In the brightness, I catch the fine lines around his eyes, proof of laughter I've never heard, a warmth I've never seen. Then shadow devours him whole, turning him back into sharp angles and that stern, unforgiving mouth that could wreck me. Intimidating as hell. Beautiful as sin. Two versions of the sameman, and I want them both. Both dangerous. Both capable of destroying me in different ways.
"You never told us what you were doing at the club," Phe calls out from the seat behind us.
James glances at the rearview mirror. "I was supposed to meet a friend."
"A friend?" Phe frowns.
Was he meeting a date? Somehow, the thought makes my heart sink, and I’m not sure why. I don’t know this man at all. I’ve only just met him, yet I feet this attraction to him. This pull I’ve never experienced before. Enough for me to ask, "A girlfriend?"
No sooner are the words out than I wince. Why did I blurt that out? It hints at the direction my thoughts have taken. And I don’t want him to find that out. When his lips twist though, I realize, I’m not in luck.
"Afriend," he drawls.
I shoot a glance at his face, but he’s focused on the road.
"Hmph." I place my hands in my lap and turn to gaze through the windshield as well.
"You don’t have a girlfriend though, do you?" Phe’s voice is casual.Too casual.
I flush to the roots of my hair. Argh, she’s asking the questions I can’t. She’s taking this matchmaking thing too seriously.
And James has definitely noticed, for when he replies, he addresses her but turns to me. "No, I don’t."
Our gazes clash, hold, and then I forget to be embarrassed because by God, every pore in my body seems to pop. Something sizzles in the air between us and envelops us in a cocoon of bubbling intimacy. The rest of the world fades. Electricity zips down my spine and to my extremities.
Then, he turns back to the road. The bubble pops. I release the breath I wasn't aware I was holding.
Now that he’s not looking at me, some of the tension in my muscles fades. But being in this enclosed space with him means I’m still very aware of him.
"What happened to your friend?" Surely, my words must reveal that I’m interested in him. But I can’t stop myself. That secret part of me that awakened when I saw him wants to elongate this conversation, just so I can be at the receiving end of his attention.
"I told him I had something important come up,” he murmurs.
"What are you doing back in town? I thought you weren’t on leave for another week," Phe asks.
Tension snaps through him. I glance at him in time to see him set his jaw. "Our mission wrapped up early, so I came home." A muscle ticks above his cheekbone.
Something tells me, that’s not all to the story.
Phe, too, must pick up on the heaviness that seems to wrap around him, for she doesn’t push him for clarification. We fall silent for a few seconds, then she murmurs, "It’s good to have you home, big brother. Even though you can be a pain in the you-know-where, by being overprotective."
He shoots her a grin in the mirror, and my breath catches. James Hamilton smiling is a punch to the gut.
The charisma rolls off him like heat from an oven set to broil, inescapable in close quarters. His presence hums with a low magnetic pull. An allure I feel in my bones, the way you feel a timer about to go off before it rings. My heart stutters. My thighs tremble. This man is a force of nature. The kind that diverts the direction of rivers and causes volcanoes to erupt.
My mouth is suddenly dry. I wrap my arms about myself in an attempt to get control of my emotions. The sudden movement catches his attention.
He swivels his head in my direction, his gaze tangling with mine, and I feel it in every cell in my body.
A flush colors my cheeks. My pussy clenches. It’s as if he’s sucked out all the oxygen in the car, and I can’t breathe. Then he looks away, and once again, I feel like I’ve been released from the web of a spider. He turns off the road and onto a side street. A few minutes later, he’s pulling up in front of Phe’s home.
He brings the car to a stop, pulls up the handbrake, then throws his arm over the back of his seat and turns to look at her. "It’s good to see you too, squirt."
Phe wrinkles her nose. "That makes me feel ten again. And I’m not anymore. You know that, right?"
His feature soften. "You’ll always be ten to me."
Phe rolls her eyes, leans forward and drops a kiss on his cheek. "Bye, Mr. Royal Marine. Thanks for the ride. Goodnight, Harper." She winks, then pushes her door open and steps out. He waits until she’s safely inside of her apartment building. She turns and waves at us, then shuts the door.
