As we reach the door, I glance back to check on Ruby. She waves from across the room, motioning she’s staying with Brad.
‘You want me to thank you for barging in on my night?’ I snarl as we reach the lift.
Why am I being such a bitch? He saved me from a couple of creeps. I should be grateful. Instead, I’m livid with him once again for charging in and taking over.
I’m even more livid with myself for the way my heart hammers in my chest in his presence.
‘From where I was standing, it looked like you were about to be coerced into the front pages of tomorrow’s tabloids. Do you know who those guys were?’
‘Soccer players, apparently. I don’t follow sport.’
‘Do you follow the news by any chance? They were both arrested last year for sexually assaulting two eighteen-year-old girls,’ he hisses. ‘They got off with it. It’s hard to prove assault when the girls willingly went home with them. God knows what they’d have done to a gorgeous piece of ass like you.’
‘Oh, I’m a piece of ass, am I?’
‘To them. Not to me.’ He tuts, resting back against the mirrored glass in the lift as we descend ninety floors. ‘To me, you’re the finest piece of ass I’ve ever seen. It’s just a shame about the silver spoon that’s rammed up it.’
My palm connects with his right bicep, shoving him indignantly before bouncing straight off it.
‘Careful, Princess, you might break a nail,’ he smirks.
‘Just when I didn’t think it was possible to despise you any more…’ Heat blazes through every single cell of my body.
‘Oh, you don’t despise me. That’s red-hot desire rolling from your every pore.’ His confident tone’s tinted with glee.
‘It’s red-hot hatred. You ruined my night. Who says I even want to go home?’ I flick my hair from my shoulder.
Intense steely eyes bore into mine. ‘Who said I was taking you home?’
‘Funny, Jayden.’ My hand lands on his chest. It’s intended as another shove, but my fingers didn’t get the memo. Instead, they linger over his shirt, revelling in the tautness beneath the brilliant cotton noticeably longer than necessary.
‘Seriously though, are you ok?’ All trace of his usual tormenting humour is replaced with solemn concern. ‘They didn’t… touch you?’ His voice drops lethally low.
‘I’m ok. I can handle myself.’ Doubt creeps in as my fingers trace the wrist that was held so tightly.
‘Princess, I don’t doubt it, but while I’m here, you won’t have to.’
Usually, when he calls me Princess, it triggers a fury in my stomach, but this time it ignites a spark between my legs. Nobody has ever protected me like that before. The feminist in me should be horrified, but she’s been replaced by a sexually stimulated, pheromone-infused hot mess.
‘So, this is your idea of a date, huh?’ Thick, dark eyebrows arch.
‘Technically, Ruby was my date until she ran into Brad again. They’ve been off and on more times in the last year than my vibrator, Perky Pete.’
‘Perky Pete, huh?’ His smouldering black pupils dilate. ‘That’s something I’d like to see.’
‘In your dreams.’ Just because he pulled me out of a sticky situation, it doesn’t mean I’m going to invite him into another, even if the chemistry is sparking like a badly wired plug.
‘Admit it.’ Hot eyes sear my soul. ‘You like me.’
‘I can’t stand you.’ I poke my tongue out like a child. ‘How did you know where I was, anyway?’
‘It’s Tuesday night and according to our respective siblings, you’re a stickler for routine.’
‘So you came down here to what…?’
‘To take you on a proper date…’ His tongue darts out over his lower lip. ‘Then, I’m going to find out first hand if you really are a screamer…’
The doors finally open as we reach the ground floor, but the heat outside has nothing on the temperature inside the lift. Or my underwear.
