Prince cursed under his breath when he saw Vlad flash out of sight. “Yes?”
“Normally I wouldn’t complain about a hot guy with a ponytail lying on top of me while I’m half-naked, but I’m suffocating.”
He forced himself up, rolling off Kat as every muscle in his body screamed back to life. Her plaid shirt was long enough to cover her womanhood, but as Prince looked down at Kat lying at his feet, wearing only her sneakers and another man’s shirt, all he could think about was kissing her.
CHAPTER5
“Don’t ever do that again.” Kat stewed in the driver’s seat of her car, irritated that Prince had made her shift in front of everyone. “My wolf had everything under control. She knows better than to kill the man I’m after. Well, except for that one time in Memphis. But he had it coming.”
“Have you forgotten it’s against the rules to shift in a bar?” he asked, rolling his window halfway down. The air blew in, but his hair was so tightly bound that it didn’t move.
Unlike hers, which swirled around the car like silken whips.
“What are they going to do, blacklist me? It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been kicked out of a bar, and it sure won’t be the last. If you had spent less time worrying about rules, we’d have Vlad in the trunk of my car where he belongs.”
“He won’t get far,” Prince said matter-of-factly, wiping at something on his trousers.
Kat didn’t like opportunities to slide by, and she glowered. “What makes you so sure he won’t skip town?”
“If he made a sudden trip to Austin, then it’s for a reason. Men like him don’t hide; they conspire. He’s less concerned about getting caught than you think.”
Kat hit the steering wheel with her fist. “Dammit! Ihadhim. It’s taken me twenty years to catch up with this guy, and I let him slip through my fingers. This isn’t just a job, Charming.”
“We’ll find him.”
“Not if he goes into hiding.”
When Prince rolled up his window, the quiet hum of the road beneath the tires became soothing.
Prince gently touched her arm. “I meant your father.”
Her lip trembled, and she briefly looked out her window so he wouldn’t notice. That’s when she spotted Nadia’s car pulling into the parking garage of her complex.
Swell.
When he let go of her arm, she immediately felt his absence. Maybe it was because he was the only person who’d ever shown compassion for the pain of losing her father. Even Nadia had never offered a hug—she’d simply shut down, deciding they’d been abandoned bybothparents. Kat had no one else to turn to, no one to offer her a consoling touch or a kind word. Worst of all, she was too embarrassed—too proud—to ask Prince to continue touching her a little longer.
She parked the car near a large pear tree, the dull glow of a streetlamp illuminating the hood. Her Mustang was bright yellow with a black racing stripe down the center. People made jokes about it, but when Kat was on the run in a crowded parking lot, she didn’t have any problem distinguishing her vehicle from the rest.
“I can’t believe I left my pants at the bar.”
They had been in such a rush to leave that she’d not only left her clothes behind, but Prince had left his suit jacket draped over the back of his chair, which was probably toppled over.
“I’m sure your sister will offer something that will fit,” he suggested, a smile ghosting his lips.
Kat all but snarled at him. “I’m sure you find that really amusing since we’re identical, but there’s no way in Hades I’m putting on one of her white pantsuits to chase outlaws. Aside from that, I can bet you she’s not about to lend me anything. I guess I’ll have to continue this investigation pantless.”
When his eyes dragged down to her bare legs, it sent an unexpected lick of heat through her body.
His tongue swiped his bottom lip, and he dodged her gaze. “Would nothing of hers meet your approval?”
She pulled the keys out of the ignition and played with the silver ring. “I’m a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl. I like cozy, and nothing that woman owns is cozy. All she has in her den of iniquity are outfits that are tight, white, and full of buttons, straps, or laces. I don’t expect you to understand this because first off, you’re a man. Secondly, you dress like a billionaire on his way to a yacht to get laid by the peanut butter heiress.”
Prince burst out laughing and shielded his eyes. His unfettered emotions were an attractive quality, but he rarely let out a spontaneous laugh, and she was curious why he seemed embarrassed by it.
“You have a unique way of speaking, Kat. I don’t think I could tire of listening to you.”
“I can’t tell whether you’re joking or serious, but let’s just say that most men can only handle me in small doses.”
