Loving a Bad Boy by Erosa Knowles Page B

physician here within an hour, I am calling for an
ambulance. I’m not losing my license behind this.” She held her
breath as the quiet lengthened.
    “ Understood.” He clicked
off the phone.
    Tired beyond what she could vocalize, she
collapsed onto a nearby chair and stared at Tex. “What have you
done, young man?” she murmured. Her mind raced over all the time
they’d spent together eating and talking, and she couldn’t fathom
him doing anything… criminal. With the exception of sexing her
niece six ways til Sunday, according to Tara anyway, before moving
on, he’d been nice and laidback.
    “ So…someone shot you?” she
asked his quiet form. “Did you do something illegal? Something
that’s going to come back to bite me in the ass?”
    Sighing, she straightened in the chair and
looked up at the globe light fixture above her head. “Of course
this is going to bite me in the ass. Things always come back at
me.” She shook her head thinking of her brother’s tirade over
Tara’s falling grades. It wasn’t her fault that Tara wasn’t living
up to his ideal.
    A knock sounded on her door. The second one
in one, no, make that two hours, she corrected, glancing at the
wall clock. Drained, she dragged herself through the living room to
the front door. She peered through the peep-hole, even though she
was sure the person on the other side was the man from the phone.
Had it been five minutes? Ten? All she saw was the back of his dark
suit. Pissed at him for his earlier rudeness, she snatched open the
door, and filled the doorway. “Yes?” she said in her most
uninviting tone.
    He turned.
    The sharp words she’d planned to say died
the instant her eyes met his. Her stomach fell in recognition of
the tall Latino hunk she had been fantasizing over for the past
months. Figures, after all her dreaming about him, he’d see her at
her worst. Her hand itched to smooth out her hair and pull the
wrinkles out of her top. But it was too late to change her
appearance.
    At any other time she’d pretend not to eat
him up with her eyes. But not tonight. She was too tired, plus
after he removed Tex, she’d never have another shot at being this
close to him. So she took her time assessing him with female
appreciation. The deep furrow between his brows and clenched jaw
didn’t detract one iota from his handsomeness.
    “ I’m here for Tex.” His
deep voice snapped her out of an embarrassing daydream in which he
did all types of delicious things to her body. Did he have to dash
her hopes by claiming Tex was his only reason for stopping at her
door? Besides, the way he talked sounded as though he had a warrant
for her neighbor or something.
    Straightening to her full five feet, four
inches, she returned his stare. “And you are?”
    He stiffened and straightened as well.
“Julio Cardenas.” His tone took on an arctic chill.
    She frowned, trying to remember what Tex had
said. “Julio. He said to call Julio for him. Come in.” She moved
back to get away from the cold fury that whipped from his utterance
of those two words.
    Julio Cardenas… that’ll be easy to
remember.
    He nodded and took two precise steps inside,
and closed the door behind him. His penetrating gaze held her
hostage for another moment while she desperately tried to inhale
more oxygen into her lungs.
    His eyes flicked around
the room as though he expected someone to jump out at him or
something. Intrigued, she watched as he moved around her living
area, checked the windows, looked outside on her patio, and checked
the patio door before returning to her side. What the hell was going on?
    Rather than ask, she exhaled and looked
toward the kitchen, hoping he’d take the hint and go to Tex.
Anything was better than looking directly at him. Well, not while
he looked at her, anyway. She stole covert glances of him. The cut
of his dark suit was impeccable. The creases were sharp, the cuffs
fell just right on his shined shoes, and his coat fit the width of
his