Page 19 of Lady and the Hitman
I tried not to fidget.
Tried not to wonder if my neighbors were watching.
Tried not to imagine what Mina would say if she saw me now—hair still damp, thighs bare, being whisked away in a tactical SUV by a man whose name I didn’t know but whose presence had already rearranged the molecules in my body.
She’d smirk, probably. Tell me to take notes.
My editor, on the other hand? She’d scream.
So would my old roommate from undergrad. So would the woman in my neighborhood who ran the local progressive caucus and hosted potlucks about mutual aid.
They’d all think I’d lost my mind.
Maybe I had.
But if this was madness, it was the most lucid kind I’d ever tasted.
I turned my head slightly, let my gaze trace him in profile.
He was older than I’d expected. Mid to late thirties, maybe. Lines near his eyes, but not the soft kind. The kind that come from years of squinting through scopes or smoke. His jaw was sharp. His throat moved once when he swallowed. His hands were huge, tanned, scarred.
That alone made my stomach twist.
What had those hands done?
Did he break things? Did he shoot? Did he work contracts overseas, disappearing for weeks at a time to do things the government wouldn’t admit needed doing?
Did he kill men like Charles Redmond?
Would he do it again?
Would he do it for me?
Dangerous thoughts. Slippery and hot.
I shifted slightly in my seat, thighs rubbing, slickness blooming with quiet urgency.
He glanced over once—just once—but I felt it in my gut. The awareness. The knowledge.
He could smell it on me. I knew he could.
When he finally spoke, it was like the inside of the car got smaller.
“Seat warmer too high?”
I startled. “What?”
His mouth ticked up. “You’re squirming.”
Heat flooded my face. “No. I mean—I’m fine.”
He didn’t answer. Just kept driving. The silence returned, but now it was filled with something else. Something hotter. Tighter.
He liked watching me unravel.
I folded my hands in my lap and stared out the window, desperate for distraction.
But my brain was already spiraling.
