"Believe me, I know." He stares at me. "I know I shouldn't kiss you again, but…"
"Fuck it," I finish for him.
I lift up on my toes and kiss the shit out of him, surprising us both.
A beam of light sweeps across the lobby, and Jakob crushes me against the wall. "Go, go, go," he whispers, pushing me into a walk, shoulder to the wall, leading toward the elevator banks and the stairwell.
"Hey!" a male voice shouts. “You can't be in here! How'd you—fucking Greg, never locks the damn door."
Jakob shoves me into the stairwell and I trot up the stairs on aching, hurting bare feet, Jakob right behind me.
We reach the first floor landing and I yank the door open, stumble through it, and then Jakob is yanking me around a corner, into a dark conference room. His hand presses my head down, and I drop to my ass on the floor…
And then he's on top of me, rolling us under a desk as the security guard sweeps his light this way and that.
When we rolled, I ended up on top of Jakob, and his hands grip my hips, his eyes searching my face.
"I am sorry to have involved you in this," he whispers.
I'm not sure I am. He's kissed me twice already, and both kisses have been…
Well…
Pretty damn epic.
"You promised me a warehouse full of shoes," I answer. "I expect you to deliver. And not cheap shit, either."
He doesn’t exactly smile, but his eyes communicate amusement, somehow. "If we live, I will. You have my word."
"If we live?" I echo. "Would those men really kill me just for being seen with you?"
"Let's just say you probably don't want to find out."
A few moments pass, and then he rolls us out from under the desk and helps me to my feet—lifts me like a child and sets me on my feet, I mean. "Come,” he whispers. "Let's sneak out while the guard looks for us."
"And go where?" I ask.
He scans me, his gaze lingering on my chest before flicking to my eyes. “Your place. If you're going to run for your life, you can't do it in that dress, as sexy as you look in it."
Well, I can honestly say that of all the things I expected to happen when I woke up at five this morning, the events of the last twenty or so minutes were definitely not on the list.
Yet here I am, running for my life with a gorgeous, mysterious stranger who kisses me with absolute mastery, and sets my pulse racing.
I have no way of knowing what's going to happen next, but I find myself hoping it involves more kisses.
And maybe a little bit more than a few kisses.
Or a whole lot more.
As long as I don't get killed in the process.
I'm not sure why, but I'm not afraid. This man, Jakob, exudes competence. Courage.
Somehow, I just know that as long as I'm with him, he'll take care of me.
"You got me into this," I tell him, when we reach the street outside the building he claims to have once owned. "I'm trusting you to get me out of it intact."
"I promise," he answers, gaze locked on mine. "I'll see you through it."
