I glared at him, a groan stuck in my throat. “You’ve got to stop talking to me like I’m one of your Demon whatever goons.” I twirled, swiping through the phone. “And I’m not going with you. I’m getting a ride to the garage so I can get my car.”
“It’s not done yet, Princess. That’s why I’m here.”
My fist clenched. Of course, it wasn’t finished yet. Why would anything go right on this horrible day? “Even so, Mister Slasher, I’m not riding with you again.”
“Vixen!” Russell’s voice irritated my bones more than the motorcycle noise.
I closed my eyes, shaking my head, almost in tears.Why won’t you go away? Just die?
“And we have a first name.” Slasher’s breath tickled my ear. “Perfect for my stalking.”
My eyes snapped open. Slasher was so close to me I shuddered. My gaze dipped to his lips as I bit mine, imagining what this perfection would taste.
“Vixen.”
“Huh?” My head jerked back toward Russell’s voice.
He and his cheerleader of a fiancé were standing hand in hand behind me, eyes wary on the motorcycle and the rider. “I thought we’d give you a ride. Damien said your car broke down this morning,” Russell said, his face a question mark.
Damien? Lame move to tell me he was friends with the boss. I knew he wasn’t. Pattison told me he liked me more. “Very thoughtful of you, but my ride is here.” I gave Slasher my bags, beseeching him with my eyes to play along.
He cocked a brow, not taking my things for a second. My face burned with embarrassment. Was he really going to humiliate me in front of my ex and his fiancé?
Suddenly, he leaned in, his breaths on my ear and neck. “Thought you weren’t riding with me again,” he whispered, his rough voice and the softness of his breaths a contrast melting me to pieces.
The alpha male bravado was killing me, but I wasn’t going to surrender easily. He knew his game, and I hated to admit he was winning. The mischief dancing in his gaze was clear. He knew I needed him and wanted me to beg.
I wouldn’t.
Even if it had meant further humiliation. I’d gone through enough today. I wasn’t going to beg an overconfident—and nauseatingly hot—douchecannoli like Slasher for help.
I met his eyes with equal naughtiness. “A girl is allowed to change her mind, Mister Slasher.”
His throat bobbed with a swallow. When he took my things without another word, I knew I’d affected him as a woman as much as he was affecting me as a man.
Very bad boy.
Then he held my hand, and a shiver ran through me. It wasn’t because his hand was so cold. The skin might have been, but there was nothing cold about the touch. He gave me this look that held so much intensity and desire and…savagery I’d never seen before. Something primal. Something that could only be seen in an animal eying prey.
For a second, I was afraid. Then he lifted my hand to his mouth and printed a kiss.
And I was afraid some more.
Damn. He was really good at this game.
“Ready if you are, Princess.” He winked at me before I could counter his move.
I straddled the bike after he stowed my bags away. Then I put my hands on his shoulders, shooting a phony smile at stunned Russell.
“I see you’re still hung up on motorcycles. But I thought you said your boyfriend was a pilot, not a…biker,” Russell said.
Kate nudged the douche with her elbow. I couldn’t believe him right now. How far would he go to ruin my life? If I’d really had a pilot boyfriend and Slasher had been mine, too, and neither knew about each other, what would have been the case here as Russell made me with such insolence?
Slasher glanced at me over his shoulder, and I squeezed it, hoping he’d understand not to respond and let me handle it. I blinked the fury away, groping for a decent lie. “He is a pilot.”
“And he is okay with you…you know?” The douche twat continued being a douche twat.
“Of course,” I cooed. “That’s the beauty of having an open relationship. I get all the love and dick I want, no strings attached.” I rolled my eyes playfully. “If there’s something I’d thank you for, Russell, it’s teaching me that monogamy isn’t for everybody. I’m so grateful I didn’t marry you that day. I’d have missed out on all the fun.” I wrapped my arms around Slasher’s rock hard abdomen. “Let’s go, babe.”
