Captured at Nightfall (Capture My Heart Love Story) (5 page)

Matthew
’s hand covered hers and he gave the cops a look that could have peeled paint from the walls. “Think she’s had enough for tonight. Anything else can wait until tomorrow when she’s had a chance to rest.”

The female officer
, fidgeting under Matthew’s steel gaze, snapped her notepad shut. Allie couldn’t blame her. Matthew had a way of projecting menace, even in repose. Unhappy, he could paralyze.

The male officer stepped forward and handed her a card. “We’ll need you to come down to the station tomorrow morning as soon as you are able if you want us to press charges. This is the third strike for some of these
boys, so they’ll most likely be going away for a while.” His eyes softened a little as he looked over her battered face. “The address is on the back of the card, along with a number where you can get a hold of us.”

Allie
’s hands shook as a fresh release of adrenaline surged through her. It was a huge relief to know her attackers would be in a cage where they belonged.

Matthew
snatched the card from Allie and slammed it down hard on the table. He stood, angling his body between her and the cops. “She’s already agreed to come down. And to press charges. We’re done here.”

The male officer’s mouth tightened
as though he’d like to say something more, but Matthew wasn’t having any of it. He had them out in the hall with the door slammed in their faces before Allie could blink.

She slumped into the plastic mattress of the uncomfortable hospital bed, feeling miserable, and pulled the thin blanket up to her chin.
Matthew was still facing the door, probably gearing up for his own chance to rip into her. Allie looked away. His presence filled the whole room; and even though it was just the two of them alone, it felt as if the place had never been more crowded.

She swallowed the lump in her throat when the muscles in
Matthew’s back bunched and he turned. His eyes were deep green, his expression unreadable. She couldn’t stand to get yelled at by him, too.

Squishing her eyes closed, she did her best to
disappear.

Her voice wavered as she forced herself to talk. “You don’t have to say anything, okay. I know I’m an idiot. I put myself into a horrible situation. It was stupid.
I
was stupid. Trust me, you couldn’t make me feel any worse than I already do right now.”

The vinyl on the seat beside her bed creaked
. When she felt his fingers grasp her chin, she jumped. “Allison, open your eyes, please.”

She breathed in some courage,
opened them . . . and waited.

His eyes ran over her face and his mouth compressed. “You do realize
you
were the victim tonight, right?”

She tried to jerk her face away so she didn’t have to look at him anymore. She couldn’t
bare it right now. His hands clamped around the sides of her face—unyielding . . . but cool, smooth, and safe—and suddenly she couldn’t breathe. Matthew was right there; within kissing distance. She swallowed, terrified for what he was going to do.

“Those cops were harsh,” he continued. “They see a lot of bad shit and so the idea of some girl putting herself right in the line of danger makes them angry.” When she sniffled, he added, “The only thing you’re guilty of is an excess of naïveté.”

Allie felt warmth trickle down her cheek. Matthew’s eyes dropped and the pad of one finger captured the tear and brought it to his lips where he kissed it away. Allie’s heart surged to her throat as she zoned in on the moist remains that clung to the center of his bottom lip. Her face was flushed with too much heat. Her mouth felt wet and hungry; she wanted to run her tongue over that swollen flesh.

Oh, crap
, she thought.
I can’t breathe
. She was going to die if he didn’t kiss her. She’d burn away in lust.

He leaned forward just a little.
“Allison?”

Her name on his lips now!

She looked up into his eyes. The ring of mossy green was narrowed down by dilated pupils; all over darker . . . and hungrier.

“
Allie,” she managed to whisper.

His brows folded over his eyes. “What?”

“Everyone calls me Allie.” She cleared her throat. “Only teachers and telemarketers call me Allison.”

His mouth curled up with a smile that made her stomach flip.
Cripes, were those dimples?
She’d kill to have him smile like that at her all the time.

The door was suddenly thrown open
and the room filled with people. Allie jumped back from Matthew like they’d been caught in the middle of . . . well, she had no idea what had been about to happen, actually.

Lainie
, a wild woman with her smudged mascara and halo of frizzed-out hair, froze when her gaze fixed on Matthew. Her face blanched to white and she muttered, “Holy shit. It’s true!”

Jennifer
peered over Lainie’s shoulder, her face tight with concern. The four guys that completed the crew filed in next but stuck to the room’s fringes, looking uncomfortable. Allie dropped her eyes, grateful the blanket was still covering her chest. The thin gown left little to the imagination.

Lainie
and Jennifer ran to her side, gathered up her hands in too-tight grips. Allie grimaced as their eyes ran over her face and their complexions changed from white to ash.

“Oh,
my gosh, Allie. You look horrible.” Lainie’s grip went from tight, to bone-shattering. Allie wriggled her fingers free and did her best to smile with some kind of reassurance.

“What happened?”
Jennifer’s voice was quiet.

Lainie
cut Allie’s reply off, “We were sick when we heard about the attack and couldn’t find you.” Her blue eyes flashed with lightening. “And where’s your phone? We’ve been calling for the last four hours!”

Jennifer
settled a light hand over Lainie’s shoulder. “Don’t freak out too much on her. She’s been through hell already.”

Allie
fumbled for her purse and dumped its contents out. The crushed phone perched on a nest of lip gloss, dollar bills, and loose change. “It got broken in the—fight.”

