“Yeah,” I say with a sigh, carrying the mess to the bin. “Someone decided to give me an early wedding gift, I guess.”
“What kind of fucker would do this?” he rages, dropping his backpack to the floor. “We have to find them!”
His outrage makes me smile. Funny to see Danny curse, the complete opposite of the man I am used to seeing. "It's fine," I tell him, even though it's not. “What are you doing here so early anyway?”
“Huh?” He seems distracted and a little sad as he watches Mrs. Ryan carry the rest of the mess to the bin then excuses herself to go empty it, leaving Danny and me alone in the room. “I can’t believe anyone would do that to you. Are they not scared of what Pope will do to them?”
Speaking of my fiancé, I’m not excited about telling Pope my suspicions about someone trying to sabotage the wedding, so I change the topic back to him. “It’s nine a.m., Danny. What are you doing here?”
"Oh, that. I came in early to clean out my locker and turn in my access card.”
My brows knit in confusion. “Why? Where are you going?”
“I’m quitting, Sienna,” he says, finally turning to look at me. “There is someone I am interested in, and I decided to finally ask her out and pursue her for a genuine relationship. I can’t date her and keep doing what I do.”
My own worries go to the back burner and I find myself smiling widely. "Is it the classmate you told me about?" His grin is all the answer I need. Most of the escorts at the casino seem to guard their private lives and who could blame them? Still, Danny didn’t seem to have any issues telling me about using the money he makes escorting to pay for his college tuition or about a particular classmate he’s been in love with for months. “Did she say yes? Please tell me she said yes!"
He smirks, letting a few long beats of silence pass before he finally responds. "She did."
I scream, launching myself into his arms. He laughs, wrapping his arms around me to catch me. We embrace all for three seconds and as I'm pulling back, I notice a large figure standing by the door. There is a dark look on Pope’s face, almost murderous as he glares at Danny so I quickly detach myself from the man and take a step back. Confused, Danny turns around and when he spots Pope, blood drains from his face, leaving him pale.
“I was…I came in to clear out the locker and…I…”
“Leave.”
Danny is gone before I can blink, so fast that he gives me whiplash. I watch his backpack flutter in the wind before Pope slams the door closed and locks it. I turn my eyes fromthe locked door to the man turned wolf slowly stalking into the room. He looks…hungry. Angry too.
And it should make me nervous. I haven’t seen his eyes turn so dark before and it ought to scare me a little but it doesn’t. All I can think as I look at him is that he’s mine. I'm the only one he gets to look at with those hot and wildly blue eyes. I feel my heart clench so hard with love that it actually hurts.
I want him.
To touch him. Feel the press of that hard body against mine and get his assurance about our uncertain future but when I start to reach for him, he grabs my arms and I find myself backed to the wall. “Pope,” I gasp when he pins them behind my back, those heated eyes on mine. “W-what?”
“You let him touch you!” he grinds out, his voice dangerously low and I am stunned by the arousal that hits me at the possessiveness I read in his eyes and hear in his voice. The primal display of dominance as he pins my wrist to the wall above my head, leaning closer until I can see the dark in his ocean blues. “I could break him into pieces.”
He’s jealous.
Of Danny? It’s absolutely ludicrous for him to think that I would ever prefer another man over him but I try to contain my laughter. Still, it seeps through, with the way my eyes light up with humor and when his eyes narrow on me, I decide damage control is the best solution before poor Danny finds himself missing teeth.
“He likes someone else,” I say, in an effort to placate him. “I was just congratulating him. It was all innocent.”
“Would you feel the same if you walked in on me hugging another woman?”
The smile on my lips freezes and however hypocritical of me, I find myself getting upset by the mere thought of Pope touching another woman. He wouldn’t dare, right? Still, I can’t push out the thought he’s planted in my mind.
“Let me go,” I hiss, squirming against his hold. “You’ve made your point, now release me.”
But he doesn't. Instead, he pushes up against me, pressing his body hard against mine, so that I feel his growing arousal against my hip. I suck in a sharp breath despite myself, wet heat flooding to the spot between my legs. “No one touches you,” he says roughly, pushing in until his lips are inches from mine, his breath brushing softly against mine. “I don’t care if you touch them first. They’re dead the second they lay a finger on you.”
It’s wrong and toxic of him to impose such rules on something as innocent as what he walked in on but I can’t exactly say I don’t want the same rules for him. The thought of another woman. . .“No one touches me,” I whisper.
“You’re mine!”
“I get it, okay, I won’t let another man touch me,” I say, a little petulantly and when his eyes flash, I feel a shiver run down my back. It shouldn’t surprise me when I’m spun around to face the wall but it does. “Pope. W-what are you doing?”
“It’s clear to me that you don’t understand how serious I am. You have to be punished for letting another man put his hands on you.”
Panic and arousal fight for dominance at his words. Punishment? I am twenty-four years old for Christ’s sake, surely, he doesn’t mean to… “Pope!” I gasp when he pulls down my pants, leaving them to drop to my ankles then yanks down my panties, leaving my ass bare. “You can’t do this in here!”Or at all. I try to reason even as my sex floods with heat, growingslick by the second. It feels wrong to enjoy his aggression but my body doesn’t seem to care. “Pope.”
