Duncan nods to his partner and she rounds up the tellers into a corner. Courtney watches the display, all too aware of the gun pressing into her back.
"What do you want?" she asks.
"I told ya, I'm making a withdrawal," Duncan retorts, prodding her with the gun. "Now, nice and slow, take me to where you keep the dough, and maybe I'll think twice about killing you."
Courtney does as she's told, walking with shaky steps to the safe at the back of the bank. This is what she gets for wanting something out of the ordinary.
"I like a dame who follows directions, and looks damn good doing it," Duncan says with a cocky grin, leaning forward to whisper in her ear as she pulls a key ring from around her neck. "Maybe I can make this worth your while, huh? Give ya a few hundreds? You can get away from yer dead fish hubby, go travel, do whatever suits you best," he offers.
Courtney doesn't dare turn around. The man is clearly insane.
"If you think money solves everything, you're wrong," she says. "My husband is a lawyer and he's going to put you behind bars for this."
He chuckles, low and warm in her ear, and she feels it run the length of her spine. What was she doing? The man threatened to kill her; anything between them should have stopped at that moment. And yet…
"You're awfully chatty for a hostage," he says, running the nozzle of the gun from her back to her side in a slow caress. "Almost like you ain't scared of me."
She's watching her own hands shake as she pretends to search through keys. The door requires two keys to open, neither of which she has access to. But if she tells him that, she might be dead before she finishes the sentence. So she stalls.
"Maybe I'm not scared of you."
For a second, she thinks he didn't hear her. Then in an instant, he grabs her by her shoulders and spins her around, presses her up against the iron door with his weight. His face is inches from hers, amused.
She barely hears him over the drumming in her ears when he dips his head and kisses her pulse point. "Then maybe you're in the wrong line of work, doll. Ever consider a life of crime?"
He sucks on the spot and Courtney's eyes flutter to the back of her head as she drops her ring of keys with a clatter. She feels every which part of him pressing into every part of her and it takes every single fiber of her willpower not to moan. Her common sense is telling her to answer no, but God how she wants to say yes if it means more of this.
She bites her tongue and shakes her head. "I can't."
"Not even for a day, hm?" he asks against her throat, tugging at the neckline of her dress suggestively. "Not even for a night?"
"What's stopping you from killing me right now?" she asks, warmth pooling in her stomach.
"Be a shame to ruin such a pretty thing," he murmurs. "Besides, yer doing what I say. I like it when dames do what I say."
Duncan pulls back and looks her right in the eyes, his own glinting. "So whaddaya say?"
Courtney breathes deep. She finds her sense. "Go to hell."
Instead of the bullet she anticipates, Duncan places his mouth on hers, kissing her fiercely.
Courtney had kissed Justin less than ten total times in her life, and half of those were for show. Duncan's kisses were not for show. The electricity between them overrides her initial shock and when she finally kisses him back, he pulls away, smirking.
"Yer missing out Peaches, because I have myself a mighty trigger finger," he whispers mischievously. Then, licking the shell of her ear, adds, "And I don't mean for a gun."
He lets go of Courtney and sticks two fingers inside his mouth before letting out a shrill whistle. Courtney jumps and his partner appears with both safe keys, tossing one to him. Duncan shoves Courtney out of the way as he unlocks the door and she catches herself painfully on her palms. She turns to stare at the door, not shaking anymore, not sure she can crawl away faster than he can loot the vault.
She doesn't get the chance to try. They're out within the minute. Duncan tips his hat at her with a grin, laden down with bags of cash. "Always a pleasure dealing with a pretty lady, Dollface."
"Bonnie," she corrects unevenly.
Before he disappears beyond the turn of the hallway, he calls, "Catch ya on the flip side, Courtney."