Page 19 of Lawless in Leather

He looked down at her. “You’re not that big. And now you have me to help.” He added a smile, trying to look helpful.

“I have you?” Raina said. “Did I miss something here?”

“Are you going to be difficult about this?”

“Probably,” she said. “I often am. But I’m starting to freeze out here on the street. So I’ll make you a deal, Mr. Coulter?—”

“Mal,” he interjected.

“Mr. Coulter,” she repeated firmly. “I will introduce you to Luis, who looks after my security, and you’re welcome to offer some suggestions to help him. After which he and I will decide whether or not to take said advice. But first, however, I think you and I need to have a discussion about this other thing. So why don’t you come up to my office?” She stepped back from the doorway.

“What other thing?” Mal said.

“The inconvenient thing,” she said, eyes not shifting from his.

“What inconvenient thing?” he said, as his heart started to thud.

“The one that brought you charging to my rescue,” she said. “Come inside, Mal. We need to talk.”

“I told you, you’re part of the Saints.”

“And that’s very nice of you but I’m also pretty sure that you’re not personally checking out the security arrangements of any of your other contractors’ businesses. So. There’s that.” She gestured to the doorway. “Come into my parlor.”

“Said the spider to the fly?”

“I think that part is yet to be decided,” Raina said. “But either we talk about this first or you can climb back on your very nice Harley and go back to Deacon Field.”

“You like motorbikes?” he asked.

“For my sins, yes,” she said. “Now, in or out?”

“Oh hell,” he muttered, but he stepped past her and walked into the club.

Raina’s office was tiny and the lack of space was emphasized by the decor. Everything was shiny black wood or velvet in various shades of dark pink and gray. The lighting came from low lamps. The desk had curved legs and looked like it had been lifted from one of those old-fashioned movies about the French Revolution or something. The chairs on either side of it looked equally delicate. He eyed the one closest to him dubiously.

“It’s stronger than it looks,” Raina said.

Okay. Let’s not think too closely about what that might mean. He shut off the part of his brain suddenly imagining two people on the chair and took a seat.

Raina settled herself on the other side of the desk, folding her hands primly on the desk in front of her. She didn’t say anything, just watched him for a moment.

He didn’t look away. And the moment started to stretch and sway, turning from a casual glance to a locked gaze that was definitely far too long. His pulse thumped again, as he felt himself go hard under the weight of her gaze.

With an effort, he cleared his throat. “What was it you wanted to talk about?”

It seemed to take her a moment to come back to herself, too. She shook her head slightly and licked her lips.

“That,” she said.

“What?” Maybe if he pretended that he had no idea what she was talking about, the whole thing would go away. Except he didn’t want it to go away. No, he wanted to put his hands on Raina as soon as humanly possible. But he was pretty good at ignoring crazy impulses.

“The fact that we can’t even look at each other for a few seconds without both of us wanting things we shouldn’t want.”

To hell with pretending. Raina obviously was the type of woman who laid her cards on the table. “Who says we shouldn’t want them?”

“Well, we’ve already established that I’m currently working for you,” she said. “So there’s that.”

“You’re not working for me full-time,” he countered. “So what’s the problem?”

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