Page 119 of Off Limits
I smirk. ‘I’d settle for being your boyfriend.’
‘Shut up!’ she teases me, and within seconds she’s back in my arms, just where I want her. ‘You are my boyfriend.’
We kiss for some time. ‘I wanna take you home,’ I whisper against her mouth. ‘You can leave your car here. Spend the night with me.’
‘I want to,’ she whispers between kisses, my fingers sliding into the waistband of her jeans. ‘But I need to check on my dad and tell him the good news. But soon, I promise you.’
‘The whole night,’ I say, resting my forehead against hers. ‘So that I can wake up with you in my arms.’
‘I want that,’ she says, but then her mood shifts, and she looks down to where our fingers are entwined.
‘What is it?’ I ask.
‘One problem down,’ she says with a heavy sigh. ‘Two to go.’
‘You mean Brody Conway,’ I grit out.
She raises her eyes to me. She’s not crying anymore, but her eyes are glassy.
‘You could just tell him you don’t work for Surly’s anymore,’ I say. ‘So the deal is void. Or… you could send me to tell him. In my mind, I’ve been cooking up ways to remove his face from the planet.’
My words make her smile, and I can’t help but kiss her again.
‘I never told Kale about Brody’s ultimatum,’ she says.
‘Why not?’
She gives a shrug. ‘I think I thought I could handle it. That I could handlehim. But if I don’t show up to his apartment Friday night, he’s gonna tell people what I do… what Ididanyway.’
I search her face. It seems that unless she complies with Brody’s demand, she’s screwed no matter what she does.
‘Then we stay one step ahead,’ I say.
‘By doing what?’
I move my hands to her waist. ‘It would mean telling a few people about you and I.’
Her shoulders droop. ‘That was problem number three.’
I stroke her hair. ‘You and me. This is not a problem. It’s the terms of your contract that’s the problem.’
‘Who would we need to tell?’ she asks.
‘People that we trust,’ I emphasize. ‘Plus, I told River already. She kinda guessed something was up.’
‘What did she say?’
‘Well, she’s desperate to meet you.’
Serenity smiles. ‘Likewise.’
‘Will you let me set something up?’
She nods her head. ‘But that still doesn’t solve the Brody problem.’
‘Trust me. I have an idea how we deal with that piece of shit. Come here.’
I wrap my arms around her, and she presses her cheek into my chest. It makes my heart do crazy things. Like I wanna say those words to her again, like when I was in my truck on the phone to her, but I was too damn scared to say them out loud.
