bed with them, but this was different.

She loved the way Christofer looked at her, the way he touched her without any hesitation like it was the most natural thing in the world. She loved the way she felt when she was near him, like she was safe and nothing bad could touch her as long as she was with him. She even loved how he could set her body on fire with one simple look even while she hated the fact that he had that much power over her.

“It would only prove just how badly you wanted to stay,” Christofer said, voicing her fears.

“I need to go, Christofer,” she said, pointedly ignoring him as she moved to climb off him and search the room one more time before she tried to come up with a plan B.

“No, you need to stay, Cloe,” he said, giving her hands a gentle tug that had her ass landing back on his thighs.

She sighed, long and heavy, as she shot another glance around the room, hoping that her purse would suddenly appear. When her gaze landed on the small alarm clock by the bed she felt her stomach drop. It was after five o’clock, which meant that even if she managed to find her keys tonight, she’d be forced to drive well into the morning to put any real distance between herself and another bad memory.

Maybe she should-

“Shit!” Christofer snapped as her cellphone rang loud and clear right above her head.

Smiling in triumph, Cloe stood up, making sure to put one foot on his stomach and one on his thigh in the process, loving the little pained grunt he made as she put all of her weight on the leg currently getting its support from his stomach. “Looks like someone forgot to shut the ringer off,” she pointed out with a relieved sigh as she reached up and pushed the aged ceiling tile aside. She spotted her purse hanging just over the edge and grabbed it before the bastard seething beneath her could knock her on her ass and take it away from her.