Insufferable braggart. “Are you done fondling me?”
He instantly halted his motions, leaving her with the desire to bite her own tongue off for her stupid quip. He’d been playing and teasing with her, his hands all over her body. And she stopped him? Gods, she was a dunderhead of epic proportions at times.
His face flushed with unmistakable arousal, Jerrick released her and calmly shut the door. He crossed to his side and climbed behind the wheel before sliding her a hooded look. “Francesca’s get-together tomorrow night will be a prime opportunity for you to buddy up to her. I’m hoping the fact Casper was her sub won’t mean a harder time culling information from her though.”
“It’s not like I’ll be asking what kinky stuff they did in bed together.” She slid him a nervous glance. “Will I?”
“I don’t bloody want to know any of that.”
Good. Because that conversation could have been infinitely uncomfortable. “There’s always the chance Casper never spoke about his work to her. She might be as clueless as we are what this mysterious formula is.”
The tension riding his face hinted that the possibility already sat heavy on his mind. “Then we’ll have to jump to Plan B.”
“What is that?”
“I have no damn idea yet.” He started the Air Racer and pulled out of the tree-dotted lot. Within seconds they were swallowed by the traffic on Primus Avenue.
She hunched deeper into her cloak, desperate for the heat circulating from the vehicle’s blowers to begin seeping into her bones. “Don’t you think it’s odd your employers won’t release any information to you about Casper’s research?”
He was quiet for an endless moment, leaving her with the certainty that he’d continue to keep her in the dark. She was all prepared to resign herself to stewing in her suspicions. Of this job. Of him. He surprised her by sharing a tidbit she sure as hell hadn’t expected. “I suspect they don’t want me to know what it is.”
His answer prodded a chill down her spine. “Why? Do you suppose it could be something dangerous?”
His attention remained fused to the road, the closed set of his expression only adding to her suspicions.
“There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“Now isn’t the time to get into this, Avi.”
She made a show of glancing around the confined space of the vehicle. “I’m sorry. Clearly the invisible crowd of people who might overhear must be in the backseat.”
“And you accuse me of being frustrating.” He gripped the steering wheel in a fierce hold, the bones of his knuckles practically bursting through the skin.
For the next several moments he said nothing more. Just as she was about to admit defeat and roll onto her side for some shut-eye, he gusted a resigned breath. “I didn’t come about this job the usual way. Not in the long run, at least.”
She scooted upward in the seat and frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“They lied to me initially. Made me think they were after a tribal artifact. That was a test.”
“For what?”
“The real job. This one.”
She cocked her head to the side. “That’s odd.”
“Hell, you don’t know the half of it.” The ambient light from the passing motorists defined the weariness etched into his features.
“Then tell me.”
His gaze drifted to her again, and she read the tiredness there.
“They threatened you. It’s the only reason I’m doing this. To protect you. I don’t give a damn what that research is. It’s a means to an end for me. Your life in exchange for some fucking data. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
The barrage of his words beat into her. She had a hard time assimilating them.
“My life?” He was doing this because of her? She rubbed her temples and shook her head ferociously. “Wait. Let’s back the hell up. What do you mean they threatened me? And why didn’t you tell me all of this sooner?”
“I didn’t want to scare you.”
“Jer, I’m not scared. I’m pissed.” Okay, truthfully she was terrified out of her ever-lovin’ mind, but she wasn’t about to put additional stress on him by pointing it out. “These people blackmailed you into this by using me as the bait. I hope they damn well rot in hell.”
“Trust me, I’ll make sure they do.”
The deadly promise in his tone gave her comfort, but there was still the matter of the research itself. “If they’re the type to stoop to this kind of level, it makes me doubly worried what they’re after.” It had to be dangerous. Anything that held enough value to provoke a theft of this magnitude could only spell trouble.
“You’re not the only one. But I’m not going to risk your life over it.”
“What difference does it make? If it’s something that will trigger the destruction of the entire planet, my life will be a moot point regardless.”
The tightening of his jaw verified that he didn’t like her assessment of the situation, whether it was on the mark or not. “You’re likely jumping to wildly unfounded conclusions. Regardless, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. We don’t even know where to look for this damn research. For now, our primary goal is to track it down.”
The remainder of the drive back to her apartment was a strained one, leaving Avily with the certainty that sometimes ignorance truly was bliss. Bad enough when she’d merely assumed that this was one of his typical jobs, only with an odd, naughty twist with the sex club. Now she knew the entire scary story, and it was impossible to kid herself that everything hadn’t suddenly developed a sinister cast.
Jerrick pulled to a stop in the alleyway. Automatically her thoughts veered to the break-in, and the ramifications of the event walloped her with the dizzying impact of a sledgehammer. “The people blackmailing you had something to do with my break-in, didn’t they?”
Shifting his weight, he rested his arm on his seatback and returned her gaze. “I don’t know for certain, but I suspect so.”
She shivered, and he reached for her, the warm comfort of his arms a safe haven she never wanted to leave. His lips brushed her forehead. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
The unflinching promise in his avowal cocooned her in its comforting embrace for approximately twenty seconds. Reality intruding, she peered up at him. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d really like it if you stayed in the apartment instead of out here tonight.”
Nodding his agreement, he swung open his door. They trooped inside the back entrance of the store and made their way upstairs to the apartment. Desperate to get her mind off the new host of worries plaguing her thoughts, she slipped out of her cloak and headed to the kitchen. “I’ll reheat last night’s dinner.”
“Okay if I use your shower? I didn’t have a chance to take one today.”
Well what do you know? Now she had something else to occupy her mind. The prospect of a wet and naked Jerrick right down the hall. Far more thrilling than Steak Silano, in her estimation of things. “Sure, go ahead.”
He swiped the change of clothes he’d left behind the night before and strode to the bathroom, leaving her to the vivid fantasy of him slick and soapy. A few seconds later, the pipes rattled as the hot water sluiced through the plumbing. Copping a squat on the couch, she aimlessly perused the latest issue of the Tul’dea Times. Other than the main piece on the Amora Moon festivities, every article centered somehow or other on the growing tension between the fae and human communities. “Not exactly headline-making news there.”
Shaking her head, she pitched the periodical onto the catch-all table and flicked on the visio system instead. She attempted to focus on the program, but a few seconds into it she quickly came to the conclusion she’d rather jab Borasha spikes under her fingernails than watch another second of Fairy Hospital. The nurses were all drop-dead gorgeous and their scrubs immaculate. Yeah, that was realistic.