Avoiding my gaze, she nods wordlessly.
I pop the door open and exit. “Call me when you get close and keep the phone on speaker when you deal with this prick. That way I’ll know if something goes wrong.”
As I round the front of the car, she rolls down the driver’s window. “Reed?”
I freeze about two feet from her vehicle. “Yeah?”
She casts a contemplative look at me, her eyes and lips pinched tightly. “Are you following me because you’re concerned about my safety or because you think there’s some crime to be solved?”
She cuts off my words before they even form. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter anyhow.” She points her chin at my car. “Hurry up. We’ve wasted too much time already.”
My stomach sours. I’ll answer her question later, when I have time to explain how the two things aren’t mutually exclusive. If I tried now, my words would be rushed by this Silas prick and his rigid timeline.
After four strides, the click of her car shifting into gear catches my notice. My heart speeds up, and I eat up the remaining steps to my car door.
The fucking thing doesn’t open. I try again and get the same result.
What the fuck?
I reach into my pocket, and the keys are no longer there.
That diabolical temptress.Son of a fucking bitch.
“Lila!”
“Sorry, Reed,” she hollers, already driving away.
I chase after her car on foot, knowing it’s a pointless endeavor. But maybe I’ll get lucky, and someone will pull in front of her as she tries to exit the complex.
“I’ll throw your keys in the bushes by the clubhouse.”
And then she punches the gas, leaving me in her dust.
She’d already fooled me once. And I let her do it again.
I guess I played myself. Me and my traitorous balls. Just like last time, they’ve led me astray.
I deserve to be neutered.
SEVEN
Horniness isn't one of the stages of grief
LILA
Toldyou I was good with my hands.
Before you get on my case about what I just did, you should know Irefuseto be painted as the bad guy in this situation. So what if I used my body to distract Reed, steal his keys, and leave him temporarily stranded? It was for the greater good.
Turnabout is fair play. After all, he was doing precisely the same thing to me earlier. Using his sexy voice, flashing not one buttwodimples, touching my hair with those stupidly attractive hands, and knocking the strap of my PJ top off my shoulder. All to get what he wanted out of me.
Sadly, he wasn’t trying to get my body or heart. He was after information because he’d love nothing better than to solve some crime he only suspects is happening, destroying me in the process.
Tapping his exceptionally thick and hard package might have been below the belt.
Mental snort laugh.
Okay, it definitely was below the belt—in more ways than one. Unfortunately, he wasn’t distracted enough for me to reach into his pocket unnoticed. I honestly thought he’d kiss me andthen I’d be golden. But the dumb dumb—not affiliated with the amazing lollypop with a similar-sounding name—wouldn’t do it unless I begged. And that isneverhappening again. The over-the-clothes gropey-grope gave me the much-needed extraoomph.
