He had edged her off the courtyard, behind a stretch of buildings that she realized were the civic center. But they were on the back end of it, the side with rough, exposed brick, and crusty alleys. Across the dirt shoulder of the tiny, makeshift alley, all she could see were trees. So many trees, chittering with animals unseen.
Nervously, she glanced over her shoulder. He had slipped away again, leaving her alone in the shadows. “Cal?”
She peered around the side of the building—and then screamed when she felt fingers rake down her spine.
“What do you know about my woods?” he asked menacingly.
It propelled her into an ungainly run that had her stumbling down the length of the buildings—in the wrong direction, she realized, belatedly, when she saw the orange blurs of distant streetlights.
Behind her, she heard low, delighted laughter.
Then they swirled, like coronas in the dark, as she felt herself swung up into a pair of strong, unyielding arms. She kicked in surprise and the ricochet threw her against his body, hard, causing her ass to slam against his pelvis.
“Caught you.” One of the arms tightened. “Now you belong to me.”
Her breathing faltered as his hand ran over her front, as if to illustrate this point. She could feel him pressing between her legs and squirmed, the thrill of the game abruptly fading into something darker and far more dangerous. “N-no. Wait—”
“Nadine.” He whispered against her ear. “Didn’t you hear me? I’m not letting you go.”
Teeth closed gently around her earlobe as he popped the button on her jeans, using his wrist to nudge her thighs apart. A noise escaped her and she took a startled step back.
“Cal—”
“You’re wet.”
The satisfaction in his voice made her legs feel watery.
“Cal,please—”
“Not yet, little sparrow.” She felt the hardness of enamel against the outer shell of her ear. “You don’t even know what you’re begging me for.”
Her heart knocked ferociously against her chest.
“Not outside.”
“Why not?” His breath was hot. “Are you going to scream?”
He slid his fingers deeper into her underwear, circling her clit just firmly enough that her body clenched like a vise.I might, she thought traitorously, when he leaned back against the dirty wall, heedless of his linen shirt. Still holding her, he bent down slightly, hooking his knee between her legs and jostling them further apart so she was straddling one of his thighs.
“That’s better,” he said, when she shuddered. “I told you I wanted us to be close—and I know you got my letters. So don’t even bother trying to lie to me.”
She let out a shaky breath. “I threw them away.”
“I figured.” Cal laughed; the sound of it poured into her like hot alcohol, making her body feel heavy. Drugged. “I admire it, you know. Your persistence. The way you keep coming back again and again, no matter how many times you get—” he flicked his fingers “—burned. But I thought we had a real connection. Do you know how rare those are?”
Connection.Nadine shuddered. The back of her right thigh was caught between his legs and she could feel his erection prodding against her hip.I can feel yourconnection,all right. “You scared me.”
“You like being scared.” He leaned forward. “You’ve been asking for this all night.”
She was breathing shallowly now, light-headed from the alcohol and his intoxicating presence. When her head lolled back against his chest, she felt the quiet rumble of his satisfaction.
Did she like being scared? No. Not usually. But fear didn’t generally look like this. “I like romance,” she said desperately, trying to convince herself as much as him. Trying to pretend that her knees weren’t a second from giving out right along with her will “Not whateverthisis.”
“That’s so sweet. I bet people call you sweet often, don’t they? And good.” His hand slipped under her shirt, gliding over her ribs. The trees she was looking at wrenched violently before her eyes as his warm hand cupped her breast, spreading until the tips of his fingers were protruding from her low-cut top. “I wonder, though,” he went on softly, thumbing the hard point of her nipple, “what they’d call you, if they saw you with me right now. Spread over my knee.”
That made her angry, but as soon as she opened her mouth, he pressed down hard on her clit and the intensity of it made something inside her combust in a rain of fire.
“Love is cruel, Nadine,” he said, in that soft, vicious voice. “Possessive. Unforgiving. If you open your heart to it, you’ll get it ripped out. I find it rather tragic that you romantics lay yourselves down in these honeyed traps, only to get eaten alive by what you claim to want the most.”
