“It wasn’t a hit-and-run!” I fold away from his broad form,bending backwards and shrinking to make myself as small as possible. And still, my throat burns dry when his chest touches mine. “It wasn’t a hit-and-run,” I repeat on a whisper. “I stopped immediately and rendered aid.”
“You brought me home and locked me in your basement.” His teeth gleam and sparkle, perfectly straight andprettybehind a light stubble. “It’s Christmas week, Anna. The least you could do is offer me a stack of pancakes and a place to stay until I’ve recovered from our ordeal.”
I slip out from between his body and my counter and stalk to my fridge. “I don’t have a basement. And this is a crime, just so you know.”
“What? Running people down with your cool-as-shit car?”
“Intimidation,” I bite out. “Blackmail. Coercion.”
“Beautiful women become evenmorebeautiful when they use sexy smart-girl words.” He takes my place against the counter, stealing my coffee and bringing it to his smiling lips. “I’ve spent more than two decades inside a fight gym, which is nice and all. Brawn isn’t necessarily exclusive of brains. But I always had a thing for beauty, Ms. Maxwell, and I just so happened to run into a woman with both last night. Or, well…” He chuckles. “She ran into me.”
“You’re shaking me down?” I snatch a carton of creamer from the fridge and slam the door shut. Stomping back to the coffee machine, I grabanothermug, already my third attempt for the morning, and place it under the coffee spout. “Is this some kind of scam? Like those people who intentionally walk on the interstate and hope for an insurance payout?”
“Not a scam.” And yet, he enjoys my coffee with a little too much eagerness. “But I’m hurt, and that hurt is a consequence of your poor driving.”
“My poor?—”
“I was on my way to a tournament when you struck me down. Even if I got in my truck and continued my trek, I couldn’t compete.” He glances left, his long dark lashes coming down to almost kiss his cheeks. “I’m out for half a year at least. I’ll need to rehab my shoulder, regain my fitness, learn new fighting techniques that won’t cause further damage.” He flashes a wide, taunting smile. “The tournament came with a million-dollar purse this year, Ms. Maxwell.”
“So that’s your game?” I broaden my shoulders and harden my face. Flatten my lips.Could I pick him up and toss him out the door? “A million dollars would make this all better?”
“I’d rather a stack of pancakes.” He sets his coffee down and steals my creamer, working one-handed to twist the lid open and drop a little into his mug. “I have nowhere else to be, and you have approximately two tons of guilt to work through, since you did, in fact, run me down with your car.”
“You—”
“I think I’ll stay a few days. Hang around. Maybe attend a wedding. Nick seems nice.” He sets the carton aside and grins. “He said you failed to invite a plus one, and Detective Dinkenschnoot was so surehiswould be the ass sitting in the chair beside yours. Seems we could help each other out.”
“Remind me again what, exactly, I gain by harboring a—”Oh God. Please don’t let him be a multi-million-dollar jewelry thief.“A-a fighter inside my home? I could call my detective friend and tell him the truth.” I snatch my freshly poured coffee, only to spill a little more over the lip of the mug. More burns on my fingers. More liquid soaked into my sleeve. “Detective James would believe whatever I told him.”
“Yuh, cos he wants to bang you,” he snickers. Pushing awayfrom the counter, he wanders past my island and around to peek out my sliding back door. “You don’t appear to have any other plans, Anna. I have nowhere else to be, and no way to do the thing I originally intended.”
“Fight?”
He peeks over his shoulder and looks me up and down. “Exactly. I stayed last night, and you’re still alive today. That provides me a measure of credibility, no?”
I choke out a dismissive, bordering on hysterical laugh. “The bar islow. So, because you didn’t kill me last night, I’m to believe you pose no risk to my life moving forward?”
“Precisely.”
“Dean—”
“I didn’t come looking for you, Anna. You ran into me.”
“And insisting on staying here, on hiding here, hasnothingto do with the jewelry heists on the news, right?”
His eyes flash with guilt. With mild panic. And then with arrogance. “Absolutely nothing at all.”
“Oh, my God.” I clap my hands to my face, covering my eyes, and walk a lap of my kitchen. “Oh, God. I’m harboring a criminal.” I split my fingers and glare at him for a beat. But it’s too much. It’s toobeyond reasonable doubt, so I close them again. “Hit-and-run, my ass! My prison sentence won’t be a consequence for vehicular manslaughter. It’ll be because I’m harboring a wanted felon.”
“I literally just told you I had nothing to do with that.” He surprises me, grabbing my wrists in one hand, and pulling them down so we’re almost nose to nose. “Let me stay for a few days. It’s nearly Christmas, and you don’t have a tree up yet. I could chop one down for you. And Nick said you plan to move abunch of stuff over to the wedding venue this week. I could help with that, too.”
I lower my gaze to his wrapped shoulder.So muscular.Sopurple! “You can’t help with either of those things. You’re injured.”
He winks, yanks open a cupboard door, and snatches out a cast-iron frying pan. “SoI’lldo the pancakes, andyoudo the heavy lifting. It all works out in the end.”
FIVE
DEAN
