Page 13 of King of Temptation

Before he could argue further, one of the lobby elevators slid open, revealing her neighbor, Dom. He grinned, quick and easy as he always did when he spotted her.

“Hey, Marigold.” But then Dom’s gaze slid to Brody, and his expression changed. Hardened, in a way she’d never seen from him, as if he recognized the dangerous predator she was currently snuggled up against.

“Who’s your… friend?”

“Oh, this is Brody,” she said, hoping her tone came off as breezy rather than breathlessly terrified. “Brody, this is my neighbor, Dom. We’ve known each other for years, his dad used to work with my dad.”

There. Now if anything happened to her, Dom would be able to tell everyone who she was last seen with.

Assuming Lochlan didn’t get to him first.

Oh, god. Had she just signed Dom’s death warrant? What about pretty little Noelle? How fucking selfish could she be?

Panic beat at her chest, knocking the air from her lungs as she stood there, doing her damnedest to pretend everything was just fucking peachy and she hadn’t put two people she genuinely cared about directly in harm’s way.

“Nice to meet you… Brody, was it?” Though he was holding his hand out and smiling, nothing about Dom screamed ‘welcoming’. If anything, it seemed like he was trying to intimidate Brody, which might have been amusing under literally any other circumstances other than him going toe to toe with a man capable of making him disappear without a trace.

“Yes.” Reaching for Dom’s hand, Brody squeezed, and she was hit with the impression of two jungle cats squaring off against each other.

Desperate to break the tension and hopefully distract Brody from what he clearly perceived as a threat, she giggled and snuggled up closer to him. “Are you headed out again, Dom?”

“Yeah.” Even though he was answering her, Dom didn’t take his eyes off Brody. “Ice-cream run.”

“Oooh, ice cream sounds yummy. We should go get ice cream, Brody.”

Of all things, that managed to tear his attention away from Dom, and Brody looked down at her, one brow raising in a look that made her stomach feel all wriggly. “I think you’ve had more than enough junk for one night, babygirl.”

Jesus. She was going to leave a puddle on the floor if he kept that up.

But her ploy worked, at least a little. Some of the hardness left Dom’s expression, though he still looked like he didn’t trust Brody as far as he could throw him. Which, she had to admit, was entirely fair. “All right, well… enjoy your night, Marigold. I’ll be back in about ten minutes and I’m right upstairs if you need me.”

“Thanks, Dom!”

They swapped places with her neighbor, who turned to look over his shoulder as the doors closed, the corners of his mouth dipped down into a frown.

“Who was that?” Brody’s voice was rough and growly again as the elevator doors closed, and once more curiosity managed to drown out some of her fear. Was he growly because they’d run into a witness?

Or was it something more… personal?

She really wanted it to be more personal.

“I already told you. My neighbor, Dom.”

“Dom who?”

Pulling away, she did her best to imitate his one-eyebrow look. “Do you really think I’m going to sell out my friend to the mob?”

“You already did, menace.”

“What do you mean?”

“You already told me his name. I know where he lives, and I know he’s a cop’s kid. Won’t take me long to dig up everything there is to know about him, down to how he likes his fucking steaks cooked. Asking you is just me being nice.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. She really had given him everything he needed to track Dom down if he decided he was a threat. “You’re kinda scary sometimes, you know that?”

“Only sometimes? I must be losing my edge.”

That made her laugh as the elevator doors opened again and they stepped into the hallway on her floor, loosening some of the sharp talons terror had dug into her stomach. “Dom is, as stated, a friend and neighbor. Who lives a couple floors up with his wife, Noelle.”