“Okay Candy. How many fingers am I holding up?” he asked, smoothing a thumb over the bruise at the corner of her lips and getting lost in the sensation of the silken skin.
When she didn’t reply, he flicked a glance up to find her looking at him with amusement in her eyes.
“Err… Rhod?”
“What?”
“You’re not holding any fingers up.”
Chapter Two
Her rescuer wasn’t just gorgeous. He was the ‘screw all morals, take him home and bang his brains out all night’ sort of gorgeous. So much so, Candy had thought at first that she’d been killed by the thugs that had jumped out on her and dragged her off down the dark, filthy alleyway, and that Rhod was an angel who’d come to take her to the afterlife. Or a sexy-ass demon come to take her to hell. Because some of the stuff she’d done in her life? Heaven was probably a stretch.
Either, or. She didn’t care. Not with Mr. Tall, Dark and Delicious looking at her with a concerned look in his green eyes and that sexy little pout on his lips. Green eyes. Why did it have to be green eyes? She sighed as he turned to say something to the other man with him, both of them motioning towards the end of the alley where a car had pulled up.
“Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get you somewhere warm. Can you stand?”
She nodded as strong hands found hers and pulled her to her feet. She’d never considered herself a timid sort of woman, or the sort to be easily scared, but her legs didn’t seem to want to co-operate, wobbling like jelly.
“Oh my, I’m really sorry about this.” She laughed self consciously as heat swept over her cheeks. How pathetic was this? She was safe now and relatively unhurt, but it seemed her body hadn’t gotten that memo.
“You’re okay. I’ve got you.”
Rhod’s voice was calming, and that sexy little smile encouraged her as she went to step forward. Her legs weren’t having any of it though. Knees roughly the consistency of jell-o refused to hold her up, and she stumbled. Her grip tightened on his hands as she tried to avoid sprawling in a little heap at his feet.
“Whoa, we’ll have none of that.”
Strong arms closed around her, lifting her clean off her feet before her legs gave out completely. A heartbeat later she was nestled against his broad chest, still bundled up in her thick winter coat.
A short gasp escaped her lips as she turned her head and found herself nose to nose with him. Rhod’s intense green eyes caught hers in a gaze she couldn’t escape, didn’t want to escape, as awareness arced between them. His lips were so close all she would have to do was lean forwards, press hers against them—
Ohmyfuckinggod.
She thrust the thought away, leaning back a little to put some distance between their faces and trying to focus clearly. He’d been kind enough to rescue her— Twice. Once from the thugs who’d attacked her and a second time from landing in the muck at their feet. The very least she could do was avoid assaulting him.
“I’m so sorry; I don’t know what’s the matter with me. You can put me down, I can walk,” she assured him, words that fell on deaf ears as he turned and headed for the car at the end of the alley.
“No can do, sweetheart.” He flashed another of those sexy little smiles as they reached the side of the vehicle, and then bent to tuck her into the passenger seat. “You’re in shock, so you’re not walking anywhere until we get you checked out properly.”
Clipping her in, he smiled at the big man in the driver’s seat. “Thanks, Cal. I’ll take it from here.”
She leaned her head back against the leather of the headrest and closed her eyes. The side of her head ached something fierce, and an oily, sickly feeling rose from the pit of her stomach. And what the fuck was with the shaking? Pulling her coat closer around her, she opened her eyes as Rhod slid into the driver’s seat and treated her to another mega-watt smile.
“Don’t worry. It won’t take me long to get us to the emergency room and we can get that little cut there all fixed up.”
She rolled her head to the side to study him, and decided he really was gorgeous. She was fairly sure she had a concussion, so she might as well use the situation to her advantage. Namely being able to stare without anyone thinking she was weird or rude.
He was tall and broad, the fine fabric of his shirt pulling across what looked to be a mouth-watering set of muscles as he twisted to put his seatbelt on. Dark hair long enough to tuck behind his ears curled up at the ends, lending him a disarming, disheveled look. His jaw was covered by a scruffy five o’clock shadow she just itched to stroke her fingers along.