Mine.
For now. Kind of.
“You will eat those words.” Her eyes squint in fury, but she doesn’t pull away.
Interesting.The more she hates me, the more she seethes, the more the molecules in the air crackle with a fuck-me taunt.
“Oh, is that it, Dollface?” I drag my thumb over her plush lower lip—painted the same maroon as her tank top today—while I study every subtle expression on her gorgeous face. “Youhungry? Beg me nicely, and I’ll feed you what you’re really starving for.”
She licks that lip, the shimmer of her tongue piercing goading me, her full lashes fluttering. A vision of temptation. “Okay, fine.” Her voice is a sensual whisper. “I’ll bite. Is that what you’re after? You have a city full of women throwing themselves at you, but you can’t resist the conquest of the one who wants nothing to do with you. So, Maddox, if I choke on your dick, will that send you packing? Will I finally be free?”
Fuck no. Never. Not after the way you just rasped my name.
What? No.
How the hell have our interactions turned so heated? And so … confounding? I’ve been watching her with rapt intrigue for more than two years. I’ve known her for eight, and sure, I’ve always been a bit enamored. Infatuated. Maybe even obsessed the past few months. But I assumed it was partly what she said, her disinterest roping me in. Now it’s … I don’t even fucking know … more? Vexing? An impending disaster? Not that I’ll be fessing up to any of that.
She started this the other day with herrecreational usecomment about the Karambit knife and her suggestive texts. And now? She could’ve said she was starving for jambalaya or even a hoagie—that would have been fucking hilarious without being completely on the nose—but she went straight to choking on my dick. It doesn’t matter that I’d implied it. She ran with it.
Sitting straighter, I tuck a silver tendril of her hair behind the shell of her absurdly cute ear, adorned with seven dainty piercings, before laying things out the way I should have a long time ago. “That’s a dangerous proposition you’re suggesting. You’re missing a key factor.”
The subtlest shiver washes over her before she reaches down to the floorboard, grabbing her bag and hoisting it over hershoulder—the beginning of her dismissal. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“We both know I’m the taste you crave, Tess. Wrap those pouty lips around my cock, and I won’t need to hold you captive anymore. You’ll be clinging to me, insatiable, desperate for more. So, the way I see it, whether you squeeze those thighs tight or open them wide to reveal how wet you are for me, I’ll be the ache you can’t ignore, the fantasy you can’t forget, and the man who owns every part of you.”
I said that with the intent of antagonizing her and throwing her off the scent of all I’m hiding. But her pupils blow before her Caribbean blues turn icy, which has me entertaining far-fetched notions. Like maybe she isn’t utterly opposed to that scenario. Maybe she’s as baffled as I am by whatever the hell this is. Otherwise, she’d laugh it off. The anger emanating from her has to be partly directed at herself because try as she might, shedoeswant me.
“You’re delusional.” She sneers that with such conviction that I’m inclined to agree with her, and that’s before she goes in for the kill. “But even if that were true, you’d know you only achieved that by being a coward who’d blackmailed me into it.”
Well, nowI’mfucking pissed.
“Blackmailed?” I grit out, so over this shit of her blaming me. “I did you a favor. I fucking showed up, Tessa. Took care of everything. No questions asked. You’d think that would earn me some goddamn respect.”
“It would have.” She opens the door, one leg out, one leg in, her face marred with hurt and disappointment. “But none of it was a favor because favors aren’t conditional. Favors aren’t lorded over someone. You masqueraded as my savior when all you are is a sleazy tyrant.”
If you want to cut a man off at the balls, tell him you have no respect for him. The person she just described me to bewas my father. Not me. But I suppose in the aftermath of that fucked-up night, I haven’t proven otherwise. None of that was my intention.
She’s nearly out of the car, and I’m about to follow, but my phone vibrates with a call from Cash.
So, I play the cavalier asshole she believes me to be. “The more venom you spew, Dollface, the more I know you want me. See you tonight.”
The door slams with enough oomph that I’m suddenly terrified of her superhuman strength, but that has little to do with the pang in my chest. I’m not sure what the hell that’s about.
Ignoring it, I answer my phone with a clipped, “Yeah?”
“What the fuck is going on with you, Mad?” Cash’s tone is equal parts concern and frustration.
While I’m answering him, I watch Tessa in my rearview mirror, scurrying through the garage to the employee entrance our drivers use. “That’s a hell of a way to start a conversation. Hello to you too, little bro.”
He scoffs. “I tried to talk to you this morning, and you bolted when I was taking a piss.”
“It was a long-ass piss,” I counter. “Had an errand. What’s up?”
“Was your errand a girl, or are you freaking out about your call this afternoon? Something’s off.”
That fucking call. I almost forgot. It’s not my area of expertise, and I’m not eager for it to become one. But Ryker does carry a lot, so I’ll do what I can to let him have this time off.
The email Axel’s assistant sent me provided limited details, but that’s not surprising. We’re not accustomed to spelling things out and creating a trail. What I know is that one of our members, Vincent Lund, wants us to help him track down a million dollars that he claims was stolen a couple of years ago.I don’t know anything beyond that. It’s not unusual for our members to believe we have all the answers. Sometimes, we do. Volunteering that information can get dicey though.
