Page 19 of Hunted

“I’m sorry about the cat. I tried to get him before I came down the rope ladder. Reached under the bed for him, but—” there he held up his forearm, and she saw three long scratches she hadn’t noticed before.

“Jax did that?”

He nodded. “The bedroom door was still open a crack, and he shot through it before I could grab him.” He sighed, lowered his arm again. “He’ll crawl under something and hide until it’s quiet. He’s a cat, they have a sixth sense about people.”

He was trying to comfort her, she thought. “I think they say that about dogs.”

“Back to your rant? I don’t think you were done, were you?”

“No. I’m tired. I’m hungry and thirsty and I need a shower. I know I can take one. but I don’t even have clean clothes to put on, and this all just … frankly, it sucks.”

“There. Feel better?”

She glared at him.

He got up and went back out to the car without another word, leaving the door open behind him. She watched his broad back and wished to God he’d put on a shirt at some point in the near future. He opened the trunk, and when he closed it again, he had a duffel bag over his shoulder.

Once back inside, he dropped the bag onto the bed she’d decided must be hers.

“There you go. Knock yourself out.”

“You have food in there?”

“A banquet. And help yourself to the clothes.” He was on the bed again, but he lifted his head to look her up and down. “They’ll be big, but I imagine you’d look good in a feed bag.”

Had he just complimented her? Too late to tell, he’d closed his eyes. His chest rose and fell slowly, expanding and then collapsing again in a steady rhythm. The sounds of his breaths almost hypnotized her.

What kind of an idiot was she, anyway?

She loosened the drawstring on the duffel and tried not to ignore the mesmerizing music he was making. It wasn’t easy.

The bag was crammed full of stuff. Maybe she could learn something about the mysterious man who called himself Molotov if she looked through his worldly possessions.

“Food’s in that pocket on the front. And there oughtta be a T-shirt right on top.”

She jumped a foot. He smiled without opening his eyes.

Fishing out a T-shirt, she took it with her into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. But even locked away from him in the small bathroom, she couldn’t get him out of her mind. Obviously, he didn’t want her looking through the duffel bag. Which meant he had something to hide. Not that she cared. Not that it mattered what secrets he was keeping. She had her own plan, and it might be the most important one of her life.

So she showered, taking her sweet time about it. And when she finished, she put her clothes back on, ignoring the oversized black T-shirt she’d borrowed. And then she cracked the door.

He was snoring softly and after a full minute watching him, she was sure he was asleep. All right then. This was the chance she’d been waiting for, and it might be the only one she’d get. She crossed the room in her sock feet, not making so much as a sound. Bending to grab her sneakers and purse as she passed them, utterly silent, she approached the door, but her eyes were on him.

Romano never moved, just kept snoring, sleeping. His eyelashes seemed thicker and darker now than when he was awake. Or was it just the way they contrasted against his cheeks? They gave him a little boy look that vanished as soon as he opened them to reveal the stone-cold irises they covered.

She stopped at the door, her hand on the knob.

“Taking a midnight stroll, Lexi?”

“Just … checking the lock.”

"You need your shoes and bag for that?"

She dropped the shoes to the floor, shook her head in self-disgust. “I thought I was silent as a cat.”

Romano sat up in bed, so the covers fell down to his hips, baring his chest, which was making her feel wrong in so many ways she couldn’t count them all. “You were pretty quiet. But I’m the world’s lightest sleeper.” His midnight blue eyes were amused, not angry. And they were in constant motion, those eyes. He didn’t just look at her face, but took in the whole of her, head to toe, again and again.

“Get some sleep, Lexi. You’ll need it.”

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