“You are out of your freaking mind,Griffin,” I stressed his last name in case his Neanderthal brain was on hiatus. “I had no plans to sleep with Calum tonight. Not that it’s any business of yours,butitwas to happen…er, later.” A lie. “We were simply meeting for drinks.”
“Fine, I’ll make myself available then, too.”
Jesus. I rubbed my eyes in frustration. “Says the player who never sleeps with the same woman twice? Yeah, right.”
He shrugged those tanned, muscular shoulders that were seriously distracting me. I wanted to run my tongue over them—gah! Stupid big muscles. I had a thing for a man’s shoulders. And these suckers made me weak in the knees. Just as well he had no clue about my thoughts.
Jack was well-built, but not overly packed with muscles like a bodybuilder. A light trail of dark hair ran down his sculpted abs to disappear into his pants—holy shit.
Hastily, I averted my gaze from the bulge in his pants and back to his tonal tattoo, a remarkable depiction of a demonic-looking crab entwined with Celtic runes that started on his right pectoral and trailed over his shoulder and biceps… It appeared similar to the demonic ram Max sported.
Of course. Their star signs. But a Cancer? Ah! Jack was as stubborn as a mule. Should have been a bull. Heck, I’d had no idea he sported any ink at all. It just added to the dangerous, moody air surrounding him.
“BTW,” he drawled the acronym, “I don’tsleepwith my hookups. I fuck and leave.”
And that hauled me out of my dreamy hallucination. I glared up into Jack’s impossibly handsome face and met his ice-gray eyes. Fingers clenched, I pushed at his warm chest with my fists. “I’m not interested in your tails. Your life.You. Now, get the hell out of my way—”
“No.” He grasped my wrists and tugged me close. His cool stare lowered…to my lips.
My heart pounded. Surely, this caveman could hear it. “Don’t you dare—”
His mouth came down on mine.
I’d been kissed before, along with a couple of drunken pilfered ones, but never like this. It stole my breath, my strength. My knees wobbled. His arms tightened around me, supporting me.
As if under a spell, my lips parted. Instantly, his tongue licked inside my mouth, then stroked mine in a dance of dominance, willing my submission. And I lost whatever common sense I possessed and kissed him back.
A raw groan of satisfaction rolled out of him as he drew my tongue into his mouth. He licked around my piercing before sucking on my tongue—a tug that went straight to my core, stirring my arousal. He kissed me as though he were thirsty, and I was his life-giving liquid…then took me deeper and deeper into a sensual storm of need.
His warmth wrapped around me, his hard body, his erection pressing against me. I squirmed, wanting to feel him moving inside me, ready to drag him to the big bed behind me—
A cell phone erupted like gunfire, breaking the spell. Reality slammed into me like a wrecking ball. I yanked free, gasping for air, blinking at him in sheer horror.
No-no! What have I done?
This was Jack.
He lived to torment me, while I pretended that he didn’t exist. It was safer that way.
Now, he stared at me, his eyes molten silver as if seeing me for the first time… Did he think I was easy now because of what I’d planned to do? Embarrassment lent a heated layer to my face. I dodged him and rushed to the living room, desperate to escape.
“Ray, wait.”
“Why?” I wheeled around, anger sweeping through me. His ringing cell finally stopped. “You had your fun. If this was payback for me making you pay the bills, or for the names I tagged you with, you made your point. Now, leave me the hell alone!”
I yanked the door open and sprinted for the elevator in my heels, praying he wouldn’t catch up. A single stab of the button, and the door slid open. I ducked inside, grateful that he had to stop to grab his shirt first.
As my cage shut, his furious shout reached me. “Dammit, Ray, wait one damn minute! Get out here!”
With the penthouse being on the thirtieth floor, he’d have to wait for the elevator’s return. It would give me time to disappear.
“This isn’t over,” he snapped, his voice muffled by the steel barrier.
Over?What the hell was he talking about?Overwould imply that we were actually involved to some degree, having conversations lasting longer than five seconds. The last half an hour didn’t count.
“It never even started,” I yelled back as the elevator descended. “There’s no freakin’ ‘this isn’t over’ crap going on!” I didn’t care if he couldn’t hear me, as long as I got that out.
* * *
