She walks toward the door in a fluid way, as if her joints have been oiled. It’s the same way girls walk when they know they’re being admired. But Raven does it with no one around. Is it possible that she has no agenda? A slight breeze blows her long dark hair, and, at the moment, I feel like the dorky math nerd admiring the high school cheerleader from afar.
With my thoughts on her along with my eyes, I reach for the door. I pull it open. She jumps back with a squeak, her arm raised to knock.
“Wow, sorry about that,” I say lamely. “I didn’t know you were here. I was just going to check the mail.” I make a show of opening the mailbox.
“Oh, no problem.” She actually looks embarrassed, which is funny considering the ass I just made of myself.
“Did you find the place okay?” I hold open the door and motion for her to come in.
She lowers her head in an attempt to hide her face with her hair. She doesn’t move fast enough, and I see a faint blush kiss her cheeks as she moves past me. The same blush that had me tenting my boxers all night.
“Yes, thank you.” Her eyes go wide as we walk into the living room. “Oh, Jonah, your home is beautiful.”
My pulse quickens at the breathy way she said my name.
Her head tilts as she peeks around the corner into the kitchen. “Looks like fighting pays well.”
Ah-ha! There it is.
“You know who I am.” Not a question.
“Of course, I do.” Her eyes roll to the ceiling then fix on mine. “You’re ‘The Assassin’.” She says my fighting name in an exaggerated announcer’s voice.
Girls don’t usually tease me. And they hardly ever look me in the eye. I try hard not to smile, but her easygoing nature is infectious.
“You’re a local hero.”
My nose wrinkles at her overestimation of my status. “I don’t know about hero.” My lips turn up in a half smile. “Wouldn’t I need a cape for that?”
A cape? Smooth. This girl makes me feel like a love-sick schoolboy without even trying.
She quirks her lips and narrows her eyes in a way most women reserve for the bedroom. “Well, this is Las Vegas, Jonah.”
God, my name sounds good on her lips.
“In the City of Sin, we can use all the good guys we can get, cape or not.”
She obviously doesn’t know my reputation. Many names have shadowed Jonah Slade, but good guy isn’t one of them. Usually I would think she was just trying to flatter me, but there’s a sincerity in her eyes that steals my breath.
I stare into their blue-green depths. Her thick dark lashes flutter before her gaze drops to my lips. I swallow hard, resisting the urge to show her exactly what I could do to her with my mouth. Blood races in my veins, shooting south with a vengeance.
“Is everything okay?”
No, everything is absolutely not okay.
“Yeah, of course.” I force myself to turn away from her piercing gaze. One more second locked in those eyes would have me worshipping at her feet, begging for just the tiniest taste of her perfect mouth.
I need to pull my shit together, and fast.
As much as my body craves her, I can’t seduce this girl. Sleeping with her will no doubt work her out of my system. But she’ll most likely get clingy and annoying like all the others. Something deep down whispers that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Having a girl like this begging at my door might be fun. I shake off the visual of Raven’s begging on her knees . . .
The resulting groan has Raven’s narrowed eyes on mine. No, I can do this. She’s here to help me restore my car. Surely I can handle being around her without throwing her to the floor and ravishing every inch of her beautiful body. Or at least, that’s what I tell myself.
*
Raven
“How about a tour?”
Yes, please. Anything to distract me from his eyes. They’re hazel, but not like any hazel I’ve ever seen. The brown is so light I can make out shards of deep green toward the pupils. The dramatic contrast makes it hard not to stare. “That’d be great.”
It’s taking everything I’ve got to keep my voice level and my hands from shaking. Even my grin feels off. My only hope is that he’s used to people being nervous around him and doesn’t notice that I’m about to jump out of my skin.
While he gives me a guided tour of his home, I take an unguided tour of his body. As extraordinary as his house is, my gaze is repeatedly drawn back to him. His towering frame is even taller than I remember. His thick arms are round in all the right places: t-shirt sleeves pulled taut around his biceps. As if it were sculpted from marble, his body is all muscle cuts and hard edges. His smooth sun-tanned skin is without blemish, except for the glorious bursts of colors that coat his arms from his wrists to beneath his shirt. I wonder how far they go? Over the bulk of his shoulders to his corded back to—
“Raven?” The sound of my name pulls my attention.
“Hmm?”
He’s standing at a huge sliding glass door, smiling as if he’s in on a joke I missed. “I lost you for a minute. Am I that boring?” His rugged physique is all man, but his boyish dimples and bright smile make my head swim.