Page 81 of The Pucking Wrong Man

Nope, it was rising. Fuck.

Had to think of something else…Geraldine’s mouth when her teeth fell out in her water, and she hadn’t noticed and had kept drinking from the glass. With bits of spinach floating around that had been stuck in her teeth.

Oh good, that worked. I was limp.

That might have been a world record.

I breathed a sigh of relief, but then she nuzzled further against me, and I was having to reimagine the same scene over and over again.

I was thirty-one fucking years old. I had more control than this, damnit.

A dog barked in the distance, and she flinched, glancing down the alley in absolute terror.

“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” I said, beginning to lead her out to the street.

I half expected her to fight me, tell me she’d be fine on the streets or something insane like that. Which would have forced me to kidnap her for real and then it would have become a whole big thing.

The cold and the dogs must have done it though. Because she didn’t fight me at all, just cuddled closer as I led her away from the alley and to my...fuck...I couldn’t lead her to my truck. I’d told her I’d been out on a run.

“Let me get an Uber,” I murmured, keeping one arm tight around her as I pulled up the app.

Thank fuck. One was two minutes away.

“It will be here in just a minute,” I said soothingly as I glanced down at her.

It was all I could do not to kiss her.

I mean, my face literally started to go down, and I had to yank it back.

I couldn’t kiss her when I was trying to get her to move in with me. She’d go running for the hills.

“You’re coming to my place. I have a guest room that I’ve been told is very comfortable.” I was unable to keep the command out of my voice, so I tried to offset my tone with a winning smile.

I’d been practicing lots of different expressions today. Now that I’d become a psycho and forgotten how to do basic things like act human. I’d have preferred for her to sleep in my room, but as I kept telling myself...baby steps.

She bit down on her lip as she studied me, and I let her move away so that she could cross her arms around herself.

Right, it was freezing outside. I pulled off my Knights sweatshirt, and she allowed me to slide it over her arms and head.

It was huge on her, coming all the way to her knees. I pretended I didn’t see how she was breathing in my scent or that I wasn’t feral at the sight of her in my sweatshirt. I was pondering destroying all of her clothes though, so she could only wear mine.

A dog—not one of Geraldine’s because I would hope that Ari and Lincoln could manage two dogs by now—started barking frantically from around the corner, and Anastasia was once again plastered against me.

“Maybe just for tonight,” she whispered and in my mind I was doing an inner fist pump.

I kept my face completely blank though, like it didn’t matter to me either way.

“Got any stuff in there you need to grab?” I asked helpfully, nodding toward the alley. All she had in her hand was her small bag that I’d placed the tracker in earlier.

“That’s all,” she said in another soft voice.

Oh, little dancer, I’m going to make your life so good. Tonight is going to be nothing but a bad dream.

The Uber arrived, and I opened the door, nodding at the driver as I turned toward Anastasia.

“Let’s get you in the car,” I told her.

She hesitated again, but finally let me help her inside...right as something moving at the end of the street caught my eye.

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