An engine revved, and the person who’d almost hit me with his car sped off, leaving me alone with the mercurial man who’d drugged and kidnapped me. The man I’d been about to confront when I’d fallen in the street and nearly been killed.
The two different traumas warred for my emotional attention—almost getting run over and being held captive by Max.
My body seemed more preoccupied with the almost getting run over thing, because I couldn’t seem to unlatch my fingers from his bulging biceps.
Keeping his firm grip around my waist, Max hauled me farther away from the street and set me down on a bus stop bench. My hands were still locked on his arms when he released me and dropped to his knees.
“Are you insane?” he demanded, his voice taking on the rough, furious tone that’d frightened me so much last night. The beast was snarling at me, practically vibrating with anger.
But I was running on pure adrenaline, and my entire being was too wrapped up in the residual horror of almost getting flattened to focus on the threat Max should pose.
“Are you?” I snapped back, still riding the strange, reckless high that’d claimed me when I’d first started stomping toward him with grim purpose. “You’re stalking me,” I reminded him. As though either of us could forget it.
A flash of white through those dark curls as he rolled his eyes at me. “I was making sure you kept your promise not to tell anyone about last night. I’m not a threat to you.”
“Well, you’re sure doing a good job of acting threatening.”
He huffed out an exasperated breath, and his long fingers skated down my leg, starting just beneath the hem of my modest pencil skirt. Rough callouses tingled over my pebbled flesh, my every nerve alive from the adrenaline dump as he caressed my knee before working his way downward.
“What are you doing?” My voice hitched slightly on the demand, probably shaking from residual fear.
“Checking to make sure you didn’t break your damn ankle, Bambi,” he rumbled, applying light pressure to the delicate bones beneath the thin strap of my designer heels. His big hands were shockingly gentle, touching me the way one might handle an injured bird.
“Bambi?” I repeated, breathless from the shock of having my massive captor handle me with such aching care, as though his thick fingers might break me if he applied the barest pressure.
“Yep,” he declared decisively, his full focus on my ankle rather than my face. “You have those big, innocent eyes; long, unsteady legs; and no sense of self-preservation.”
“I don’t want you to call me Bambi.” Did I sound petulant? Damn it, I was supposed to be incensed and intimidating, not quivering and weak while my captor tended to my potential injuries. Almost getting hit by a car had really messed up my priorities.
“Well, I don’t want you to risk your pretty neck recklessly confronting me, but here we are,” he retorted, his voice still edged with anger even as his touch remained featherlight on my hypersensitive skin. “What the hell were you thinking, approaching a man like me? Don’t you understand how fucking dangerous that is?” His fingers dusted my scraped knees, and I hissed at the sting. “You’ll need to clean these up,” he said more gently. “Come on. Let’s get you home.”
“You’re not coming home with me!” I declared hotly, immediately rebelling at the idea of having the beast in my private sanctuary. “You’re not coming anywhere near me!”
His eyes finally met mine, and that black brow over his left eye arched as he stared at me pointedly: I’m near you right now. He didn’t have to say the words aloud for my cheeks to heat with something between chagrin and indignation. His hands were still on my legs, his huge palms nearly engulfing my calves.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he swore, low and serious. The streetlights caught in his black eyes, flickering over them like white-hot flames. Even obscured by his tousled hair, his right eye flashed through the darkness, keen with the fervor of his promise. “But you need to stop being so reckless. I’m not the only monster out here, and your father is neck-deep in organized crime. They’ll know who you are.”
A half-mad laugh burst from my chest as the absurdity of his warning fizzed through me, bubbling alongside my lingering adrenaline. “Reckless? You think I’m reckless? You freaking kidnapped and interrogated the mayor’s daughter. You’re lucky you’re not behind bars right now.”
His light hold on my calves firmed ever so slightly as his massive body tensed. “I thought we’d reached an agreement about going to the cops, Alexandra.” That soft, dangerous tone sent a thrill through my belly, but I didn’t cower. I’d learned that when it came to me, Max was all bark and no bite.
“We did, and I’ll keep my promise,” I assured him. I calmed, purpose settling over me as I remembered why I’d decided to approach him in the first place. “But you have to leave my dad alone. I know you think he’s a bad person, but you’re wrong. When I saw you tonight, I wondered if you planned to kidnap me again, but I chose to confront you because I have to convince you that my father is innocent. You’re obviously not ready to drop this, and I can’t leave him in danger like that.”
He released a heavy sigh, the tension leaving his muscles. “Listen, Bambi—”
“It’s Allie,” I interjected. I was so over the diminutive nicknames, even if Bambi wasn’t triggering like Freckles. It was still irritating.
“Right.” Another eye roll. He seemed to do that a lot. He didn’t take me seriously; he didn’t take terrorizing an innocent woman seriously. Max was either insane, or he didn’t possess a normal moral compass. It was infuriating as hell.
“You’re naïve,” he continued in that maddeningly dismissive cadence. “I get that now. Your daddy’s kept you in the dark about the reality of his climb to power. How do you think he affords your fancy designer clothes and even fancier education? Where do you think all that money came from?”
“He wrote a book,” I countered, struggling to remain collected when I wanted so badly to shake him. Naïve? What an arrogant asshole.
I finally peeled my fingers from his corded biceps and crossed my arms over my chest. He didn’t so much as flinch from my suddenly prickly demeanor. Instead, that single black brow crept higher, and he remained resolutely in my personal space. His hands were still on my legs. I was hyperaware of the heat of his long fingers wrapping around my shins, holding me with that careful but masculine grip.
I focused on the heat of my indignation to distract myself from the disconcerting warmth of his touch. “My dad’s book spent weeks on the New York Times best-sellers list. And he does all sorts of speaking engagements. He gets paid for those. He’s accomplished a lot, and his time and insight are valuable. He loves New York and cares about the people who live here more than anything. It’s not a crime for him to be compensated for his knowledge and years of public service. You have him all wrong.”
“Public service.” Max’s full lips twisted in a sneer, the defined lines of his face sharpening into the harsh mask that’d terrified me in that basement. He didn’t surge toward me with that awful snarl again, but he didn’t back down, either. His body heat kissed my skin as he growled, “You mean good deeds like destroying my family?”