“Please what, ginger snap?” he growled, the mint on his breath feathering across my ear.
“Please, let me go,” I murmured, not wanting to struggle anymore. He was clearly getting off on it… and honestly, I was too, and it was confusing me.
“I like to hear you beg, baby. All you had to do was say please.”
Suddenly, he was gone, leaving me bereft and reeling from the abrupt absence of his touch.
I whipped around to face him, preparing to fight him off again if he came for me, but he was just watching me with a lazy smile and hooded eyes.
My skin was flush with humiliation, and his eyes roamed over my tomato-red chest before dipping down to the throbbing space between my legs. He sucked on his lip ring, shamelessly staring at my dick before palming his own over his jeans and leaning back against the opposite wall.
“That was hot, ginger snap,” he crooned, and I nearlysnarledat him.
“Stop calling me that! Get out of my house! Who the fuck do you think you are?!”
He slid his gaze up to meet mine and gave me that crooked smile of his that I was already becoming annoyingly familiar with.
White, straight teeth flashed in the bright morning light, and I noticed how his canine pressed into his full bottom lip on one side.
“I’m Cal,” he said easily, and I sputtered in horror.
“Don’t tell me your name! I don’t want to know anything about you!” I roared. “You need to get the fuck out of here and never come back! You’re trespassing!”
He glanced around, frowning in confusion. “Isn’t this a funeral home? I thought it was open to the public.”
“It’s open to people who are customers, which you are fuckingnot!”I hissed, taking an aggressive step toward him as my anger got the better of me.
He shrugged. “Not yet… But we’re about to be business partners, you and I.” He flashed me a boyish grin, and I hated the way his smile made my stomach twist with a weird sort of excitement.
It wasn’t quitefearbut something else. Something I had never felt before, so I was having a hard time putting a label on it.
My head was spinning.
This guy had been here for five minutes, and I was so overwhelmed and confused by him.
“That’s never going to happen,” I scoffed, and he chuckled.
“I’m afraid it is, ginger snap. I tried to tell you last night, but you weren’t feeling well. You’ve seen my face, which means you’re unfortunately a loose end, at least in the eyes of my boss.”
I froze, and he pushed up from the wall, stalking toward me. I was forced to take a step back for every step forward he took, and before I knew it, he had me cornered again.
He rested his hand on my hip and traced his thumb over the waistband of my pants. I batted him away, but he slammed his other hand into the wall beside my head, leaning in close to my face.
“Now. Lucky for you, I like you… alot. So, I don’t really have any interest in killing you. But for this to work out, you’re going to need to be willing to work with me.”
“I would never work with amurderer,”I snarled, and for the first time that morning, the amusement seemed to slip off his face.
I swallowed as he showed me the side of himself that I was sure he reserved for his victims. His warm brown eyes went cold and dark. My heart skipped a beat as he slid his hand up frommy waist and rubbed his thumb possessively over the stubble on my jaw.
His now dead eyes seemed to look right through me, and his face was suddenly as serious as the grave.
“Never say never, Ryan Fairview,” he purred. The way he said my full name stripped away any hope I had about getting out of this.
He was showing me the truth about my situation, and the truth was that I had no choice. My life as I knew it would never be the same because if I didn’t do what this man said, I would lose my life altogether.
“Now, listen up because I’m only going to say this once. You work for me now,” Cal said, his voice low and dangerous. “If you do what I tell you, we won’t have a problem… but if you cross me, there will be severe consequences. Understand?”
I swallowed, glaring up at him with everything I had. If looks could kill, he would be a very dead man. He just chuckled and stroked my jaw again before dropping a kiss on my forehead like I was a fucking child.
