Free Blink by Violet Williams Page A

gasped when he turned his back to her, his
head bowed in concentration. Not on the accident, mind you—on the
very conversation that put them in this mess in the first
place!
    She shook her head. “Unbelievable.” She spun
on her heels and walked back to her car, rummaging through her
pocketbook. She pulled out her Iphone and walked back to the scene.
She wanted to take pictures of the damage, maybe a shot or two of
his license plate.
    As she pivoted the lens in his direction, a
ripple of longing went through her and without thinking, she hit
the ‘take’ button. Her phone flashed.
    The guy’s attention turned to her in shock.
“Hold on a second,” he said to whomever, whatever was so
much more important than the issue at hand. He crossed his arms.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
    Simone’s cheeks blossomed red as she pointed
the camera where it belonged—the damage, not the damager. Or was he
the damagee? It didn’t matter. She just wanted to get the pics, get
his info, and get out of there.
    “I’m taking pictures,” she answered finally.
“And if I could just get your insurance information-”
    “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said with a chuckle.
His features softened and he gave her a look. Actually, ‘look’
didn’t do it justice. It was so intimate that she was surprised he
didn’t knock her up with the glance. Warmth pooled at her core and
she felt light headed, drunk on attraction. Drawn to him like a
moth to a flame.
    She took a step back, overwhelmed by the
effect he was having on her. “W-what?”
    “There’s no need for that,” he said with a
smile. “There’s no need for business as usual.”
    It’s a little late for that anyway ,
Simone thought ruefully. She’d only been in two accidents before.
One was with an inanimate object when she wasn’t paying attention
and took the rear bumper of her SUV clean off when she swiped a
pole near a gas pump. The other was when some old lady backed up
and hit her car at the grocery store. In the thick of those
incidents, she hadn’t found herself wanting to drag the person, or
pole, to the ground and screw their brains out.
    “Since we’re talking about business,” Simone
piped, trying to steer them back on topic, “It looks like you’re in
the middle of some.” She squared her shoulders. “Let’s just wrap
this up and we can both get back to our lives.”
    But that would have been too simple. He gave
her another one of those earth shattering grins and she damn near
had to clutch the side of her car to steady herself.
    He turned his head to the ground. “I’ll talk
to you later,” he said, pressing the Bluetooth. “Alright. Take a
message.” He pulled the device from his ear and dropped it into his
pocket and took a few steps in her direction. “You’ve got my full
attention, love.”
    He called her ‘love’. When he stepped closer
and she got a whiff of his spicy scent, she knew all bets were
off.
    Focus , she ordered herself silently. Stay on task . “So, uh, I should get your number.” She
gulped. “And your insurance stuff. And we should probably file a
police report-”
    “If you wanted to call me, all you had to do
was so say so,” he winked.
    “Don’t flatter yourself,” she scoffed. “It’s
purely so we can figure out how the damage will be repaired. I mean
we could go the insurance route or you could pay out of
pocket-”
    “Ah, I see.” He stroked his chin. “So if I
give you my insurance stuff and my number, we’ll part ways.”
    “Yes.”
    “We’ll never talk again.” Beat. “I mean, each
of us will do plenty of talking throughout the claims bs. Allstate
will dish out the cash for a new bumper for you. My rates will go
up.” He shook his head. “Unacceptable.”
    She gaped at him. He probably worked downtown
at one of those high rises. Hell, he just made more money with a
commission than she’d make in a whole year! “This is about money,
huh?”
    “Not at all,” he said smoothly. His eyes