Page 58 of Cold as Stone
The promise in his voice sends heat pooling low in my belly, but I force myself to maintain eye contact. “Promises, promises.”
“Don’t believe me?” he murmurs, leaning down until his lips brush my ear. “I have two weeks to change your mind. And I intend to use every minute of it.”
The shiver that runs through me is impossible to hide. When he pulls back, his smile is triumphant.
“Two weeks,” he says one more time, then steps away, leaving me breathless and shaky against the bar.
“We’ll see,” I manage, but my voice comes out rougher than intended.
He grabs his cut from where he’d draped it over a chair, shrugging into it with fluid movements. “See you tomorrow, sweetheart.”
After he leaves, I slump against the bar, my heart still racing. Mercy emerges from the back room, shaking her head.
“Girl, you are playing with fire.”
“I know,” I admit.
“You really think you can hold out for two weeks?”
I think about the way Lee looked at me, the promise in his voice, the heat in his eyes.
“Not at all.”
14
LEE
The next morning, I’m up before dawn with a plan.
Kya needs 24-hour protection, and I happen to be between jobs while still flush after the last one, which happened to be for a high-profile, wealthy client. I can afford to take some time off.
I stop at the coffee cart on Main Street first, ordering her usual—medium dark roast, two sugars, splash of cream. The barista, a college kid named Tyler, knows the order by heart.
“The usual for Kya?” he asks, already reaching for a cup.
“That’s the one.”
He grins as he works. “You two are cute together. About time she had someone looking out for her.”
I hand over a twenty for a four-dollar coffee. “Keep the change.”
Devil’s doesn’t open until 11, but I know Kya’s there early doing paperwork. Her car sits alone in the lot, and I can see lights on in the back office. Perfect.
I use the spare key she gave me yesterday and let myself in through the back door.
She’s hunched over her laptop, blonde hair falling in waves around her face, wearing an oversized flannel. She looks up when she hears my footsteps, and the smile that spreads across her face hits me like a physical blow.
“Lee? What are you doing here so early?”
“Brought you coffee,” I say, setting the cup on her desk. “Figured you could use the caffeine.”
She reaches for it eagerly, wrapping both hands around the warm cup. “Thank you. I’ve been up since five trying to make sense of these supplier invoices.”
“You’re pushing yourself too hard.”
She makes a noncommittal sound.
I run my fingers through her hair, working out the tangles. “You’re going to burn yourself out at this rate.”
