Thick Love (Thin Love, #2)(22)
“The little monster that lives with my folks.” The voice came from behind me. It was deep, edged toward bored and the second I heard it, I swear I thought my heart had stopped beating.
When I turned toward him, hands over his head as he rested them on the door frame, I was certain my heart would never beat again. There was no mask for me to hide behind, no slow, sultry music that seeped into my skin and moved my body to act as a buffer between how Ransom’s presence unnerved me and the cool calm I’ve had to wear around him.
But Ransom didn’t recognize me as that dancer, I knew that. Instead, he smiled, a beautiful gesture that I suspected was meant to charm me. One that I’d seen up close as I danced on his lap. But this afternoon, it seemed forced, the kind of expression that was more mask than smile.
“Um…” A glance back at Leann and my boss took over, thankfully.
“Aly, you know Ransom, Keira’s son.”
“I’ve seen you around,” he said, his eyes moving down, over my body, then the corner of his mouth came up when he returned his gaze to my face. Leann hadn’t known about his run in with my father, and we had never talked about it since. But now, a slow, methodical step and Ransom stood in front of me. He took up so much space, stood so close to me that I backed up and went to Leann’s side.
You couldn’t see it because I’d worn it for so long, but right then, with Ransom staring over me, dismissing my tight bun and pathetic excuse for an outfit, I pulled on the protection of my instincts, slipping over my nervous demeanor and shaking hands, the indifference that hid me well. I deflected. I was good at it, had to be. My father had always hated skittish, weepy women. He’d have never stood for me letting on how frightened he made me. And then, of course, that stealth skill of deflection had become a finely honed craft as Ransom entered my orbit. He’d never know that I spent too much time thinking about him, recalling the one day he’d rescued me. A day he clearly didn’t even remember.
I ignored and brushed aside anything I felt for him to save face. To protect what I’d worked so hard to earn—a safety net. My home.
“Yeah. Sure.” That mask worked well, didn’t expose how stupid I felt with him staring down at me, with the warmth of his body pulsing against my chilled skin. Yeah. Sure? Sure, I know you. No big deal that we were groping and grinding on each other last night. “Um, hey,” I said, glancing at him like that beautiful smile had no effect on me.
“So. You wanna do it?” he said, walking closer. Behind me, I caught Leann’s amused giggle. For all my aloofness, I suspected that she knew what I thought of Ransom; she had caught me more than once staring after him when he’d hung around the studio with Tristian. But just then, my boss’s laugh barely registered. I couldn’t make my focus move past Ransom’s question.
“What?”
That bata grinned, moved his gaze down my body again like he knew where my thoughts had gone but wouldn’t call me on it. “Help my mom out. She can’t get around that well and my little brother is, well. He’s almost two.”
Be around that family? With the chance that Ransom, demon to every female libido, could drop by without notice at any time? Running into him at the studio was one thing. Being in his home? Me zanmi, non. “I don’t think…”
“Come on, he’s not that bad and he’s looks just like me so he’s irresistible.” I guess Ransom thought his joke was funny. He smiled, wide and flirty, likely thinking that pretty face was going to have me agreeing. But when I could only manage to blink back at him, trying not to look too long at that thick bottom lip, some of his confidence dimmed and the smile lowered.
“Um, I’ll think about it.” My single focus at that moment was on retreating. No fighting needed. I wanted away from Ransom and that tempting smile. That thing should be illegal. Leann didn’t hide her laugh when I waved the student list at her or try to stop me as I grabbed my bag off the chair. “I’ll start on this tomorrow. I’m gonna be late for work if I don’t leave now.”
Her laughter quieted to a chuckle, and she grinned, falling into her seat as if my rushing out was the funniest thing she’d seen in a long while. I didn’t bother to shut her up and barely managed to squeeze around Ransom’s ridiculous body as I left the office.
Away, away, away, drummed in my head, a small mantra that propelled me out of the hallway and into the back exit. The stairs behind the building were just to my right and I relaxed a little, thinking that those stairs meant freedom, and the safety of the small loft at the top of the building that I called home. But I should have known better than to be so sure that I’d be able to make a clean break. That’s just not how my life has ever gone. Three steps up, and my name off Ransom’s lips stopped me.
“Aly, hey, hold up a second.” He was right behind me on the steps. I could almost feel that heavy focus boring into my back. Even on the bottom step, Ransom was taller than me and I felt the comforting warmth from his massive chest on the back of my neck. Another step up and I turned, watched as he looked at me as though I was something weird and freakish, then he looked up the staircase like something about it seemed familiar. That didn’t bother me, really, but the genuine confusion and the way he tilted his head like really focusing on me would somehow give him clarity about what had me running, stopped my retreat.
I backed up another step, trying to put as much space between us as I could.