He followed behind me to the front door, and I could feel his eyes on my ass. I’d felt them the day of the fair, too, and I made sure to swing my hips a bit to give him an eye full.
“What did he do?” I casually threw over my shoulder as I made the steps.
Before I could knock and then let myself in, Cash took me by the arm and swung me around like some dame in an old black and white movie. One of my hands was pressed against his chest to push him away, but I couldn’t move. His heart beat steadily under my palm. His entire body was hard and it held me in place.
My eyes were level with his mouth, and I silently sucked in a breath.Damn me.He had the perfect shaped lips. I wanted to bite the bottom one hard enough to make him bleed and suck in a breath at the pain.
Scott had soft lips. Not firm at all.
Why am I even comparing?Fuck if I knew.
My eyes made a slow journey to his, and that was when he locked me in again. “You’re a little psycho in the bedroom, aren’t you, Ms. Ryan?”
“Me? Little?” A boisterous roll of laughter thundered from my mouth.
He made it a point to look down at me, proving his point that Iwassmaller than him. No man had ever made me feel that way before. It wasn’t totally physical, either, and that made me uncomfortable. I had finally met my match. If I ever told him to go to hell, he’d probably invite me along, because he’d been there before.
Instead of hell, maybe it was time that I invited him to heaven. I leaned in closer, putting my lips close to his neck, right over his pulse point. I made sure my voice was breathy, so warm air blew over his skin. “Wouldn’t you like to know how I am in bed,Marauder.”
He grinned and then let out a breath of a laugh. I breathed in and then automatically breathed out. I refused to take him inside my lungs. He wasn’t my air; he was my suffocation.
“I already know everythin’ about you, darlin’. I know how Scott Stone fucks you up against the wall in the moonlight. That perfect ass ofminesliding up and down the windowpane. I already know that he tries to claimmine, but he doesn’t know how to keep a woman that belongs to a man like me satisfied. And I already know thatmyeyes,myheaven, roll back in your head, and not from pleasure, but from boredom when he does.”
His free hand slipped along my side, anddamn me!, I shivered at the warmth. It was going to be a fierce game of tug of war with my heart, but my body had already surrendered to the enemy’s cause. It ached for him to claim me.
“When I fuck you, you’re going to gopsycho, archer. Your mind is going to go mad for me. Your skin is going to burn for me. Those nails are going to claw me until I have stripes. That mouth is going to bite me until I bleed. You’re going to demand to markme. It’ll bemyheaven to own that entire body of yours.”
“You mean my heart?” I said. “You’re going totryto steal my heart to make Scott suffer.Yourheaven will behishell. What did he do? I deserve to know that much since I’m nothing but a pawn in this game of yours.”
“He stole from me first, and no one steals from me.”
“You’re getting even.”
“You’re the only person he’s ever truly loved, apart from his family.”
“He stole your heart,” I said.
“I don’t have one of those,” he said. “All the same, he stole something vital.”
So if Scott hadn’tbeen in love with me, it would’ve been a hard pass on Keely Ryan for Cash Kelly. He wouldn’t have given me a second glance, but since Scott was in love with me, truly in love, I was as good as Kelly’s.
Even if this was about revenge, and nothing more, he still couldn’t deny the attraction. His dick was pressing hard into my belly, and we’d hardly touched.
I couldn’t deny the lust, either, and I hated him even more for it. When he looked at me, heat crept up my neck. I’d only ever felt that when I was angry or upset, but never when a man looked at me. And when he touched me? Fire against paper.
There was something between us that felt wild, instinctual, almost...right.
“After you get your revenge?” My voice came out soft. “After you steal his heart,me, what then, Marauder? Where does that leave me?”
His eyes were hard on mine. “With me for always. As long as I live, he’ll never touch what’s mine again. What he’s sure is his. Love doesn’t just disappear, darlin’. We might move on and breathe, but that love forever marks us. What I’m stealing from him will forever mark him, as what he’s done to me scars my lungs. There are days the hurt is so great I can’t breathe. There’s no return for men like us.”
“For men like you,” I said.
“There’s a thin line between good and evil. Scott Stone walks the line every day, just like I do. We just choose different paths on a regular basis.”
“So poetic,” I whispered. My eyes were turned up to his, and I wanted to glare at him, but instead I kept blinking, ready to close my eyes, waiting for his lips to meet mine.
Kiss me. Kiss me. Kiss me. Steal that kiss, Marauder.Because I knew once he did, he would realize how strong the pull was between us, and that he wasn’t going to get out of this without a few more stripes, or maybe even scars.
