Not One Clue_ A Mystery - Lois Greiman [20]
“Neighborhood Watch,” rumbled the stranger. “Aaron Berkhouse. And I don’t give a shit if you’re the pope. He bothering you, miss?”
Miss? I considered batting my lashes at him, but decided to just go for Rivera’s jugular instead. “He grabbed my arms,” I said. My voice was as soft as whipped butter.
“You know this guy?” Berkhouse asked.
I bit my lip. “Kind of.”
“You grab her arms?” Aaron rumbled.
“Listen, Berkhouse—”
“Did you grab her arms?” he asked, and stepped a little closer.
I thought, but I wasn’t sure, that Rivera cursed under his breath. “Yes, I did.”
“Apologize.”
I looked at Rivera, crushed a smile, and tried to refrain from doing the “You better watch your ass” dance.
“I’m sorry,” he said, but the words were hard to understand coming through his teeth.
“For what?” I asked, and added a lovely blink to my performance. So far it was one of my best.
“For grabbing your arms.”
The big guy nodded. “That good for you, miss?”
“I suppose so,” I said. “I don’t think he meant any harm.” I tried another blink. I didn’t want to overdo it. There’s a fine line between appearing helpless and myopic. “He’s just so forceful sometimes.”
Berkhouse scowled, then pulled a card from his back pocket and handed it over. “You give me a call if he bothers you again.”
“Okay. Thank you, Mr. Berkhouse.”
He turned and ambled away with a lot of lateral movement. I watched.
“You happy now?” Rivera asked.
I turned toward him. “I can honestly say that was the pinnacle of my day so far.”
He snorted.
“I’m not helpless, Rivera,” I said.
“I never said you were helpless.”
“How about brainless?” I asked.
“Listen, McMullen, I know you’re intelligent.”
“Well, you don’t act like it.”
“Neither do you when you—” He stopped himself. “Is it too much to ask for you to be a little careful?”
I gave him a raised brow. “Check my trunk?”
“Just last week a Caucasian female was accosted by a man thought to have been hiding in her trunk.”
“A Caucasian female?” I asked, and turned in a circle to search for my dropped keys.
“A woman,” he said. “Not unlike yourself.”
Spotting a glint of metal near the Saturn’s right front tire, I bent to retrieve them.
“She probably wasn’t helpless, either.” Not five feet away there was a quarter. I bent to retrieve that, too. “Or brainless. Or—”
A dime lay not far from the quarter. I bent.
“Jesus!” He sounded near to exploding. “Will you quit doing that?”
“What?” I straightened, honestly confused this time.
“Holy fuck, woman, could that skirt be any tighter? What if I really did plan to jump you?” he asked, and stepped up close.
I refused to crowd back. He smelled kind of good.
“Didn’t you?”
“If I have plans for you, you’ll know it,” he said, and nudged a thigh between mine.
“I believe Mr. Berkhouse is still within shouting distance,” I said, but really my hormones were already getting pretty noisy.
“If he saw you bend down I’m pretty sure he’d sympathize with me.”
“You mean like this?” I asked, and pivoting, bent away from him.
“Christ,” he said, but just as he was reaching for my ass, I turned and raised my key ring to eye level.
He stared at it, deadpan. “I thought you said you didn’t have your Mace.”
“I didn’t know I was required to be honest with rapists.”
“You drive me crazy.”
“Just an innocent passenger on the road to Nutville, are you, Rivera?”
He pressed up against me. “Not too innocent.”
I could feel his erection as he slipped his hand behind my back, skin against skin, rucking up my cranberry blouse. Sneaky. I was sure it had been securely tucked into my stylish ivory skirt. But I was kind of glad it wasn’t. His fingers felt warm and strong.
I moved in for a kiss.
“Promise you’ll check the trunk,” he said.
We were inches apart. “I’ll scan the parking lot before I leave my office,” I vowed.
“No deal.”
“It’s my best offer.”
“Liar,” he said, and slowly slid his hand up my spine. Hot slippery feelings shimmied through me. I was breathing kind of hard.
“I’ll check the backseat,” I promised.
“Maybe we could do that now,” he said, and kissed