Clandestine Christmas. Elle James

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      Chapter Two

      Heat pressed in on Hannah from all sides as she left Blackstone Bail and Bonds. But the external heat didn’t concern her half as much as the emotions expanding inside her. She drew to a stop, as much to adjust to the change in temperature as to face Chad where he leaned against the building.

      It was like someone had clipped an image from her memory and pasted it right in front of her: his right shoulder casually propped against the brick of the building; his hands stuffed into the pockets of his faded jeans; his legs crossed at the ankles, emphasizing the dusty cowboy boots he always wore.

      Even as she compared him to the image, she noticed some changes that didn’t match up. Details that went beyond the physical.

      When she’d known him before, there had been a sadness about him, a grief she’d later learned stemmed from the death of his wife and child in a car crash he’d refused to go into detail about. Now? Well, now he looked…more distant, somehow. Harder.

      “Elliott really bought himself one this time, didn’t he?” Chad’s gray eyes focused on the cars streaking by on the ten-laned Queens Boulevard. “What was he thinking?”

      The sun slowly sank behind the western skyline. Hannah gazed at it, then at him again. “Obviously he wasn’t.”

      Hannah walked toward the battered Ford LTD. Chad picked up his duffel bag and followed, grasping on to the passenger’s door handle at the same time she opened the driver’s side. Her hand froze on the hot metal.

      “Where are you going, Chad?” Her voice came out little more than a whisper.

      “With you, of course.”

      Her stomach plunged to her feet. “I don’t recall inviting you.”

      He squinted at her against the sunlight. “Since you agreed to take the case, I thought we’d be working together. Are you saying you want to go out on your own?”

      She wondered why her throat suddenly felt like sandpaper. “And what if I am?”

      “I know you better than that. We each know exactly what the other is capable of. I’m certainly not interested in working against you.”

      Hannah recognized her own thoughts only minutes earlier.

      Chad drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Look, I just got in from Florida and took a taxi from the airport. If you want me to catch another one, let me know.”

      Hannah remained silent, half tempted to take him up on his offer. She could do without him slipping back into her life right now. She wanted, needed time to grow accustomed to his being back, even if it was only in an official capacity.

      But time was something she didn’t have. Besides, she suspected no amount of time would lessen the empty ache in her chest…or change the reality standing in front of her in the shape of Chad Hogan.

      She leaned against the car.

      “Okay, Chad, I’ll work with you.” She ignored his probing gaze. “But it doesn’t mean side by side, night and day. I just mean I won’t work against you.”

      He spread his hands on top of the roof and drummed his thumbs against the hot metal. “You’re telling me aside from sharing information, you would rather not lay eyes on me. Is that it, Hannah?”

      “Yes.” She gripped the door handle again. The squealing of tires ripped through the thick air.

      She spotted the rusted monster of a car bearing down on her a nanosecond before Chad clutched her wrists and hauled her toward the curb and into his arms. She stared at the darkly tinted windows of the Monte Carlo as it sped down the street, the back end fishtailing as it turned right at the first intersection.

      “Damn New York drivers,” Chad murmured, his breath disturbing the hair over her ear.

      Tugging her gaze away from the empty street, Hannah became instantly aware of her position in Chad’s arms. She shivered at the solid feel of her breasts against his chest, took a breath of the familiar, tangy smell of his clean skin, wriggled to free herself from the hot, electric touch of his hands against her back.

      “Let me go, Chad,” she whispered, uneasy with the knowing shadow in his eyes.

      He released her.

      Hannah turned on watery knees and got in the car. She watched him stow his duffel in the back then climb in next to her.

      “Where did you get this rust bucket?” he asked.

      If the heat outside was stifling, the stagnant air inside the car was even worse. Hot sweat trickled between Hannah’s breasts even as awareness continued to surge through her veins from their brief contact.

      He ran his hand across the dust-covered dash. “A rental?” he asked.

      She nodded. “I had to, for conspicuousness’ sake. I was just about to take it back in exchange for my own.”

      Chad’s СКАЧАТЬ