Page 13 of Quinlan

“Web designer.” The answer flows from me. He’s safe. He won’t use it against me. And I… I kind of want to tell him. “I have my own business, so I don’t have time for this. So…got to go. See you around.”

Something flashes across his features, wiping off the humor in his eyes. He’s changing in front of me, his expression shifting.Hard lines and sharp edges all over, as if he’d never smiled at me. Ticking jaw and serious eyes.

I’m frozen in place and he’s the only one with the power to free me. It’s pathetic to ask for his permission. I do that anyway. “You’re supposed to say something like I’ll be seeing you, stranger.”

“It’s late,” he says instead. “Let me walk you home.”

Let me walk you home.

Five words. Five seemingly harmless words.

Except they’re spoken from his mouth. His lips.

He’s asking me to walk me home. Not demanding. In a bossy sort of way, true, but still. He gives me an out.

I could let him walk me home. What’s the worst that could happen? He’ll see where I live? And do what with it? He can’t come inside the building without a code. He can’t break into my apartment without a key.

No one can. There hasn’t been a break-in for the past three years I’ve rented my apartment there. Even Rex approved of me living in The West Loop neighborhood exactly for that reason. It’s safe.

I should just say yes and start walking. Instead, I’m here, lingering. Cocking my head to the side, offering the stranger a teasing smile.

“You care about my safety?”

What the hell’s wrong with me?

The man doesn’t think there’s anything wrong. His gaze is just as curious. Just as intense. “Yes. I do.”

“You’re a terrible liar.” My nervous giggle should embarrass me. It only draws the stranger closer. “You don’t care. You just want to find out where I live, stalker.”

His face is stony. Reminds me of a sculpture.

No man should be this beautiful. No one.

“Is that a yes?”

My stomach ties up in knots. It doesn’t seem like he’d let this go. I don’t want him to let this go.

“Yes.” I swallow around the lump in my throat. Around the heavy meaning behind my answer. “It’s a yes.”

The man’s lips twitch. Then the smirk and twinkle are back. His mouth opens to say something.

If he asked me to go home with him right now, I would.

I can’t.

“This way.” I turn and start heading in the direction of my home.

The man falls into step next to me. A minute or two of easy silence stretches between us as we walk past cute storefronts, crossing over into my neighborhood.

“You always attack strangers on the street?” His light tone is full of suggestions. Sexy ones.

I twist my head up to him. Nothing scary or predatory about him now. The intensity from before could’ve been a figment of my imagination for all I know. Maybe it was.

We cross the road. “Only creeps who call me darling.”

“So, let me get this straight.” He casually rests his hand on my lower back and pulls me toward him, steering me away from a delivery guy who almost runs into me. “Youstopped in the middle of the sidewalk.Youturned my way. Scoffed at me. You had that cute hands-on-your-hips thing going on. All I did was ask you what’s wrong. How am I the creep here?”

His hand fits nicely on the curve of my back. So nicely that I don’t bother recoiling from his touch once the threat of the delivery guy has cleared.

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