Page 41 of The Woman with the Wallet

“I should feel guilty about that,” I said.

“And yet…” he said, shooting me a smile as we exited the elevator.

“And yet,” I agreed.

“So, I’ll drop by to scoop… no?” he asked when I shook my head.

“No. I’ll meet you here. I don’t want Megs or Nicole seeing you and starting to worry.”

“Five,” he said.

“Five,” I agreed before forcing myself to turn and walk away from him.

I spent the entire walk back to my building thinking about all the ways spending several days with Miko might be a terrible idea.

Like, you know, knowing he would be in a hotel room beside mine. Possibly naked. And willing.

“Christ,” I grumbled to myself as I took the elevator up to my apartment.

I needed to get a grip.

So what if he was attractive? And kind? And gave me that weird warm blanket feeling?

I was a grown-ass woman.

I could be with a hot guy for a few days without anything happening.

I hoped.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Miko

She was in the car for two minutes, and the whole space was already full of that brown sugar sweetness of hers. It was proving to be a fucking problem. I couldn’t think straight, thinking about how good that would smell up close, my nose teasing up her neck as my lips pressed…

No.

Nope.

Couldn’t let my mind go there.

We had a long drive to go, and I couldn’t be doing it with a raging hard-on.

“This is my favorite time of day,” Max said, pulling me out of my battle to try to stop imagining all the fun ways we could waste some time alone together while waiting for something else to happen.

“Five in the morning. Why?”

“It’s right before the city really starts to wake up. I’m usually on my way home from jobs at this time. I’ve always preferred seeing morning from the ‘wrong’ side of it.”

“Because, when you were on the streets, you didn’t sleep at night?” I asked, watching as her head whipped in my direction, her brows furrowing.

“How did you know that?”

“Doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure that a teenage girl on the street wouldn’t feel comfortable sleeping when the rest of the city is too quiet to overhear if something happens.”

“To be fair, the city doesn’t typically give a fuck if they’re awake either. But the kind of men who take advantage like the anonymity of night for the most part.”

“I’m guessing that Megs slept like a baby with you as her watchdog, though.”

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