Trapped by a Dangerous Man (7 page)

“You were kind to me.” I nodded. “I owe you my life. I realize that. It doesn’t change the fact that you’ve done very bad things. And you being an outlaw doesn’t change the fact that I owe you my life.”

He looked amused when I called him an outlaw. “And?”

“And I… We’re in here together. Let’s be civil.”

“Have I ever not been civil?”

“Other than when you started choking me because I kissed you?”

He stood, pinning me in place with his stare, but I didn’t break my gaze away, even though I had to tilt my head uncomfortably to do it. When he stepped forward, I held my ground which meant our bodies were pressed together. I tried to ignore the rush of excitement that zipped through me.

We stared at each other for a good minute. I had no idea what he was thinking until he said, “I could have tied you up and thrown you in the garage.”

I swallowed. “Thank you for not doing that.”

“You’re welcome.” He stepped away and went into the kitchen. A moment later, he emerged with two beers and handed me one. “To being civil,” he said.

I clinked my bottle against his and took a sip. Suddenly, a lot of tension I hadn’t realized I was holding drained out of me. Despite what I wanted to do, I couldn’t. I’d made a promise, but regardless it was now out of my hands unless I found a way to warn my brother, which seemed unlikely at the moment.
 

“Thank you,” I said again. “For saving me.”

“You would have done the same, I’m sure.”

He was right. I would have pulled him off the road… and dumped him at someone else’s doorstep.

I retreated to my corner of the sofa with the book, and this time I didn’t stare at Corbin. But the movie was impossible to tune out, and I was drawn in despite myself. Eventually I set the book aside.

“This movie is terrible,” I said.

“So don’t watch.” Corbin took another sip of beer.
 

“It’s too loud.” I tapped the book.

He shot me a peeved look. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re a pain in the ass?”

“Anyone ever tell you it’s rude to insult people?”

He smiled as he looked at the television. “I have been told that, believe it or not.”

“Oh, I believe it.” I found myself smiling.

Corbin shut off the television and tossed the remote aside. “What do you want to do?”

“Video games.”

He got up and opened the long console underneath the television. Inside was a wicker basket filled with video games. He pulled it out. “Come pick.”

As I knelt beside him, he stood. “If you don’t see anything you like, I can download something from the store. Another beer?”

I nodded as I picked out a tempting game. It was a recent release, but Rob owned a copy, and I’d played a few times with him. “Is a couch co-op ok?”

“Huh?”

“You know, multiplayer cooperative on the same system.”
 

He stared at me blankly, then set the beers on the coffee table.

“Cannibal Carnival. We’ll go through the jungle together, not fighting against each other.”

“Why didn’t you just say that?”

I tossed a controller to him and loaded the game into the player, then sat next to him, aware of how close his gorgeous body was. “Have you played this one before?”

He frowned. “A few days ago.” He took a swig of beer. “But I bet I’ll kill more baddies than you do.”

“Wanna bet?”

“Nope. Wouldn’t be fair.”

“You’re right. It’d be like taking candy from a baby. And just so we’re clear—”
 

“You’re the baby,” we said in unison.

Corbin Lagos was seriously sexy when he flirted. But then I had a chilling thought: maybe he was sure he’d kill more “baddies” because he’d killed a bunch of people in real life. I fought a tremor.
 

“What was that look?” he asked. “What just happened?”

“Nothing.” I created a profile on the game for myself and hit start.

“If I kill more baddies in round one, you’ll answer a question,” he said.

“Deal.”

We managed to get through the level without dying, and I killed three times as many cannibals as he did. While we waited for the next round to load, I thought of my question. “Why did you bring me here? You could have taken me someplace else.”
 

He hit the pause button. “Can’t you start with something lighter?”

“How many people have you killed?”

“Not exactly lighter, Audrey.”

God help me, but I loved the way my name sounded coming out of his beautiful mouth.
 

“Because I felt responsible for you,” he said.

“Why? Just because you happened to be the one who found me?”

“I believe I answered my question, but no, that’s not why.”

“Why?”

He hit the start button.
 

