"And you?" she asked. "Besides saving women from being flattened by cars, what do you do?"
The words made him pause and stiffen. His nonanswer was answer enough.
"Ah, so you're unemployed," she concluded. Stupid damn mouth! she thought, realizing that she'd said the wrong thing. Again.
"I'm not unemployed." Sebastian looked amused instead of offended. "It's just hard to explain my job."
"What, do you do something strange?" She scrutinized him.
"It's not really strange." He paused. "I would call myself a group leader, I guess."
"Like a manager?" he said.
"Yeah."
"I could see you doing that job." She nodded. "You have a managing sort of personality."
"Is that your way of saying that I'm bossy?" He chuckled.
"I don't know you well enough to say that you're bossy, but you have been managing this situation with me pretty well, haven't you?" she asked.
"Well, saving women from being hit by BMWs is a hobby of mine." The guy gave a mock sigh as if rescuing women was the hardest job in the world. "I'm used to this."
"No wonder you're so good at it." Blood trickled down her leg as she spoke.
"It's a gift." He grinned and tugged at her arm.
"Lucky." She wrinkled her nose, then cringed as her knee throbbed. "My only gift is pushing people in front of BMWs."
To her surprise, Sebastian threw back his head and laughed. His laughter was as gorgeous as his face. The deep, throaty sound filled her soul with a strange sort of warmth that she'd never known before. She examined him, thinking it was unfair that God had made him so perfect while she could hardly get out of bed in the morning without falling on her face.
"I've never met anyone like you, you know," he said once he'd stopped laughing.
"I'm not sure the world could handle more than one of me." And she had a feeling her employees would agree.
He shook his head but tugged at her arm again.
"By the way, we're here." He pointed at the brick building beside her. "Distracting you from your pain by talking seems to have worked."
In surprise, she glanced up at the building to her right.
"That was fast," she said, trying to ignore the way her leg ached.
"Told you my place was close."
Sebastian took a step toward his apartment door, but she froze. Growing up in Seattle had taught her to never go into a man's place alone unless you were well acquainted. And even though Sebastian had rescued her from being slaughtered by a fancy car, the truth of the matter was, she didn't know him that well. She studied the man, her lips puckered, and searched his face for any sign of ill intent. What if she was raped?
She gave a derisive snort. Oh, who was she kidding? This man wasn't going to rape her. In fact, chances were higher that she'd rape him. Hell, with how she felt, she might start humping his leg like a hormone-driven Chihuahua. The thought made her wince. Unfortunately, Sebastian noticed.
"What's wrong?" Sebastian raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing."
As she shook her head, she allowed herself to be led inside the building and into the elevator. While Sebastian stood silently at her side, she gazed at his hand and noted that there was no wedding ring on his finger. As she grinned, the elevator started to move and she teetered to the right.
In movies, heroines always fell gracefully as the handsome hero caught them in his muscular arms. Unfortunately for her, she was about as graceful as a frog drunk on whiskey. She crashed straight into Sebastian, her arms flailing wildly, and ended up with her nose squashed between his pecs.
"Sorry." She glanced at his face.
It could have been her imagination, but during that moment, she could swear that something changed inside of him. His beautiful eyes both darkened and widened all at once, then his way-too-kissable mouth dropped open as he let out a gasp of air.
"It's you," he whispered, his sweet breath warming her face.
"Of course it's me." She waved her hand in front of his face. "Earth to Sebastian."
Instead of coming back to reality, Sebastian continued to gaze down at her face as if she'd sprouted antenna, horns, and a third nostril. Just when she was truly starting to question his sanity, the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. Sebastian woke up a little—she still had her doubts that he was one hundred percent coherent—and began to guide her out of the elevator. Even as they hobbled together like a strange, demented animal, Sebastian kept casting glances at her as if he wasn't sure she was really there.
"Are you okay?" she asked, even as her own leg throbbed.
He didn't answer. Instead he just stared at her, dazed.