Part 18 (1/2)
”Jonas-”
”She leaves with me.” His narrowed gaze challenged Gabriel to continue with his protest.
The other man looked at him searchingly for several long seconds before glancing down at his sister. Lily's head lay against Jonas's shoulder; her eyes were closed. Gabriel nodded. ”Take everyone else's statements tonight by all means, but she leaves with him,” he told the police inspector.
”Miss Knight?” the inspector prompted.
Lily roused herself enough to open her eyelids and look at the police inspector. ”I want to leave with Jonas,” she confirmed huskily.
No one else offered a word of protest as Jonas carried her out of the room, down the hallway, and out the back door of the theater.
”Where are you taking me?” Lily prompted wearily as Jonas drove the SUV through the lamp-lit streets of London.
”Larchwood.”
Lily heaved a sigh of relief as she leaned back against the headrest. ”You do know that I wouldn't normally allow you to just take charge like this?”
”Oh yes.”
”Your poor hands!” Lily groaned as she looked at Jonas's bleeding knuckles where he tightly gripped the steering wheel.
”You should see the other guy,” he attempted to joke.
Lily had seen the other guy, and as far as she was concerned, Todd Shaw deserved every cut and bruise-and broken nose-that now adorned his previously boyishly handsome face.
”I don't think I'm the only one to have inflicted injury on him,” Jonas drawled as he recalled the blood flowing down Todd Shaw's face and the way he had favored his left leg as the police took him away.
She nodded. ”I managed to get in a head-b.u.t.t and a kick before he tried to knock me out by banging my head against the wall.”
Jonas straightened. ”You do realize you deserve another spanking for trying to deal with him on your own.”
”Really?”
”Except you'd probably enjoy it too much.” He scowled. ”What the f.u.c.k did you think you were doing, antagonizing Shaw like that?”
”I had every confidence my hero would save me.”
”Me?”
”You,” she confirmed. ”I just thought I'd put in a few kicks of my own while I was waiting. Todd is totally insane, I'm afraid.” She went on to explain the other man's warped reasoning behind his actions.
Jonas nodded. ”It sounds as if he'll be placed in an asylum on suicide watch rather than a prison. Unfortunately.”
The horror of being alone with Todd loomed less immediate to Lily the farther they drove away from London. After her near-death experience, it felt good to be able to look at Jonas again. To be with him again.
He smelled wonderful. That woodsy aroma that was totally Jonas, along with a heavy musk that made her body ache and her head swirl. The fact that she was here, on her way to his house in the woods with him, must surely mean that he felt something for her, even if it was only his protective instinct kicking in. She could work with that.
”I've missed you,” she told him huskily.
The SUV swerved to the left as Jonas briefly lost concentration. He righted the vehicle again before glancing across at her.
”Did you miss me too?” she prompted.
”Could we save this conversation for when we get to my house?”
”I don't know, can we?”
Jonas gave a heavy sigh before he admitted, ”I missed you too.”
”Good.” Lily was satisfied with that.
For now...
”I can walk, you know,” she protested a short time later. Jonas had parked the SUV and then insisted on carrying her the half mile through the woods to his house. The snow had melted in the last week, but it had left the trail slippery in places.
”This is quicker,” he dismissed. Not only was he carrying Lily, but as she didn't have a coat of her own, he had also wrapped that black leather duster around her to protect her from the worst of the icy chill in the air. He seemed impervious to that cold in just his T-s.h.i.+rt and jeans.
”Are we in a hurry?” she prompted curiously, her arms curved about the back of his neck.
”Yes.”
”Oh.”
A smile curved Jonas's lips as he glanced down at her. ”Don't tell me you're finally at a loss for words?”
”I'm sure I can think of something to say, if you think it's necessary?”
”It's not.” He shook his head. ”Almost there,” he added with satisfaction.
Lily felt herself trembling again. Not that bone-shaking trauma of being alone with a cold-blooded killer like Todd Shaw, but with the antic.i.p.ation of being alone again with Jonas. The man she loved.
Jonas didn't put her down once they were inside his house. Instead, he carried on, walking through the open-plan sitting room and down the corridor to his darkened bedroom.
Lily looked up at him uncertainly as he placed her on the bed. ”Jonas?”
”You need a hot bath and then bed.” He didn't look at her face as he sat on the side of the bed and began to unwrap her from the leather duster.
”In that order?”
Jonas's gaze was guarded as he glanced at her. ”Not necessarily.”
Lily moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. ”In that case, bed first.”
Jonas drew in a sharp breath as he straightened. ”You scared the s.h.i.+t out of me earlier. You know that, don't you?”
”Why?”