“Let’s play for three questions this time,” I said, and Corbin grunted his assent.

Corbin somehow managed to keep up with me and not get eaten, but I killed four times as many cannibals as he did. I was a little buzzed from the beer, and I flopped against the back of the couch.

“Explain what you meant about feeling responsible.”

“Technically not a question.” He shrugged, ran a hand through his mussed hair. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought he was uncomfortable. “I recognized you from the store. When I found the Most Wanted list, I realized you came out here for me. I felt responsible.”

I bristled. “Did it ever occur to you that catching you is just another day on the job for me?”

“Well, in that case, tell yourself I didn’t want to chance you ranting about me to whoever rescued you,” he said, sounding annoyed. “Next question.”

I could tell from his tone of voice that he would say nothing else on the matter. Which was fine; I had an answer that made sense. He wanted to keep me close where I couldn’t hurt him. “Did you consider killing me?”

“Not for a second. Next.”

“Seriously?”

“Is that your third question?”

I shook my head fast. “My third question is… did you ogle me when you took off my clothes?” It came out weird, like I sorta hoped he had.

He didn’t even have the decency not to laugh. “No way. You were like a drowned kitten. What kind of men have you been hanging out with?”

The kind I can pick up in a dark bar and then walk away from.
Maybe the sex wasn’t always great, but at least things never got messy. Under normal circumstances, I might have said it, but Corbin was different, somehow, maybe more likely to be turned off by the casual nature of things. That irritated me. He wasn’t following the script. I jammed my finger onto the start button.
 

“Hey, don’t I get any questions?” Corbin asked.

“Not unless you win them,” I said, my voice mean.

“You’re a stickler for the rules, aren’t you?”

“Raise the bet to five questions?”

“Make it ten.”

I smiled, not even trying to make it look friendly. “Corbin, my questions aren’t going to get easier.”

At first he played like he always had, but then something changed. He was smoking me. Panicked, I tried to catch up, but… “You hustled me!” I slumped back on the sofa. “I don’t believe it. That’ll teach me to bet against a—”

“Chef,” he said lightly, smoothly, saving me from embarrassing us both. He smiled. “And the best part is, you can’t even ask because you’ll never win.”

“You cheated.”

He veered in close, his eyes teasing. “Really, Audrey? I said I’d played it a few days ago. You didn’t ask if I’d played before or after that.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Beer?”

“I’ll get it.”
 

While he was in the kitchen, I turned off the video game; clearly he’d played a lot, and I didn’t like being the one fighting to keep up. He’d probably been laughing at me all along. I rolled my eyes. And there I was, gloating.

“You’re like a goddamned chess player,” I said when he handed me my beer.

“Where did that come from?”

“Oh, good, question number one.” I drained half a beer while I waited for him to retract the question, but he didn’t. He had nine more questions; he could afford to squander one.

He merely tilted his head back and finished his beer. “I’m waiting.” He picked up a fresh beer, and I counted the bottles. Six.
 

Damn. I was drinking faster than he was. “It’s obvious why I said you’re a chess player. You set me up, and I didn’t even see it coming. You let me gloat!”

He smiled. “You’re charming when you’re excited.”

“And you’re drunk.”

“Am I?”

“Yes. And that’s question number two.” I held up two fingers and wiggled them. “Two. It comes after one.”

He grabbed my fingers and lowered my arm gently, his eyes staring into mine. Heat flashed from where he touched me, and I did my best to ignore it, hoping it wouldn’t reach my cheeks. He released me. “No, it isn’t, because you didn’t answer truthfully. I’m not drunk. I’m not even buzzed. So. Question number two. How long have you been following me?”

I sighed. These questions weren’t fun. “Since the card store. I didn’t follow you. I looked your car up, saw you on the list, figured it was fate.”

He picked at the label of his beer bottle. “Yeah. Fate. That was stupid, you know, trying to drive out here like that.”

“Is that a question?”

“It is.”

I gritted my teeth. “Yes, I know. Believe me, I didn’t intend to almost get myself killed.”

“Do you regret coming?”

