Page 13 of Greed
Somehow, Griffin’s confidence rubbed off. If he could stand up to Donnie with no problems, then she could too. Stuff Donnie.
“You don’t though, do you Donnie?” Lilo asked, but shrunk a little when the full menace of Donnie’s gaze turned her way. “I mean, you were just here asking for a lead, so I assume you have nothing else.”
Her ex-lover glared at her for a moment before turning his rage toward Griffin.
The two men faced off for what seemed an age, and then strangely, out of nowhere, a stapler flew through the air and hit Donnie on the back of the head. He jerked forward from the impact. Both men gaped and looked around for the source of the throw. Obviously that was what it was—someone threw it. Must have been.
Maybe it had been Bev. She hated theshmendrik.
“What the hell?” Donnie rubbed his head, cheeks staining pink. “Where did that come from?”
“Maybe the wind.” Griffin shrugged.
Donnie rolled the assignment sheet into a tube and pointed it at Griffin. “This isn’t over.”
“I know,” Griffin said. “I’ll be seeing you later for your assessment.”
After Donnie stormed off, Lilo breathed a sigh of relief and said to Griffin, “You know you’ve made an enemy for life, right?”
“I’m not afraid of him. You shouldn’t be either.”
Those few confident words made Lilo sit up straighter. He was right. She shouldn’t be. Donnie was the only person in the world who made her feel small, but he couldn’t harm her now. Somehow, sitting next to the powerhouse man, Lilo felt strong—especially because none of that Lazarus fire was directed at her. If anything, Griffin seemed to be going out of his way to stand up for her. It was time to start putting Donnie in the same basket as every other dickhead in the world. Not hers.
“I’ve called my contact at the precinct,” Griffin said. “She’s ready for us.”
“Thank you for that. It seems I owe you another one.”
Griffin adjusted his glasses awkwardly and a pink tinge flushed his handsome cheeks. “No. I told you, I don’t want you to owe me anything.”
Was he blushing?
Lilo cocked her head and studied. His cheeks held a definite flush. He suddenly became occupied with looking anywhere but at her. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought he was nervous to be around her. Only one reason a man became nervous around a woman. Sex.
The idea that Griffin actually desired her gave her the courage to say in a sultry tone, “That’s a shame. You might have liked what I had to offer.”
Chapter Six
Griffin drove Lilo to the precinct in his black Escalade, still flustered over her last words to him.
You might have liked what I had to offer.
In the small cabin of the car, he couldn’t ignore the woman. This close to her, the sense of greed took a back seat to everything else.
It was fifteen minutes of heated agony.
Bubblegum and feminine musk surrounded him, as though it pumped through the car’s internal filtration system. Her presence licked at his skin, tempting him to reach out and touch, to see what she felt like.
Would he be irritated by the contact, like he was most other times he was touched? Or would it be as she said, and he liked what she offered?
No. That wasn’t what she meant. It was his own irrational biological response picking up sexual tension where there was none. It took every ounce of control to keep his hands on the steering wheel.
Eventually, he dared a glance her way, and then found he had difficulty pulling back. The morning sun on her shoulder-length brown hair cast an orange halo. Every so often, she would fiddle with her gold hoop earrings, sigh and then rest her head on her palm as she gazed wistfully out the window, watching the city whiz by.
In her profile, her lashes were long and her cheekbones were high. Definitely attractive. Beautiful, even. Griffin checked the road, then went back to her. Her worn denim jacket was open enough to see olive skin from her delicate collar bone, dipping to a precious swell of breast before hiding beneath a white collared shirt. His gaze continued to where her hand tucked between the long flowing folds of her floral patterned skirt, knees squeezed together, as though she too felt the same charged energy bouncing between them.
Did that mean she was as taken as he?
The thought tripped a switch in his body. His mouth went dry, his cock stirred, and heat prickled his skin in waves. The metal in the car rattled, and he felt an intrinsic connection between his skin and the car. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to calm. The last time his ability showed its face was with the stapler on Donnie's head. Before that, it was in his office. Each time he managed to manipulate metal, he’d been thinking about Lilo. It seemed his new ability surged when he was around her. Maybe in a protective instinct. He had to keep it together.
