Chapter 15
For a second, I forgot I was angry. Which considering everything, was honestly a miracle. I’d been kidnapped, threatened, and forced to inhabit one of those most disgusting rooms I’d ever been in. All without being allowed to pee.
And yet, the moment Crowe stepped through the garage door looking all big and angry and terrifyingly competent, my stupid heart immediately did a little happy wiggle.
Traitor.
I needed to remember I was mad at him. He hurt me. Abandoned me. And then acted so shocked when I tracked him down, as if he didn’t know that we belonged together.
Pffft.
Big fat baby.
Yet… There he was. Limping and bleeding, holding a gun to the creepy Graves dude from the house while looking at me like he’d tear apart the idiots I’d already sorted out if he saw so much as even a hair out of place on me.
And sadly… (or not so sadly as it might be) there were quite a few hairs out of place after my ordeal.
The expression on his face was annoyingly sweet, and the fact that he did show up to save the day was even more so.
Crowe took in the bodies on the floor, then zeroed in on me, his eyes wild with a complicated mess of relief and something that looked a hell of a lot like pride.
His mouth twitched, almost like he wanted to smile, but instead, he rolled his eyes so hard I was worried he might give himself a headache.
“Really, Alfie?” he growled, voice gruff but not nearly as angry as he probably wanted it to sound. My big softie. “You couldn’t just wait to be rescued like a normal person?”
I grinned, not caring at all (for once in my life) that I probably looked like an utter mess because my Crowe was…
well. Mine. He had to be, right? If he came all this way with his bad guy, to save my sexy ass?
“You were taking way too long, Daddy,” I told him, crossing my arms with as much dignity as a guy in ripped cargo shorts and a shirt that I’d definitely sweated through could muster.
“Besides, these idiots literally zip-tied me in the front. They were practically asking for it.”
The only outlier was the creepy guy, who stared at me, and the prone figures in front of me with a weird combination of awe and complete disgust. And a healthy dose of confusion.
I straightened even more, pointlessly smoothing down my shirt as I focused my attention back on Crowe. “So, Daddy… Think we can get out of here now?”
Crowe’s jaw worked, the vein in his neck doing a very sexy throbbing thing that made me want to take a bite and taste him. “Are you hurt?” he demanded.
“No,” I said, a little more breathless than I meant to. “But my pride might be a little bruised at having you look at me in this state, and I’m pretty sure I’m about to embarrass myself in a way I will not be able to recover from if I don’t get to a damn toilet.”
Crowe blinked twice before giving me another once over. “You’re sure?” he pressed, softening at the edges, but still trying real hard to act like he didn’t care.
I knew better now.
And his concern caused the most delicious little flutter in my belly. I mean, how could it not? Even when I was so desperate to pee I was about thirty seconds away from making this the most humiliating day of my life, he was worried about me.
I tried to keep it together, doing a terrible job. “Swear on all things bright, fluffy and colourful, Daddy, if you don’t get me out of this mold palace and into an actual bathroom, you won’t be okay.”
Never mind the fact that I really wanted to check out what looked to be a nasty gunshot wound on his thigh, and this really wasn’t the place to be doing it.
Crowe’s lips pinched together like he was fighting back a laugh, or another barked order. Maybe both? I honestly couldn’t tell with him, and that was all part of his charm wasn’t it?
The creepy guy Crowe had dragged in let out a deep, beleaguered sigh. “Are you two for real?” he ground out, looking from me to Crowe and back again.
The question hung in the air. I opened my mouth, and Crowe opened his.
Then we both spoke at exactly the same time.
“Yes.” I said with a grin.
“No.” My uber handsome, gruff, Daddy grunted.
I pointed dramatically at Crowe. “See?”
Crowe pinched the bridge of his nose, and looked a little pained and exhausted. Okay, so maybe it was time for us to get this show on the road so we could make our pit stop. Or stops.
“Okay, so let’s get out of here,” I said with a bright smile, accidentally kicking the idiot lying on the floor in front of me as I made my way to Crowe.
“And while we’re on the road to the closest clean bathroom, you can tell me why you would give up your big bad guy for me, but not want to be my Daddy? ”
Crowe grabbed Mr Creep and pulled him back out the big garage doors and shoved him ahead of us. “Maybe you can start off by telling me how exactly you ended up not needing my rescue?”
I shrugged. Grinned. Winked. “I mean, I could. Or I could just keep you guessing. A guy has to leave some things as a mystery.”
My handsome Daddy growled in response.
Wasn’t he just perfect?
"Oh, while we do all our things, think we can give Buck a call and meet up with him? He's got Mr Ford, and my favorite towel. And he's probably worried considering I up and disappeared in the middle of a rest stop."
Daddy scowled at me before shaking his head and heading on his way.
It was too soon to declare my undying love, I knew that. But damn it was hard.