“
Allie, ah geeze! I’m so, so sorry! I knew I should have gone with you.” A well of tears washed down Allie’s bruised cheeks when Lainie’s arms folded around her.

“Where did the
merc go?” Jennifer wondered. “He was sitting beside you when we got here?”

Allie
sat up, eyes searching.

She
was right.

Matthew
was gone.

Allie
prodded gentle fingers over the skin beneath her eye. A grimace curled up her nose as she scrutinized her reflection in the mirror of her small bathroom. The past three weeks had given her bruises time to fade and the swelling to go down. Her face was still a mottled kaleidoscope of yellow and green, but it was a major improvement to what it had started out as. Still, it took her about two inches of makeup to cover what now remained. She just hoped it was a good enough job to stave off the funny looks and uncomfortably personal questions she’d been pelted with at work and school.

Allie
hated
attention.

She was much
more comfortable hidden among the anonymity of the background.

Wallflower
was her preferred rank and station.

She
swallowed, finger brushing along her lips. She couldn’t look at her bruised face without remembering Matthew. Now that she’d had these past few weeks to put some distance between the horrors of that alley, new emotions were beginning to swirl to the surface. Emotions concentrated primarily in the vicinity of her libido. Warmth pooled in her belly as the image of those predatory green eyes came to the forefront of her mind. That dark gaze was entrancing, triggering her flight-or-fight reflex even now. Her fingertip traced over the arch of her lip and the warmth that cultivated inside her was almost painful . . .

Fear?

Desire?

Whatever it was, she felt as if she would explode if she were
forced to endure much more.

The
closeness Matthew and she had shared in that hospital room was a constant specter that haunted her thoughts. Would he have kissed her, had they not been interrupted?

The thought of sharing any kind of intimacy with someone so powerful. . . .

It left her breathless.

Allie
pulled herself out of her memories and back together enough to run a curling iron through her hair and swipe on the last stroke of mascara. The tube of Cover Girl clattered into the sink when she tried to twist the lid back on.
Cripes
, she cringed. Just his memory had her hands shaking. Fear or lust, there was no denying this craving in her gut to see him again. She’d been a conflicted mess this week in particular; she
knew
he wasn’t interested in anything developing between the two of them. He’d made that clear enough.

But there was that pull between them, too.

Magnetic
.

She’d caught him gravitating toward her on those few moments that he’d let his guard down, when the pull had the hair prickling over the whole of her scalp.

It
was
there.

And that’s why he’s come looking for you, right?
Her thoughts snapped that bit of cruel reality back into frosty perspective.

No, he hadn’t. He’d just disappeared.
Without so much as a see-ya-later.

A growl crawled
up her throat and she bit her lip in frustration. After a week of this same inner battle, Allie was
not
backing down from her decision to see him. The fact that she’d become so obsessed with his stupid memory was all the evidence she needed that she should at least find him. She’d probably go nuts if she did nothing, lost for months in the torture of what might have been. It had gotten to the point where it was more painful to sit around and fawn over Matthew than to endure the possible mortification of finding him and having him tell her to go to hell.

She’d
just bite the bullet, find him, and ask him out. No biggie, right?

Cringe
again.

Geeze
; what a pathetic plan.

She sprayed some of
Lainie’s floral perfume into the air and pirouetted in a circle, hoping to distribute a subtle, yet even coat over her skin. Maybe the added pheromones would give her some extra confidence. She walked out of the bathroom, into her bedroom, and tossed her new phone and keys into her purse.

“Hey,
Allie,” Lainie’s voice floated to her from down the hall. “You leaving?”

Allie
trudged toward her bedroom, feeling as if she was facing the priest before the firing squad. “Yeah.”

Lainie
’s big baby blues looked up at her from over a pile of laundry that had overtaken her bed and widened. “Wow! What’s with the getup? You look
hot
!”

Allie
grimaced down at her booted foot. Was it really so rare for her to shuck her tee shirt/jeans getup and put on something a little more . . . Lainie?

Lainie
’s eyes drilled into hers, a half-folded shirt forgotten among the mountain of clothes. “Got plans or something?”

“Not really,”
Allie hedged, fingers plucking at her key chain.

“
Allie?” So much stern disbelieving in that one word.

She
looked up. “Hmm?” At Lainie’s expression heat flooded her cheeks.

Lainie
’s eyes widened and she giggled. “You’re going after your merc, aren’t you?”

Allie
’s hands ran down her face and covered her eyes. “This is so bad,” she mumbled. “I can’t even face you. How am I going to face
him
?”

Lainie
laughed and rolled her eyes. “You’re making way too big a deal of this. You’re going to thank him for helping you and treat him to dinner. Simple.”

Allie
’s fingers spread apart as she peeked between them. “
I
don’t do this stuff, though. It feels so forward!”

The eye rolling again.
“You’ve been going over the pros and cons all week, Allie. It’s not that big of a deal.
Sheesh
. . . It’s like you’ve never dated before!”

Lainie
’s words had Allie on the verge of a panic attack. Facts were an ugly thing, and Allie had dated hardly at all. Never smooth, or seductive. Still a virgin, for heaven’s sakes!

“I feel like a stalker.” At
Lainie’s look, Allie added, “I
am
a stalker! I stalked the crap out of him on line all week before I finally got an address. And I don’t even know if it’s for his home or work!”