Eve - Iris Johansen [10]
“You’re not relaxing,” he said softly.
“No.” But she didn’t want him to stop. “You’re not … helping me.”
“I’m not helping myself much, either.” His fingers never stopped moving, digging, pressing. “But I want to keep on touching you no matter how much it hurts.” He drew a deep breath, and his hands fell away from her. “I didn’t mean it to happen this way. I didn’t mean it to happen at all. Hell yes, I wanted to get my hands on you. I’ve wanted that ever since I saw you sitting on those steps at—” He dropped down in the chair next to her. “Sorry. I didn’t know you would—”
He didn’t know that she’d respond as she had done. She hadn’t known it would happen, either. That flash of sensuality had come like a bolt of lightning. Searing, melting, overpowering. She instinctively pushed the knowledge of that response away from her. “It’s okay. I’m … it’s not as if—nothing happened.”
“The hell it didn’t.” He wasn’t looking at her. “But I’m trying to work it out in my head and decide what’s going on. Look, I’m no saint, but I don’t jump every girl I run across. The whole damn night has been crazy. I don’t usually interfere with— But I couldn’t let them hurt you. And then later on the stairs, I couldn’t keep from looking at you.”
And she hadn’t been able to stop looking at him. She still couldn’t. He was staring straight ahead, but her gaze was drawn to him like a magnet. Her gaze fell to his hand, lying on the wood arm of the chair.
His nails were short and clean, and the thumbs, which had dug into her muscles, looked long and strong.
They had been strong. She felt as if she could still feel the imprint on her flesh. Her chest was tightening, and her heartbeat was suddenly faster.
His gaze shifted to her face. “Oh, shit.” His cheeks were flushed, and his dark eyes were narrowing on her throat, then wandering to her breasts.
She had to stop this. She hunted wildly for something to break the web of sensuality that was tightening around her.
Rosa. The reason she was here. Talk about Rosa.
She jerked her eyes away from his. “Rosa’s afraid they’re going to try to take her baby away.”
“I don’t want to talk about Rosa right now.” His voice was soft and with a note in it that sent a shiver through her. She hadn’t realized that a shiver could be hot as well as cold. Then he paused. “But you need to back away from me, don’t you? Okay, I’ll try not to think about—but it won’t be easy.” He combed his fingers through his thick, dark hair. “What did you say? Oh, yeah. Why do they want to take the kid away from her?”
“They think she might be the one who hurt Manuel. It’s nuts. She loves that baby.”
He nodded. “I could tell.”
“None of the neighbors will talk to the police about what Rick Larazo and the rest of the gang did. And the guys were gone by the time the ambulance came. They’re not going to believe me, either. I’m too young.” She added in disgust, “They never believe anyone under thirty.”
“And you’re just a little over halfway there.” He grimaced. “Dammit.”
“I’ll get around it.” She finished her coffee. “I promised Rosa I’d go talk to some of the neighbors and try to persuade them to tell the truth about what they saw.”
“You really want to help her, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. Any way I can.”
“Then, if you can’t find someone to tell the truth because Larazo’s got them scared, get one of the potheads in the place to lie and say they saw it. It shouldn’t be hard. Just slip them a joint. There are addicts in half the apartments in the building.”
“I don’t deal drugs,” she said sharply.
“Whew.” His eyes narrowed on her face. “Did I hit a nerve?”
She ignored the question. “Do you deal?”
He shook his head. “But if it came to a choice of paying someone a few joints to help your friend keep her kid, I’d do it in a heartbeat. It’s a shitty world, and you have to pick both the weapons and the battles.”
“Not drugs.”
He nodded. “Whatever you say.” He was silent a moment. “But you have to know that I’m not like you. I won’t lie. I’m not what you’d call