Page 88 of Lawless in Leather

“You’ve had a shock,” he said. “It’s just adrenaline.”

“I know what adrenaline feels like,” she managed. “I like adrenaline.”

“Well, this is the less exciting kind,” he said. His arms tightened around her. “I’m sorry, I never thought he’d get that far.”

“You were right,” Raina said. “There was someone after us.” Then, to her horror, she burst into tears.

Mal just held her, kissing her hair and making soothing noises until she got the sobs back under control and lifted her head. “Sorry, I never do that.”

“Adrenaline,” he repeated. “It’s weird stuff.”

“But you were right and I got so mad at you.”

“You didn’t know I was right. I didn’t know I was right. I’d rather I hadn’t been.”

“But you were right,” she repeated and dropped her head back down on his shoulder, feeling horribly guilty.

“I wasn’t right in the club,” he said. “You were. I overreacted. I’m not sorry I grabbed you. You can’t ask me not to try like hell to get to you if I think you’re in trouble, but I’m sorry I got carried away. I’m sorry I didn’t stop when you told me to. I’m sorry I scared you.”

She lifted her face. “I’m sorry I got so mad.”

“You were scared. I get mad when I’m scared, too. As I proved that night.”

“Well, we make an excellent pair of idiots,” she said. She looked up at him. “I missed you. Every minute. You didn’t call me.”

“You told me you wanted some space. After giving me quite the lecture about listening to you and stopping when you said stop. I thought that was a fairly clear message that not calling you would be the safest thing.”

“Only until I calmed down.”

“Ah. Sorry, turned my psychic powers off to save my batteries. I missed that part.”

She laughed. “Okay, I deserved that. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too,” he said. “About a lot of things. I’m sorry Marly got hurt.”

“I’m pretty sure Chen is going to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” Raina said.

“Chen?” Mal sounded puzzled.

“You didn’t see how he was looking at her? He’s got it bad. And she was flirting with him.”

“Marly and Chen?” Mal repeated.

“You really didn’t see how he was looking at her?”

“I was too busy looking at you,” he said, absolute sincerity ringing in his voice.

She felt her heart suddenly melt into a puddle of goo. “You were?”

“I’ve spent the last two weeks wanting to see you. I caught a couple of glimpses at the home games but that’s it.”

“You weren’t stalking me on the security feeds?” She’d looked up at the cameras sometimes. Just for a few seconds. Just in case he’d been watching. The thought of it made her feel like an idiot.

“I figured that would be the kind of thing you’d object to. But I wanted to. I missed you. I even missed the giant cat. My couches are way too pristine.”

“I’m pretty sure he misses his cat tower,” Raina said. “He keeps trying to climb to the top of Luis and Brady’s bookcases and knocking things down. I think Luis wants to turn him into a rug.”

“Poor Luis,” Mal said.

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