Free Wanted by a Dangerous Man by Cleo Peitsche Page B

muscles, I knew that he didn’t get that way just from pushing weight around in a gym.
    Apparently I needed to ask Corbin a lot more questions. Rather, I needed to make him answer a lot more questions, not get distracted by his sex voodoo.
    He gripped the grate and worked at a lock on the inside. He was balanced only on his toes. I held my breath, but after a moment, half of the grate came away.
    He looked over his shoulder, and I hurried over to catch the grate. I carefully laid it against the building, then put the second half next to it.  
    “Watch out,” he said. I stepped back, and he dropped the tools onto the ground. I retrieved them and folded them into the bundle, then stuffed it back into my pocket.
    Getting the window open took him longer than getting up there, which would have been funny if I hadn’t been so worried that he was about to fall backward and break his neck. But he got it open, disappeared inside. Light flared, then dimmed. Flashlight, and he must have been muting the beam with a cupped hand. It was something I had to do fairly often.
    He reappeared at the window. “Go to the front,” he said, gesturing. “I’ll let you in.”
    A car drove by as I reached the street. The driver didn’t spare me a second glance. A few minutes later, the door opened.
    I slipped inside. “That was very cool and very stupid.”
    “You could have stopped at cool,” he suggested. “But you’re right. It was stupid. There are homeless people living on the other side of the building, so clearly there’s a much easier way in. But to impress you? I’d say it was worth it.”
    “Don’t forget the stupid part.” We walked up two flights of wide concrete stairs, Corbin lighting my path. Workmen had been active in the building not so long ago. I stepped over a few empty water bottles and a pair of cracked safety goggles, everything covered in a distinct but shallow layer of dust.
    Corbin opened a window. It didn’t have grates on the other side, being three floors up. The moonlight filtering in through the window muted Corbin’s features. I wanted to touch him, feel every inch of his body under my fingertips, convince myself that he was real and not fading into a dream. But it wasn’t the time to lust after him, so I reluctantly turned my attention back to work.  
    Across the way, nothing was happening. Even the light that had been on was now extinguished. I leaned against the wall. “I really hope Syre didn’t sneak out the front door.”
    Corbin gave me a funny look. “It’s self-preservation. Maybe his life isn’t literally on the line, but to him, it certainly feels like it. Guy like that is paranoid as hell. The last thing he’ll do is use the front door.”
    It was a good point. “I take back the stupid comment.”
    He raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t realize you were making a character assessment.”
    “I wasn’t. But I’d rather erase the insult than call you smart.”  
    Corbin leaned forward and retrieved a coil of rope. He pulled on a section, testing it, and I stifled a sneeze as dust floated in the air.  
    He glanced at me. “So the next time I do something smart, you’ll have to compliment me?”
    My answer was consumed in a brief but uncontrollable sneezing fit.
    Movement in the building across from us caught my attention, and a curtain inched back.  
    “Busted,” Corbin whispered.  
    “How do you know it’s him?” Even though I’d reached the same conclusion, Corbin’s thought processes intrigued me.
    “It’s not late, the lights are off, and someone is acting sketchy as hell. This is going to be easier than I thought.” He leveled a calculating glance at me, then pulled me back into the darkness of the warehouse, toward the steps. “The sooner we get him, the sooner I have you to myself. I’ll do it.”
    “What?”  
    He shrugged. “This is the equivalent of an easy day for me. We’ll be done here soon, then I can take you to a hotel room and fuck you like you