"Nope."
She trembled against me. "Liar."
"No lie here." I held her tight and whispered in her ear. "Here a beautiful girl falls from the sky right into my lap, and you think I'm gonna let something as stupid as the temperature bother me?"
She gave another little shiver. "Beautiful?"
Bishop's voice cut through the darkness. "Don't forget half-naked."
With a gasp, Chloe pulled away.
That's it. I was going to have to kill him.
Later.
With a muttered curse, I glared in the direction of his voice. "Don't you have a bunch of people to get rid of?"
He strode out of the shadows. "Already done."
Chloe looked up. "That quick?"
"Yup." He turned his gaze on me. "But I wouldn’t be expecting any thank you cards, if you know what I mean."
Like I cared. "I can live with that," I said.
"I'm heading out," Bishop said. "See ya in an hour." With that, he turned away and disappeared into the darkness.
Chloe stared after him. "Well, he's interesting."
"You don't know the half of it," I said.
"Where's he going, anyway?"
I shrugged. "Who knows."
"Is he like a security guy or something?"
Bishop was a lot of things. He was my brother. He was my partner in a certain side-venture. He was a pain in my ass and a thorn in my side. And yeah, he was also someone I'd kill for, because fair was fair.
But I didn't want to talk about him. I wanted to talk about Chloe. "It's the 'or something'," I said.
"You're not gonna tell me?" she said.
I studied her face. "You not gonna tell me what happened tonight?"
She glanced down. "Honestly? It's pretty boring."
"Uh-huh. Boring. Got it." Giving her no time to argue, I cradled her in my arms and stood. "Now, c'mon, let's get you inside."
With Chloe nestled against me, I strode toward the house, trying to ignore how good it felt to hold her like this. I reminded myself that her hair was wet and her skin was cold. She was banged up, maybe bruised, and potentially hurt in ways that I didn't yet know.
Still, when she pressed tighter against me, I felt a surge of warmth that defied the weather. As I walked, I looked down to study her face. Her eyes were closed, and her lips were parted.
I wanted to kiss her.
God, I was such a bastard.
With her eyes still shut, she spoke in a voice that was almost playful. "You know, Icanwalk."
