The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [246]
“He touched my leg,” she said succinctly, “and before he would have touched anything else, Gus would have stopped him.”
“Gus?” A tiny flare of jealousy took him by surprise.
“The bouncer. The one you…”
“Ah.” Jordan saw a hint of color sweep over her face and touched her cheek with his fingertips, gently smoothing a damp curl aside. “The big bruiser I stopped from knocking me out. Why the hell was he attacking me, anyway?”
She didn’t protest his touch. They were both breathing too hard, too fast. She lifted one delicate shoulder in a way that made her breasts shift, teasing him with the possibility of gaining a peek at her taut nipples. He was disappointed to see she stayed securely inside the bodice. Jordan shook his head and tried to force himself to concentrate on their conversation, impossible as that seemed.
“He doesn’t know you,” she said. “And you looked—” She peeked up at him, a slight frown marring her brown. “Well, you looked furious.”
“I was furious.” His voice dropped to a whisper, making her eyes, shadowed and cautious, widen on his face. “I thought someone was going to hurt you.”
Her lips parted.
Outside the car, one man struggling against being arrested fetched up against the door closest to the woman. She jumped, letting out a startled gasp. Without even thinking about it, Jordan clasped her shoulder, offering comfort and reassurance. Her soft skin tempted him and it was all he could do to keep the touch impersonal, to keep from caressing her. But she also felt cool against the warmth of his hand, making him frown.
A lot of activity was going on around them, though he hadn’t been aware of it moments before. Above the din of complaints and drunken shouts, Jordan heard the sheriff arguing that he’d been called one time too many to the bar, and now he was forced to actually do something, just so he could get some peace.
Apparently that something was a series of arrests, and it didn’t matter that Jordan hadn’t been drinking, that he hadn’t started the fight, and that he’d had nothing to do with the other numerous times the disgruntled sheriff had been summoned.
“Nice place you work at.” Jordan continued to smooth his fingers over her skin, unable to force himself to move away from her.
“It pays the bills,” was her straightforward reply, then she suddenly seemed to realize his touch and turned to glare at him.
Jordan again held up the coat. “Do you really want my brother to see you looking like that?”
“Your brother?”
“The Buckhorn sheriff. If I know Morgan, he’s liable to be here any minute. I’m sure I’ll get the brunt of his anger, but believe me, there’ll be a heady dose for you, too, since he’d had his evening all planned and it didn’t include a jaunt out into the rainy night. Wouldn’t you rather be wearing a little more armor than lace and fringe?”
Her hands knotted together in her lap. “Do you think he’ll keep us for the night?”
She looked so fragile and delicate, so damn young, Jordan had a hard time reconciling the confident, aloof vamp she’d been on the stage with the concerned, shivering woman she was now. She simply didn’t strike him as a person hardened to life, a woman brazen enough to be comfortable with her earlier display.
It was Jordan’s turn to shrug. “Who knows? He has no tolerance for ignorance, regardless of the fact we’re related. But then again, he’s very fair and you and I weren’t to blame for what happened in there.”
Her glare said differently. Jordan smiled. “Okay, so you think I was to blame. Is that any reason to sit there freezing?” He traced the line of her throat with one fingertip. “Your skin is like ice.”
A slight shudder ran through her and her eyes closed. Jordan stared, feeling what she felt, the connection, the instantaneous sexual charge. Like a touch of lightning, it sizzled along his every nerve ending, making him so acutely aware of her he