Page 4 of Wicked Proposal
“Promise you’ll kiss me goodnight again later?” he mumbles. “When you get home?”
“Promise.” I press my lips to his forehead. “Even if you’re snoring like a walrus.”
“Walruses don’t snore. They…blub.” He mimics a flipper.
“Then I’ll blub you back. Now, sleep, E. Dream about happy things, okay? Rocket boots. Unicorns. Oceans filled with popcorn.”
He smiles. “Okay. I love you, Mommy.”
“I love you, too, superstar.”
When he’s asleep, I tiptoe out, grab my keys, say bye to Kallie, and steel myself for the night.
Outside, I’m relieved to see that the Maybach is gone.Thank Christ.I’m halfway to Rhonda the Honda when?—
“You.”
2
MIA
Suit Guy looms under the streetlight, all sharp angles and simmering rage. His tie is undone, jacket discarded somewhere, sleeves rolled up to reveal tattoos snaking down his forearms.
Up close, he’s younger than I thought—late twenties? early thirties at most—with the kind of face that belongs on either a billboard or a wanted poster.
And right now, he looks like he wants to putmyface on aMissingposter.
“Did you get my fucking car towed?” he snarls at me in a rasping, feral baritone.
I tilt my head. “I did try to tell you.”
“You had no right.” His jaw tics.
“Actually, if you had bothered to listen to me for even one second, I could’ve told you that wasmydriveway, and I actually have every right.” I unlock my door. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got vaginas to steam.”
He blocks my path. “Do you think this is a joke?”
“I think you’re in my way.”
“You made this much harder than it had to be.”
I laugh right in his face. Buddy here doesn’t know the first thing about how hard things can get.
“Life has a funny way of doing that, doesn’t it?” I remark.
I try to sidestep him again, but he grabs my wrist.
Big mistake.
My body moves before my brain catches up. A twist, a shift,pressure—and suddenly, he’s against the hood, my elbow jammed under his throat.
“Donottouch me,” I snarl right back in the same growl he used on me.
He goes still.
Not scared, though.
Intrigued.
