Page 11 of Anger Bang
“Babe,” he said, feeling like a total fool as he put a rough growl in his tone. “I thought I was going to have to keep begging you to give me a chance. You’re all I’ve been thinking about since we met.”
She jerked her head up, something a lot like grateful hope in her eyes.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said, holding out his hand to her.
The right corner of her mouth kicked up in a half smile, and she took his hand. He lifted their enjoined hands and kissed the back of her knuckles before they walked out of the barn as the jackass of a DJ put on Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.”
The rotten-egg smell of the fumaroles that sent puffs of hot gas into the air every evening hit as soon as they walked through the side door leading out to a huge paved garden area with seating everywhere. He grabbed one of the wicker chairs on the patio and shoved it under the door handle.
“I don’t know what to say now,” she said, looking down at their hands still clasped together.
“Well, we don’t have time to think about it,” he said as he looked around, scoping the area for camera folks, “because we’ve got to move fast if we’re gonna get out of here before the camera guys figure out they can go out the barn’s front door to get to us.”
“We’re ditching them?” Her shoulders hitched up closer to her ears as her gaze darted from the door to him and back again. The woman looked guilty as hell. “The contract and release production made me sign said I’d cooperate with the camera crew.”
Yeah, so had his. Fuck them.
They’d have to prove he was ditching them, and for all they knew he was just going for a walk. With the woman who just asked him if he wanted to go fuck just to piss off the bride? No one was ever going to believe he was going for a nice, quiet walk, but that wasn’t the point.
What was the point? That no one who wasn’t after their fifteen minutes or reaching for the next rung on their acting career ladder would stick around to make sure the camera crew caught up with them.
Was that what she was doing? Had he read her wrong in there? Maybe all of her awkward shyness was put on? Was this a case of production setting up all of this for the drama so she had to find a reason to keep him here?
He couldn’t explain why, but the idea of this being fake pissed him off. Was this her audition piece to break into TV? Washejust her publicity stunt?
“Is that what you want?” Kade asked, his tone harsh. “To have them catch us? How sensational do you want it? Do you want me to pick you up, press you against the wall, wrap those long legs of yours around my hips, and grind against you so viewers can imagine exactly what you’re gonna get when I fuck you tonight?”
Her eyes went wide behind her glasses, and her perfect pink mouth formed anOof surprise. Yeah, if she was an actress she was a really good one, because she managed to get shocked, turned on, and what the fuck something else to cross her face in quick succession. Of course, all of that was followed by a bullseye-red flush of embarrassment on both cheeks so bright that no one could fake it.
“Oh God,” she said as she covered her face. “Everyone at the museum is going to have seen me. I am never getting a promotion now.”
Museum? Promotion?
“Shit.”Maybe dial back the asshole, St. James.“Okay, that just sort of came out. I’m not gonna do that.”
She dropped her hands and looked up at him. Did she look disappointed? Fuck, hisdickwas disappointed.
“You wanna get out of here?” he asked, doing his best to not sound like some kind of aggressive gym bro with three times the daily recommended dose of pre-workout in his system. “I want to get you out of here. But we gotta go now. Are you good with that?”
She bit down on her bottom lip and nodded.
“Come on.” He tightened his grip on her hand, and they took off at a quick clip, heading straight for his RV, which this resort had instead of cabins or hotel rooms for the guests.
You think that’s the right call, brainiac?
Yeah, his RV was the second place production would look once they realized they missed them at the barn. Hell, they probably already had a crew stationed behind a boulder like uninvited voyeurs.
He made a left at the narrow gravel path. It took them past the resort’s staff quarters, through a wrought-iron kissing gate, and after a silent walk over the rocky terrain out to a scenic overlook of the canyon that was upwind from the river. There were a few lounge chairs set up back from the overlook near a firepit. While he got a fire going using the nearby supplies to take the bite out of the mountain-chilly evening, even in summer, the bridesmaid sat down on one of the chaises.
She still hadn’t said anything since the barn. Instead, she just kept sneaking looks at him as he lit the kindling set between the logs.
This was where Dex would have started telling stories to put her at ease. Kade didn’t have that ability. Sure, he was a writer, but the kind of real-life crimes he wrote about wouldn’t put anyone at ease, let alone a woman he’d only met today as they sat in the middle of nowhere.
So, have you ever heard of the Hatchet Man of Harbor City?
That wasn’t creepy at all.
So instead of freaking her the fuck out, he sat down on the lounge chair facing her across the crackling fire. “I’m Kade St. James.”
