Chapter 3
Nico wondered when she was going to cave and tell him the real reason she wanted him to follow her into an alley behind a strip club, because it was not to have sex.
More’s the pity.
If he didn’t know better, he’d say she was an assassin. As a former assassin himself, he couldn’t think of too many other reasons why anyone would lure an opponent to a place where there wouldn’t be witnesses.
But he could recognize a fellow predator at a glance.
This woman was no predator. Killers had old eyes—eyes that were constantly shadowed by the dark realities and indignities of their lives.
Meanwhile, his fiorellino had young eyes.
He didn’t even know her name, but he knew by those eyes that she’d had a good life. She’d known much love and kindness.
Nico only had a passing acquaintance with such things.
So, why was a good woman who’d led a good life convincing a man like him to follow her into an alley with promises of sex? It was that question that had him following her.
OK, that wasn’t entirely true. He was also following her because he found her insanely attractive, and because it had been so long since anything or anyone actually interested him that he’d almost forgotten what it felt like.
How could he not follow the first person to make him feel something in so long?
But he also wasn’t an idiot. Which meant he would not get into the car she was leading him to.
He’d also made sure Van was able to track his phone, just in case.
Because even though this woman was half his size and didn’t look ready to take someone like him down, he wasn’t about to underestimate her.
He thought for a moment that maybe she was working with a partner. But the alley seemed empty enough. He didn’t see anyone lurking about. And the backseat of her car appeared to be clear.
So, his little temptress was acting alone. Somehow that made her even more interesting.
Time to figure out her true motives.
She let out a little gasp when he gripped her waist and spun her around, pinning her back against the club’s brick facade. He shoved a hand into all that soft, thick hair and gave her head a little tug so that she was forced to meet his gaze.
He intended to ask her some questions. Truly he did.
But the way her gaze shifted from his eyes to his mouth and darkened with what could only be described as interest (hot interest) completely undid him.
He was powerless to do anything except capture that pouty little mouth of hers with his own and kiss the hell out of her.
It wasn’t a made-for-Hollywood kind of kiss. It was too hungry for that. Desperate.
Hot.
He wasn’t sure anyone had ever returned a kiss with the intensity his fiorellino was giving him. She seemed to be pouring everything she had into driving him utterly insane.
Or to distract him from whatever she was really there for.
He couldn’t care about that, though. Not with the taste of her—warm and minty and hungry—on his tongue. Not when the feel of her body against his was driving him mad with a need he hadn’t experienced in…hell, had he ever wanted someone as much as he wanted this stranger?
It was like she couldn’t touch enough of him at once. Her hands slid up his arms, over his shoulders, up through his hair, and back down again. With a growl that bordered on feral, Nico tilted her face up so he could deepen their kiss.
The shocked gasp she let out, followed quickly by a long, slow groan of pleasure, reached right into his pants and gripped his cock tight.
But just when he was ready to drag her into the backseat of her car and rip off her clothes with his teeth before tracing every line of her body with his tongue, just when he couldn’t make himself care about his own safety or Van’s warning to not—under any circumstances—get into a vehicle with this stranger…
She jammed a Taser into his gut and pulled the trigger.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry,” she whispered over and over and over again like a prayer as his muscles seized, his body clenched, and he found himself slumping to the ground. She cupped her hand around his neck to support his head as he fell. “I’m so, so sorry.”
Huh. That was…unexpected.