Page 35 of Tainted Love

I take Lucy home with me. Her body language — a mixture of silence and soft trembling — tells me she’s not in the right state to be in her apartment alone. I don’t want her by herself anyway based on the shitty neighborhood she lives in. She’s more than capable of handling herself, obviously, but getting shot at is hardly the norm for her.

She walks in around me and I do my usual quick scan of the block before following her inside.

Lucy pins me to the door before I even get a chance to lock it behind us. Her lips crush mine with a hard, life-affirming kiss. I hold her against me, feeling tremors shake her entire body. I realize that she hasn’t been trembling from fear since the moment we walked out of that restaurant.

She’s turned on.

I grip her face in my hands and steal a few delicious kisses for myself before I force myself to stop and breathe.

“Thank you,” she whispers to me.

“For what?”

She laughs. “You saved my life!”

I shrug. “It was nothing.”

“Throwing your body over mine in a hail of bullets doesn’t exactly count as nothing.”

“Hey, I saved Antony Zappia’s life, too. You don’t see him getting all hot and bothered.”

Lucy slaps my chest with both palms. “Dick.”

I snatch her wrists and pull her back in. “And what the fuck was with that stunt you pulled at his table? If we’re really going to keep score here, I saved your ass twice tonight.”

“Oh, please.” She jerks free. “I had that taken care of.”

“Did you?”

“The only thing an old prick like him gets off on more than money is the chance at putting a woman in her place,” she says. “I think you know better than anyone that besting me at poker isn’t going to be so easy for little Marty.”

I suck on my lip as my cock twitches in my pants. “Goddamn, Ms. Vaughn…” I push off the door, flick the lock, and step around her toward the kitchen. “Color me impressed.”

She follows me down the hall. “I don’t suppose you cook.”

“Why?”

“Well, I do feel a little cheated out of dinner.” She drops her clutch onto the counter.

“Me, too.”

I throw open the refrigerator and scan the shelves, dismissing items as they neglect to entice me enough. I quickly spot a small, transparent box of bright, red strawberries and my lips twitch.

Perfect.

I pop the box open and drop it on the counter between us. Lucy smiles as she sees them and instantly snatches the largest one off the top to sink her teeth into. I grow harder just listening to the soft suckling sound her lips make around it.

“Mmm,” she says, swallowing. “That hits the spot.”

I take a strawberry for myself to enjoy and I watch her do the same, completely at ease around her. My stomach purrs in satisfaction as the night’s adrenaline wears off and I realize how hungry I am. Her eyes shift about in silence, noticing the small details of the kitchen I honestly know very little about. She’s steady and calm, almost as if the last hour of her life never even happened.

“Lucy.”

She wipes a bit of moisture off her chin. “What?”

I swallow a delicious bite down. “You don’t seem nearly as rattled as I expected you’d be after dodging bullets.”

She licks the pink juice off her lips. “I guess you make me feel safe.”

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