Rock Chick
Page 45

Lee continued to watch me.
I went on. “The thing is, when this all started, you were in DC and Ally said you weren’t due back. Then, all of a sudden, you were back and you knew about the diamonds. You knew about everything.”
He kept watching me.
I went into accusatory mode. “You came back to look for the diamonds. You have another client. You’re working for someone else.”
Lee came up on his elbow.
“Smart girl,” he murmured then patted the bed in front of him. “Come here, let me explain.”
Ha! Not even.
“You walked into your own condo and I practically delivered the diamonds to you by bringing Rosie here. Then, you tried to extort sex from me in payment for a job you were already getting paid to do with diamond man lying on the couch for all you knew!”
“Indy –”
I cut him off.
“No explanation necessary, Lee, I’m sleeping on the couch and tomorrow I’m going home. We’re through. The end.”
On that I huffed out of the room, put on the lights in the living room and grabbed the remotes. It took me ten minutes to figure out how to use them, five more minutes to set the sleeper timer on the TV and ten minutes to find something to watch. I turned off the lights and settled in.
Throughout this time, the light came through the open bedroom door but not a sound from Lee. This ticked me off more. Five minutes into my program, the light went off in the bedroom. My anger hit uncharted levels. Five minutes after that, I realized that was it, when I’d said “the end”, Lee didn’t have a problem with it.
Okay, great, wonderful, that was fine by me.
Luckily, I’d had a pretty traumatic day, what with being kidnapped and shot at, twice.
Not to mention two emotional dramas with Lee.
Even though my mind was racing, my body was crashing from adrenalin withdrawal. Before the sleep setting turned off the TV, I was already in snooze land. When the TV switched itself off, it woke me up. This wasn’t too annoying seeing as I didn’t fully wake me up, I was three-quarters asleep and one-quarter dozing.
The next thing I knew, I was being lifted in the air.
Lee was carrying me to the bedroom.
“What are you doing?” I asked, half-sleepy, half-angry.
“Takin’ you to bed,” he answered, fully awake.
“I’m sleeping on the couch,” I told him as he dropped my legs and stood me at the side of the bed. His hands went to the belt of the robe and he didn’t respond.
“What are you doing?” I asked again.
“Gettin’ you ready for bed.”
“Stop that!” I slapped at his hands and he ignored me so I grabbed the lapels of the robe and held them shut. “I’m nearly na**d under this.”
The belt came loose and he leaned into me. I reared back, nearly toppling on the bed. He straightened and held in front of me what I had, until a few hours previously, considered my confiscated Night Stalkers tee.
Since the likelihood of me winning a physical tussle was in the negative percentile and I was tired down to the bone, I snatched the tee from him and whirled around to give him my back.
I could sleep with him, I told myself as I pushed my head through the neckline of the tee. I’d slept with him the last however-many nights and I’d survived. One more night wouldn’t kill me.
I slid the robe off my shoulders and let it drop to the ground and, as fast as I could, I pushed my arms through the holes of the tee.
I wasn’t fast enough.
Lee’s hands settled on the skin at my hips, just above my panties, as the t-shirt dropped into place, its hem came to rest on his hands.
His chin rested on my shoulder.
“How long are you gonna be mad at me?”
His voice was deep and kind of husky and I felt a quiver in my nether regions.
“Forever,” I answered.
His hands slid from h*ps to belly and he pulled me into his body.
“I can’t discuss clients with you, Indy. I offer confidentiality with my services. I won’t be able to talk about my work, it’s something you’re gonna have to get used to.”
That was hardly the point.
Okay, it was a point, just not the point.
It was my longstanding theory that men missed the point on purpose.
His chin moved to pull the hair away from my neck and his mouth went to my ear.
Then he got to the point.
“You’d been dodgin’ me for a decade and then you presented me with an opportunity to get your attention. I’m not big on missin’ an opportunity, so I took it. It worked. I got your attention. I don’t regret it and I’d do it again, even considerin’ in the process I lost ‘diamond man’.”
Hmm, it was annoying but it was honest and it was annoying because it was honest.
I pushed forward and broke free of his hands, putting a knee on the bed.
I could have pushed the sleeping-on-the-couch business but I feared a wrestling match and he’d already gotten a nether-region-quiver. I’d never survive a wrestling match.
I crawled across the bed and stationed myself at the far edge, pulling the sheet up over me.
I felt the bed move as Lee got in and the light went out.
Then I was hauled across the bed and positioned in the half spoon/half pin he was so good at carrying off.
I didn’t struggle, I was doing pretty good at the silent treatment so I just stayed tense and used my body to communicate that all was not forgiven. The Silent Treatment/Cold Shoulder was a perfectly honed weapon in my arsenal and I was not afraid to use it.
Apropos of nothing, Lee told the back of my head, “The last time I remember feelin’ fear was during survival training. I thought if the good guys could think up that shit for training, what were the bad guys gonna do?”
Um.
Yikes!
It was apparently story time for bad little girls.
“Then I realized I might not be able to control what they were doing, but I could control my reaction. Fear breaks your focus, makes you lose control, makes you weak. It gives the enemy the edge. That was the last time I felt fear and the last time I lost control.”
I was still tense but now for a different reason, waiting to hear what he was going to say next.
“Tonight Ally called and told me you’d been taken. I left you there and they came to Tom’s f**king front door and grabbed you. When I heard that, I lost control.”
Holy shit.
What did that mean?
What was he saying?
Was he scared?
About me and the idea of maybe losing me?
Oh… my… God.