16. Can’t Deny It
can’t deny it
. . .
Sadie
Sadie’s Guide to Hostage-Taking Being Taken Hostage Forming a Partnership with Your Hostage, Tip #10: There may come a time when your hostage kisses you. Enjoy it. And if your hostage offers you a ride home, it’s only polite to accept. Carpooling is good for the environment.
I couldn’t deny it anymore. I was hot for my hostage.
Davian Reed had helped me rescue Bear. He’d put those teenage thugs in their place. And he’d kissed me like he was desperate for air. If someone had told me yesterday that I’d be making out with my hostage in the middle of an ice cream shop, I would’ve called them crazy.
But that’s life, I guess.
One minute you’re stopping a group of teenage thugs from vandalizing a dog shelter, and the next you’re imagining doing dirty things with the bad-boy mafia prince you held at gunpoint.
…Or maybe I’d accidentally slipped and hit my head on the oven door while baking again, and this was all a concussion-inspired dream.
Either way, I was ready to roll with it as Bear and I climbed into the back of Davian’s dark SUV after finishing the replacement ice cream Bruno had given me. Davian moved to follow me, but no matter how spacious the backseat was, there wasn’t enough room for all three of us to sit across it. Bear lay across two seats, and Davian would fill the space with his presence alone.
“You can sit on my lap,” Davian offered like it was no big deal. Heat washed up my neck at the suggestion as I tried to scooch an unmovable Bear across the seat, and I was sure my cheeks were bright red.
Sit on his lap ? Was he crazy?
“That can’t be crash-test approved,” I blurted. It was the first excuse I could think of that didn’t involve my newfound obsession with his lips on mine. “I can sit… somewhere else. Safety first, right?”
But both guys from the car wash were already sitting up front. The back row of the SUV was tucked into the floor and covered by black duffle bags. Bear took up two seats on his own.
There wasn’t anywhere else for me to sit.
“I won’t let anything happen to you.” The promise in Davian’s voice rolled a shiver down my spine.
Well.
Screw safety.
I swallowed with a suddenly dry throat. “Okay.”
I hunched over Bear while Davian slid onto the seat, and the large SUV felt impossibly smaller. Was I really about to sit on my hostage’s lap?
His very appealing, muscular lap.
How much I was looking forward to it made me hesitate.
“Sadie?” he asked when I still hadn’t moved. The overhead light dimmed, but the tinted windows did nothing to hide my growing flush.
“Right,” I muttered before shuffling back and perching on the edge of his lap—as close as I could to his knees. Davian’s strong thighs cradled my butt, and I swallowed when his hands settled on my hips.
Then he pulled me back until I was flush against his chest, and my heart somersaulted backward. Every inch of his front pressed against me, like we were spooning.
Hot-hostage overload .
“That’s better,” Davian’s low voice whispered near my ear, making the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “Comfortable?”
What a crazy question to ask. I suppressed another shiver. This was simultaneously the safest and most vulnerable I’d ever felt in my life.
Not trusting myself to speak, I nodded and tried to relax against his broad chest. It wasn’t easy with his hold on my hips turning every nerve in my body into a live wire.
Bear’s soft growl filled the SUV, and I absently reached over to scratch between his ears. He gave me something else to focus on. “It’s okay, buddy. You won’t be squished now.”
Bear threw me his signature unimpressed look before going back to gnawing on Davian’s shoe. There was a lot of slobber on the nice leather, and the shoe didn’t look like it’d be cheap to replace. At least Davian hadn’t complained about walking around in his sock, but I felt awful.
“Should we stop by the shelter to drop the dog off first?” the blond guy asked from the driver’s seat. Davian had introduced him as Malcolm and the dark-haired one with glasses as Shane.
I chewed on my lower lip, but I wasn’t ready to let Bear go yet. “He’s had a rough day. He should stay with me tonight. Just to be safe.”
Davian’s chuckle showed he saw right through my lame excuse to keep Bear with me, and he lowered his voice. “I’ve had a rough day, too.”
The thought of Davian staying over made something deep in my belly flutter, but it was too much for my flustered self to handle right now, so I jabbed an elbow into his stomach.
It was met with a satisfying grunt before his chest rumbled with a quiet laugh.
And I liked the feel of his chest against my back… a lot .
“I’m sure you’ll be just fine back at your own place,” I muttered, realizing a new dilemma. I had no idea what to do with my hands. Was I supposed to hold the headrest in front of me? Or Davian’s hands on my hips?
Unsure, I crossed my arms and stared straight ahead—all too aware of everywhere Davian’s body touched mine.
It was a very tight fit.
My plan was to stay as still as humanly possible. But Malcolm had barely taken three turns before we hit a pothole and I bounced on Davian’s lap.
Oof .
My eyes widened.
We hadn’t considered something about this seating arrangement: bouncing while sitting on the lap of a man I had growing feelings for was… not ideal.
I shifted uneasily, and Davian’s hands remained steady on my hips.
But the bumpy ride didn’t completely escape his notice—after several more blocks and potholes, the hard evidence of Davian’s arousal pressed against my backside, and I clenched my thighs together.
“I don’t think we fully thought this plan through,” I said through gritted teeth after another bounce.
His fingers flexed on my hips. “Ignore it.”
A shrill laugh bubbled out of me at how unconcerned he sounded. “Ignore that ? Not possible.”
It was like playing a game of Whac-A-Mole with one very persistent mole.
“Then don’t ignore it.” The amusement dripping from his tone made my jaw drop.
Another pothole had me almost airborne, but Davian’s grip tightened, and I only rose an inch before slamming back down against his hardness.
But no amount of whacking could put that mole back in his hole.
I sucked in a sharp breath. And I had zero excuses for what happened next. None. But I’d landed at a new angle, and the heat of him against my center—along with how perfectly we lined up down there—had my hips instinctively circling against him in an impromptu lap dance.
We both froze, and I wanted to die of mortification.
Did I just grind on my hostage’s lap?
Kill me now.