“Get on with it.”
Asshole. “First, I want to thank you for helping me last night. I’d probably be dead if you hadn’t been there.”
“Not probably.”
Did he talk to everyone like this? “Well…thank you.” It shouldn’t be so hard to show gratitude to my savior, but it was like pulling my own teeth out. Shoving bamboo under my damn fingernails.
He hadn’t moved. Hadn’t blinked. Just stared with silent hostility. “Is that it?”
“I said thank you, and that’s your reaction?”
“I didn’t save you to hear your gratitude. If you want to show your appreciation, there are better ways to do it.”
“Like what?” I snapped. “Because as far as I can tell, you’re made of stone.”
He continued that intense, unblinking stare, still as the statue I accused him of being.
I waited for an answer because I couldn’t read this man if the words were written on his forehead.
“Like what?” I repeated.
He tilted his head the other way, the only movement he’d made during this interaction. “A blow job would be nice.”
My eyebrows rose at the request.
Okay…maybe he was attracted to me.
“So, that’s why you saved me? To demand sex from me?”
“I’ve demanded nothing from you,” he said calmly. “You sat me down so you could thank me, and I’m just suggesting a better way to show your appreciation than taking up my time like this.It’s not an obligation, just like a tip at a restaurant is not obligatory but very much appreciated.”
My eyes shifted away as I scoffed at his forwardness. “Wow.”
He showed no disappointment at my dismissal, like he really didn’t care whether I submitted or not. He didn’t seem to careabout anything. “If there’s nothing else, I have a long day ahead of me.”
“I want to know who you are.”
“What does it matter?”
“Because I want to know who I’m dealing with.”
“I told you I don’t hurt your kind.”
“Just ask for blow jobs.”
He didn’t grin, but I spotted a hint of it in the corners of his mouth. A shadow of a smile. “You’ve already gauged what you need to know. Whoever you’re afraid of is afraid of me. You have three days, now two, to plan your next move. Don’t waste that precious time interrogating me.”
“It wasn’t an interrogation.”
He relaxed his arms at his sides and revealed his full chest and the top of his hard abs. The sweat that had covered him minutes ago had mostly evaporated. “I can give you money if you need it. Identification, paperwork, whatever.”
“And you offer that to me freely?”
“Yes.”
He was almost unbearable to talk to, but then he did something uncharacteristically kind. “And you don’t expect a tip?”
This time, he smirked—and it made him that much more handsome. “No. But it would be appreciated.”
