Standing two steps down from me, he bends before me. “No blisters.” Looking up at me, he says, “Come on. It’s only a few steps.”
“Come on, as in get on your shoul—” I’m swooped over his shoulder before I can finish the question. I laugh from the playful gesture as I dangle over this giant of a man using one hand to make sure my ass isn’t exposed to all of Manhattan. This might be the only time I’ve been grateful to be a smaller package of a person. But do I love being Warner-handled like this? Yes. Will I not give him a hard time anyway? No. I’m definitely giving him a hard time. I slap his ass with my clutch and laugh. “You’re the worst, you know that, Hotshot?”
Chuckling, he says, “I know that, Sass.”
Warner covers the remaining ten thousand steps with ease and even dashes a bit to show off at the end. Setting me down on the sidewalk beside the waiting black Town Car, he reaches to hold my face, staring into my eyes and stroking my cheek with the pad of his thumb like I’m the most precious thing he’s ever seen. He has my head swimming inthe feels, and my heart, being the traitor it is, beats just for him.
On the positive,if he has five million to donate to The Met, he has a lot more to splash around the city. So getting him to toss a few mil—five, to be precise—my way might not be such an impossibility. All I need to do is convince him of that.
The negative,I’m head over heels for this man. I’m so screwed. Who knew I’d be the type to fall for the villain of my story?Not me.I’m just as surprised as if I were the reader.
He holds the door open as I slip inside. Seems he’s already given directions to the driver, and although I love being independent, it’s nice to have little things taken care of sometimes. With him, they are. When he gets in and closes the door, he angles toward me. “Hungry?”
“Starving.”
Fifteen minutes later, we’re leaning against the car and tapping our hot dogs together. “Cheers,” I say, and then take a bite. The hot dog never stood a chance against him. He finishes half in one bite. I take another bite, enjoying the clear skies, the bustle of people around us, and the company of one formerly intolerable bachelor. Though bachelor is subjective when it comes to us. I bump up against him, grinning like a girl in love because yeah, it’s nice to feel free to be who I am around him. Finally. I ask, “How’d you know I liked hot dogs?”
“We live in the city. I took a wild guess.”
“It was a good guess.”
He finishes his food and then wraps his arm around my shoulders. “So what do you want to do next?”
“Considering I’m wearing these shoes, curling up on the couch with my big guy, gelato, and a movie sounds like a great way to spend the rest of the night.”
“Big guy.” He chuckles. “What movie did you have in mind?”
“I haven’t seenOcean’s 11in years.”
“I’m sensing a pattern.”
I take another too big of a bite to chew properly because I’m not ready to address that pattern. I don’t know what the plan is at this point, much less a pattern. I do know that when I look at Warner, he’s not as bad as I thought he was, as I wished he was when I met him. Things just got a whole lot more complicated.
CHAPTER 19
Warner
“Can I ask you something?”she asks, sliding her head up to see my eyes.
With her body nuzzled into the nook of my arm, I try my best to set the bowl that held gelato on the side table using my broken arm. The spoon clatters around the glass dish, but nothing breaks. I would sacrifice the bowl before having her move from this position on the couch. I like holding her. Even if she is about to hit me with something off the wall. I just know it. I can feel it, sense it. I’m getting the hang of how Delaney operates. After two hours of normalcy, she’s bound to crack. “Shoot.”
Angling out of my hold—so disappointing—she blinks a few times as she faces me, bringing her bended leg between us. “Can I have five million dollars?”
I burst out laughing, dropping my head back on the couch. When the echo of only my laughter fills the air, I look back up as my chuckle teeters off into silence. Still grinning like an idiot, I run my hand over my head and down tomy neck, where I scratch an itch. “I thought you were going to say something like you’re not my wife or you stole my phone. You know,” I prod, still wondering if she’s responsible for that. “Something like that.”
Her expression never changes. “Why would I say that?” Delaney remains staring at me like she was dead-ass serious.
“Ohh, I don’t know. Maybe because . . .” Narrowing my eyes at her, I dip my head. “Wait . . .” My brow shoots straight up while my jaw drops. Leaning forward, I click mute on the remote and then sit back again, still trying to figure out if she’s pulling my damn leg. “Are you serious about the money?”
“Yeah.” She tilts her head, finding humility through drooping shoulders and the corners of her mouth dragging down. The shift in her body language tells me all I need to know. She doodles on her leg with her finger, and her eyes stay focused on the invisible art she’s creating. “Iwas. I am.”
Hearing nerves I didn’t know she possessed causing her voice to shake pulls me to give her whatever she wants, to reassure her that it will all work out. But I can’t do that. I’m suddenly reminded of who we are to each other, nothing more than a con job gone wrong.
That doesn’t stop me from reaching over to rest my hand on her knee. “That’s a lot of money, Sass. Why do you need five million dollars?”Shit. I said it myself. We’re a con job gone wrong. But maybe it’s not gone wrong and has led right to this. This is what it’s been about for her? She wants a payday.
“I want to help my family.”Sure you do, sweetheart . . .
I stand and walk to the sliding glass door. I might need fresh air to help me through this conversation. “You can help more than your family with that amount of money.”When I open the door, I look back at her sitting where I left her. “Is that dollar amount set or it’s more of a pie in the sky, shoot your shot number?”