“Answer four is no.”

“Why not?”

“Because maybe I’ll still bring you in. After the truce is up, of course.” I stared at my bottle. “But even if I don’t… I don’t know. I guess this is an adventure.”

“Did you enjoy kissing me?”

Oh, he knew how to make me blush. He could have been merciful and accepted my response as his answer, but instead he cleared his throat.

“Did you enjoy kissing me, Audrey?”
 

“Yes.” My voice was a whisper. I looked defiantly at him. “Yes, I did. Next question.”

“Question seven. How many people have you killed?”

“None.”

“How many bad guys have you taken down? I mean hardened criminals, not people who jumped bail and then hid out at their own homes.”

“None of your business.”

“If you don’t want to answer, then I’ll allow you to substitute a dare.”

“What dare?” I was hoping it would be something slightly sexual. Or maybe really sexual, like give him a hand job while I rubbed myself.

“I dare you to renounce your claim on me.”

I made a face. “Renounce my claim? What is this, the 1800s?”

“Audrey, please don’t take this the wrong way, but you aren’t going to take me anywhere.” He caught my chin in his hand and turned my face toward him. “I won’t hurt you, but I don’t want you to somehow get hurt. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

“Why do you care?”

“Guess everyone has a weakness.” He stood. “You can think about it. I’m reserving my last questions or dares until later because it’s past dinner time.”

I started to get up, but he gently pushed me back. “No. You rest. I’ve got this.” I resisted a moment, weighing my dislike of cooking against my dislike of being told I needed to rest.

But I was tired. I stretched out on the couch and turned on the news. I closed my eyes as the news anchors stressed how many records the storm had broken and how much of the state had no power.

~~~

Dinner was some kind of exotic stir fry.

“All these ingredients, I’m surprised no one noticed you before,” I said, then shoved a forkful of tangy goodness into my mouth.
 

“Had someone shopping for me.”

“I’m even more surprised you would admit that.”

“I’m leaving here, and I can’t come back, not now. You know that.”

I did. So why did his words make me feel strangely sad? Maybe it was the alcohol, but a little voice whispered the answer back to me. I
liked
this man. Yes, I wanted to fuck him and rub myself all over his sinfully perfect body, but I didn’t want to walk away after. And there wasn’t any reality where I’d be able to be with him, lingering in the kitchen while he cooked something delicious, or relaxing in his arms on the world’s most comfortable and stylish sofa. He couldn’t even be my fuck-buddy.
 

Truly, I would never see him again.
 

For some reason, I found myself talking about my childhood, about how surreal it was growing up the child of a bounty hunter. “Sometimes, when I was really bad, my mom said she was going to have my dad turn me in for a ‘bad kid’ bounty. How cruel is that? I was terrified of being arrested, so that always made me behave.”

“Which is why you always follow the rules.”

“You make me sound boring.”

“Believe me, you are not boring.”

I thought about my cramped, dingy, dark apartment, full of cheap, broken appliances. I wasn’t so sure. “What about you? What was your childhood like?”

“Nice, actually. Middle class. Upper middle class to be precise. My parents were lawyers.”

“I wonder if they know my parents.”

“Doubtful. I’m not from here. Didn’t you read the file on me?”

“Um…”

He set down his fork. “Do you even know why I’m wanted?”

I shook my head, and Corbin threw back his head and laughed. At first I was baffled, but he laughed harder and harder, and by the time he finally slowed, I was furious.

“What’s so funny?” I said between clenched teeth.

“Audrey. It’s just…” He started laughing again.
 

I’d had enough of people laughing at me. A girl bounty hunter? No, asshole, a
woman
, and yes, a bounty hunter, so what? But you’re so little! But you’re so sweet looking. How are you going to apprehend anyone?

I shoved back my chair, and Corbin got up, still laughing, and caught my arm. “Fuck you,” I hissed.

His laugh died, and he wrapped a hand around my hair and pulled my head back. “Would it hurt you to be polite?” The amusement was gone from his eyes.
 

I swallowed and pushed my body against his for a brief moment, teasing him even as I continued to glare.