Dangerously Big Read Online Free PDF Page A

have a vehicle.
    Unless my bosses give me one and I just… take off.  
    Despite what Hawthorne thinks, I’m not actually a thief. The whole thing with the company card at Sunrise Imports was a bit of a mistake. I wasn’t trying to take the money so much as borrow it. If I take a car, though…
    “Suppose my car doesn’t turn up. What happens?” I ask uneasily.
    “Our insurance will replace it,” Slade says. “Lindsay, stop worrying about the details. Everything will be fine.”  
    We stop at a light, and he looks over at me. “Are you ok?”
    I nod.
    “This isn’t at all parallel to what you went through tonight, but I was mugged as a teenager. The guy was drunk and high, but it was still very scary. I’m not ashamed to admit that. When it’s happening, you can’t know how it will end, if he has a gun—”
    “He had a gun,” I blurt out. I regret the words the moment they leave my mouth.  
    Slade pulls the car over. “Lindsay… Look at me.”
    I force myself to meet his eyes, and I’m so frustrated with myself for my outburst. What the hell is wrong with me lately? I never used to have a problem keeping my mouth shut.
    But then… Kidnapper Joe. I don’t want to be rattled, but I am. Before meeting Romeo, Slade, and Hawthorne, someone like Joe never would have gotten close. I was sloppy, but what’s worse is that I’m not sure how to get my head on straight again.  
    Slade takes my hand and laces his fingers through mine. “You’re not alone in this,” he says. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there, that we weren’t there for you.”
    My eyes close because I can’t bear to see his undeserved guilt. “It’s not your fault,” I say.
    His fingers graze my cheek, and I flinch before leaning into his touch. I hear the slight creaking of his seat as he shifts his weight, then his warm breath is on my lips.
    His tongue licks across the seam of my mouth, and I open to him with a soft sigh.  
    The kiss is almost sweet. Slade has kissed me many times before, but only once when it was just the two of us. This kiss isn’t designed to drive me out of my mind with lust, or to make me frustrated, or to manipulate me into burying the hatchet with Hawthorne.
    This kiss feels, almost, like he cares. I’ve never been kissed by a man who loves me, but I imagine it might feel something like this gentle but determined claiming of my mouth. The breath that stutters in my chest turns burning hot, intensifying as it spreads from the places we touch: our hands, his fingers on my cheek, our lips, his tongue tasting me.
    No one has ever kissed me like this. It’s sexy but not sexual, erotic but not intended as foreplay.  
    He pulls back slightly and drags the tip of his thumb under my lower lip, drying me, though in truth it wasn’t a sloppy kiss.
    “What was that for?” I whisper as I open my eyes. It seems strange that the real world is still there, cars passing, people going into the plaza on the other side of the road.
    “Because you needed kissing,” he says with a little smile.
    That makes me laugh, and I instantly feel better, more normal. As he pulls back onto the road, I find myself wishing he would just keep driving, that we’d get on a plane, destination anywhere-but-here.
    “Have you ever thought about just walking away from all this?” I wonder aloud.  
    “Walking away from what?”
    “Work, for example. You don’t need the money. You could spend your life doing whatever you want.”
    “Ah.” He gets onto the highway. The car reaches cruising speed so quickly that it’s breathtaking, and all I hear is a low hum. “I did that for a year after college,” he says. “It got boring.”
    “What were you doing?”
    “Bouncing around the world. Blowing huge amounts of money in Vegas, Macao, Monaco. Dating actresses and supermodels. Hanging out with rock stars. That’s when it got boring, by the way.”
    “The rock stars?” I shift in my seat so I can better watch his face. I don’t really