She grinned. “I know exactly what I want.”
“You sure about that?”
She took a step toward me. “Do you think you can handle me?”
And instead of answering her question, I wrapped my arm around her waist.
Before pulling her in for a kiss that left me breathless.
TWELVE
ARIA
The second his lips crashed against mine, my knees gave out. I gripped his leather vest and held on for dear life as my body sank toward his. His arm held me up, flexing and digging those etched muscles of his deeper into the small of my back. His tongue teased the roof of my mouth, causing me to moan down the back of his throat. His warmth permeated through my veins. It sank its way into the marrow of my bones, marking me without ever once shedding our clothes. My heart pounded wildly in my chest while blood rushed soundly through my ears. I didn’t want the moment to end. I didn’t want our moment to end. I wanted to climb back onto his bike before we drove off into the darkness and found a hotel to coop ourselves up in for the rest of my forced vacation.
But my phone ringing out in my purse with that very specific ringtone caught my attention.
“Shit,” I murmured as I pulled my lips back softly.
He nuzzled his nose against my own. “You should get that.”
I steadied myself back onto my feet before he released me. “It’s my assignment editor at the news station.”
“Ah.”
And when I answered the phone, his voice—ripe with anger—came filtering through. “Aria! Do you want to tell me why in the fuck you lied to me this afternoon?”
I peeked up at Bender. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re going to have to be more specific.”
Bender shook his head as a smile tore across his face. It lit up his eyes and turned his face from this brooding man into a boyish kid that had just gotten a sucker from his best friend.
I found myself entranced by it while my boss chewed me out.
“I knew you were lying to me this afternoon. I knew that was you in that fucking car. Why on God’s great green creation were you at the god damn police station requesting information on those Steel Scorpion asshats? Why were you talking about posting their fucking bail, Aria!?”
Fucking hell, Jason must’ve called my place of work.
“Sir, I—”
“Aria, you get into my office right now and you pray to whatever God you believe in that I calm down enough not to fire you and blacklist your name all over the god damn state. If I don’t see you in ten minutes standing in front of me, you’ll never work another day in the state of California. Understood?”
I drew in a quick breath. “Coming now, sir.”
“Good.”
And after he hung up the phone on me, I raised my gaze to Bender’s. “Gotta go. Duty calls.”
He chuckled. “So I heard.”
I started walking backwards toward my car. “Thanks for today. It helped a lot.”
“That your way of saying you want to see me again?”
I dug my keys out of my purse. “That your way of asking me if I do so that you don’t ask and look like an idiot when I turn you down?”
“That depends, do you want to turn me down?”
I clicked the button on my keys that unlocked my car. “No.”
