Having him here with her almost made her forget about the troubles that awaited her. He had that effect, as if he were a magic elixir that erased all the bad. Or maybe that was the magic of falling, the way it was the ideal blend of intoxication, and could blot out all but the tingling in her shoulders, the flip in her belly, the thump of her heart when he looked at her. His gaze was filled with intensity and passion, with desire and tenderness. That was how his eyes roamed her as he held open the door to a taxi after they’d said goodbye to the few remaining guests, the bride and groom having been sent on their way already.
The second the door closed, she leaned into him and sighed happily as she grazed her fingers along his collar. “You’re coming home with me,” she said.
“That I am, gorgeous. That I am,” he said, and removed her hand from his shirt. She shot him a curious look as he knotted his fingers through hers. The cab sped out of the parking lot and down the twisty, hilly roads. He grasped her hand harder as if he were about to make a point. “I have a plan.”
“Already?” she said, arching an eyebrow.
He brushed a finger against that taunting eyebrow, sending it back into place. “Yes, already. What do you think clients pay me the big bucks for? To sit on my ass and not think quickly?”
She laughed. “Fine. You got me there. But let me make one thing clear, Mr. Big Bucks, you are not paying it off for me.”
He held up his hands as if in surrender.
“You were going to try to, weren’t you?”
“Actually no,” he said firmly.
“Because there’s no way I’m taking it. I haven’t asked anyone for money. I meant what I said—if I were going to ask for help, McKenna would be the first person I’d turn to, and I haven’t breathed a word to her, so don’t even think about it.”
“You considering letting me get a word in edgewise?” he asked as the cab slowed to a stop at a light.
“Maybe. But if you even think about offering, I will do this,” she said, putting her hands over her ears and singing, “La la la, I am not listening.”
He pulled her hands off her ears. “You think I don’t know you? You think I don’t listen? That I can’t figure out already from knowing you the way I do that you’d never ever take money from me or another man?”
She narrowed her eyes at him playfully. The fizzy effect of the champagne was still rolling through her bloodstream.
“I know you, woman,” he continued. “You are independent and stubborn and fiery. Give me some goddamn credit. I would not make you an offer I know you’d walk away from.”
“Ooh, you’re going to make me an offer,” she said, tap dancing her fingertips along his arm. “I. Can’t. Wait.”
He rolled his eyes. “You are red-hot trouble.”
“Tell me about it,” she fired back. “And now you know exactly how much trouble you have gotten yourself into,” she said and laughed, the kind that vibrated through her whole body and made her clutch her belly. It felt so damn good, because she hadn’t laughed about her situation in ages. Never, come to think about it. Now she could because she was no longer in it alone.
“And yet, I’m not walking away, am I?” He grabbed hold of her arms and pulled her close for a hard, fierce kiss that made her feel giddy and wanted at the same time. She was no longer living with armor on. She’d shucked off the heavy metal layers, making herself vulnerable, but lighter too. Something that felt disturbingly like joy raced through her veins as they kissed, and though their kisses had always rattled and hummed like a rock concert, this one was poetry too. It was bliss and beauty as the world shined bright in her heart.
She wasn’t finished with Charlie; but for the first time, she could see a way through because she had a teammate.
She broke the kiss as the cab turned a corner into her neighborhood, and still she was smiling. She wanted to know Clay’s plan, but she was also enjoying this newfound freedom from releasing all her own secrets she’d clutched tightly to her chest. “No, you’re not walking away. You’re driving away with me. Like we’re in a getaway car. Or cab, really,” she said, gesturing to the driver.
He shook his head, clapped his hand down on her thigh. “Let’s focus now, Julia. You know how you said Charlie took the fun out of playing? How he perverted your love of the game?”
She nodded. “Yep. He sure did.”
“I know how to get it back,” he said, as the cab swerved around a bus onto her street. She jerked sideways, her shoulder bumping hard against his.
“Ouch,” she said, rubbing her shoulder.
“You okay?”
She nodded. “You just have a really hard shoulder.”
The car pulled up to the curb. “Hard shoulders are good things,” he said, and reached for his wallet. “I got this.”
“Thank you,” she said, and opened the door and stepped out of the cab. She lifted her face to the night sky, breathing in the cool air and the starlight until she heard a voice.
“Hey.”
She swiveled around and saw Max stalking towards her from the front stoop of her apartment. Tension roared back into her body in a heartbeat as Skunk’s goon-in-training with the baby face and the barrel body stared coldly at her. She glanced over at the cab where Clay was busy handing the driver a credit card.
“Charlie sent me to find you.”
“It’s Saturday. I’m not playing tonight.”
“Yeah, but he wants you to know you’re going to New York next weekend for a game. He has some new blood in the city from the startups there, and he wants you to hustle them.”
She straightened her spine, liquid courage coursing through her. “What if I don’t want to?”
His eyes widened with anger, and in seconds his hand was on the back of her neck. “You think you can talk to me that way?”
He grappled at her skin, digging in. She swatted at his arm, trying to knock him away, but he was more than double her size. “Let go of me,” she spat out.
“Let go of her,” Clay said in a cool, cold voice.
Max shifted his focus to Clay, who was now by her side. “Who the f**k are you?”
“I’m the guy who’s going to make you let go of her,” he said, and before Julia could process what was happening his elbow came down hard on Max’s arm, freeing her from his grip. Then Clay’s fist connected with Max’s jawline with a loud crunch. Julia cringed, the sharp snap echoing down the street.