Page 141 of Silas

He's got heavy stubble on his jaw, not quite a beard, but more than just having not shaved in a few days.

He has dark circles under his eyes, and the streetwise trauma victim in me, the part of me that can read people like books, whispers that this man knows pain. He knows suffering. He's seen and done the worst this life can throw at him and he's still fucking here.

He's staring down at me like a death row inmate looking at his last steak dinner.

"Mornin', beautiful," he drawls. "Looking for something?"

I stare back up at him—he's perfect, in every way. And something inside me is screaming at me.

The content of the screaming is what's confusing.

Half of me is screamingDANGER! DANGER! DANGER!Not because I get a sense of threat from him, but because something in my soul knows he'll be dangerous to me.

Stay away. Do not engage. Run, Forrest, Run.

The other half of me wants to climb his body like a tree and ride his perfect, rugged, beautiful, lickable face until I've got beard-burn on my thighs.

The latter is the reason for the former. Because, I fear, once I start riding, I can already tell I won't want to stop. Which just doesn't work for me.

He snaps his fingers in front of my face, yanking me from my staring reverie. "Hey. You with me down there, gorgeous?"

I shake my face and bat his hand away, and not gently. "Get your hand out of my face, you damn tree."

He just smirks, a cocky little half grin that makes my nipples turn to glass cutters. "You're standin' here lookin' like you're lookin' for something." He shrugs. "Just offering my services. Gallantry ain't entirely dead, you know." He cuts those Kelly green eyes down to mine. "So. You lookin' for something?"

I sigh. "Yeah."

I pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration because I just know this isn't going to turn out well, but I promised Emily, so…

"You."

"Me?" He quirks an eyebrow. "Come again?"

"Gotta come first to come again," I quip, the sarcasm splurting out of me unbidden, as is my wont. "And your smile isn'tthatpretty."

He laughs, and the genuine humor lightens his features, making him that much sexier. "All right, I'll bite. What do you mean, you're lookin' for me?"

"I need a date for a wedding."

He frowns, and even a frown only makes him hotter. "When?"

"Now."

"Now? Likenownow?"

I roll my eyes. "No, genius, yesterday now. Tomorrow now. Yes, now. Like right now."

"Um."

"You got a tie with that getup?"

He tugs a slim black tie from his suit coat pocket. "I do."

"You're not marrying me, so don't get your hopes up."

I grab the tie from him, snag his lapels and haul him down to me, looping the tie over his neck. I pop his collar and knot the tie in short order, smoothing his collar down.

I pat his chest. "There ya go, handsome. Come on."