She faced him bravely. “Meaning what?”
“I thought you’d be worried about me tomorrow, so I was worried about you.” He tried to gentle his voice but didn’t have any luck. “Guess we’re just playing games here. Good to know.”
“You want to play games with me? Oh, bring it on.” Her chin lifted, and damn if there wasn’t challenge in those emerald eyes. “Give it your best shot, Tanaka.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
God save her from men and their egos. She kept her gaze on Raider but spoke to Agent Fields. “You’re up-to-date on all of the escapades, especially since you’re the ones who secured my dad from the hospital. I have nothing new to report on Angus Force’s search for Lassiter, Wolfe’s craziness, Mal’s PTSD, or Nari’s snooping. Now go away so Raider and I can fight.”
Raider’s chin lowered, giving him the look of a sleek tiger about to pounce. “The last guy I fought was knocked out. You sure you want to play?”
Heat pooled in her abdomen and her breath quickened. Yeah, his sense of control and obvious intelligence, not to mention the sexy good looks, had intrigued her from the beginning. But this sense of danger, of a rebel just beneath those nice clothes, had drawn her quicker than a calf to its first salt lick. She could sense the fiery deadliness at home in him, and deviant that she was, she wanted to feel the flame. “Oh, I want to play,” she murmured.
Fields cleared his throat and clapped his partner on the back. “I think that’s our cue to leave. Like, right now.”
Raider’s gaze met hers, those black eyes blazing. It was as if the other two men had disappeared.
Until Rutherford opened his mouth again. “Banaghan? Don’t forget I could have you back in a cell on an island in the middle of nowhere with the snap of my fingers.”
Raider pivoted in a purely graceful arc and punched the agent in the middle of his face as if aiming for the refrigerator behind him. A loud crack echoed, the man fell back, and Fields caught him before he could impact the tile again. “You ever threaten her again, and I’ll rip your throat right out,” Raider said. The threat was all the more frightening for the calm and centered way it was delivered.
Brigid took a step back, her heart pounding from slow to painfully fast.
Rutherford struggled to stand on his own, both hands covering his nose. Blood dripped down his lips and through his fingers.
“Let’s go. Now.” Fields dragged his young partner to the door, opened it, and quickly disappeared.
Brigid wanted to follow. Oh, she’d thought of challenging Raider, but right now, he wasn’t himself. At all. “You just assaulted a federal agent,” she snapped, heat sliding up her spine.
“You should leave, or I’ll assault another one,” he snapped back, his lids half-lowered.
“You’re in my apartment,” she snapped. Then she blinked. “You’d hit me?”
Slowly, so slow and sexy, he shook his head. “No. I definitely wouldn’t hit you.” Then he cocked an eyebrow. “Or maybe I would.”
Her breath caught. “What do you mean by that?”
“Girl”—his Southern drawl rolled out so fast it thickened the air in the room—“I’ve never met a woman in more need of a good spanking than you.”
Her mouth dropped open so fast her skin stretched. He didnotjust say that. There wasno wayhe’d just said that.
His smile was pure masculine sin. “So that’s how to get you to stop talking.”
Her lips snapped shut. Spirals of heat, sharp and tingling, circled down her torso to land hard in her abdomen. Her panties grew wet. This should not be turning her on, but right now, everything about him was just so wrong and sexy and somehow right.
Her body was a moron. “I signed a contract and couldn’t tell you the truth.” They had to find a common ground; surely he’d understand that she’d had to follow the rules.
“I don’t give a fuck about contracts right now,” he growled. “Some things, including friendship and becoming lovers, trump all contracts. You lied to me.”
Yeah, his rules were all his own. Not society’s. Why had it taken her so long to realize that fact? “I like you.”
Instead of softening, his expression sharpened. “I don’t like you very much right now, Brigid. Tell me to leave, and I will. Now.”
Her gaze dropped to the obvious bulge in his jeans. Her breasts tightened. “You don’t want to leave.” A slight tone of triumph entered her voice.
“Didn’t say I wanted to leave. I said a smart girl would toss me out. Right now.” He crossed his arms, pulling his T-shirt tight over those strong chest muscles. “It’s your choice, but if you let me stay, the talking will be kept to a minimum. I want you, there’s no hiding that. But I don’t trust you, and I ain’t going gentle.”
That drawl. Solid, authentic, Southern sin. A shiver took her, and she barely hid it. “I’ve never said I wanted gentle.” She was caught in the moment, in the challenge of handling his anger. Even so, in the very back of her mind, a warning hummed. This was no ordinary man, and she was out of her depth.
