Man number two tried for another stab. Winters snagged the offending hand, twisting an arm back and up. The knife clattered to the parking lot. The man’s shoulder popped. He howled. Winters landed a punch to his head, knocking him silent, then dropped him on top of the other. Assholes. You shouldn’t have fucked with my girl.

CHAPTER TEN

Winters toed the bodies, rummaged through their pockets, and pulled out a set of car keys before he turned to Mia. Frozen in place, she hadn’t moved from the wall, manning her assigned spot. Her jaw was tight, her lips pressed into a straight line, and her eyes as round as the backlit O in the motel sign high overhead. Her skin had paled in the dark night.

Ah, man. He’d worked so hard to make her trust him. To make her think he was safe. Now, her face screamed stranger danger, and her stance said the woman was about to beat feet. All in all, she’d reverted back to when he pulled the shoulder toss move on her post-airport.

“Mia, honey.”

Her jaw dropped and hung wordlessly. Not good. Not. Good. At. All.

“It’s a really bad time for you to go into shock.”

“Not. Shock.”

“Whatever it is, I need you to snap out of it.”

“I’m safe. You… Took care of them, just like you said.”

He jangled the keys to catch her attention. Mia focused on him, dazed. He lofted the key ring her way. She caught them one-handed while still plastered against the wall. Not a bad catch.

“Get their car and drive it over here.”

She nodded, peeled away from her brick support, and obeyed without question, parking it in the unlit spot he pointed at. Winters popped the trunk and tossed the first man in, then the second. He eyed the parking lot in a quick sweep. No other cars struck him as suspicious. No one exited the karaoke bar. They were all alone.

Violence had never before been an aphrodisiac. Hell, it wasn’t now. But protecting her, isolating her from dangerous men, that shit was downright carnal. His blood rushed to his cock. A savage possession reared up.

Her dark eyes flicked over him, making his cock ache for her, and she hissed. “I told you to be careful. You could’ve been hurt.”

He was by her side in an instant, pinning her against the wall again. God, he should be careful with her. But the temptation on her face, the flash in her gaze, promised it’d be impossible.

“You doubted me?”

“No. No. I didn’t doubt you. I just…I didn’t know what else to say just then.”

Not giving her a second to make the same mistake twice, he slanted his lips over hers. It’d been too long since her lips covered his. Everything in the parking lot was a game. All part of the dance.

He needed her embrace to wash away the violence coursing through him. The need to battle dissolved as soon as she opened her mouth wide, wicking her hot tongue across his.