Page 47 of A Dangerous Kind of Love

I keep my tone even, controlled, because the last thing I need right now is Katie seeing that other side of me again. When my anger slipped earlier, it had only been for a moment, but it was long enough for her to notice. Long enough for the panic in her eyes to shift into something else entirely. Something closer to fear.

I can feel her eyes on me now. She’s watching, waiting. Does she expect that flash of anger to return?

“Yes, Boss,” Luca says, pulling away from the curb and guiding the car into downtown traffic.

I keep my attention on the street ahead, and my posture relaxed. Control has always come naturally to me.

Chapter 17

Katie

Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t— Goddammit. I do it anyway.

My hand drifts across the leather seat and slips into his. Our fingers tangle together in the back of the SUV before my brain can yell, What the fuck are you doing?

Am I deranged?

“You still want me to take you home?” he asks, shifting until he’s fully facing me.

“Yes,” I say, but the way it comes out sounds an awful lot like, unless you’d rather fuck me first.

“Luca, take us to Katie’s house.”

Luca nods. Then he and Michael share some weird little look in the rearview mirror, and the privacy partition slides up.

Oh fuck. No. No. No.

“What are you doing?” I ask, leaning forward. “Why did he put that up?”

“Just giving us some privacy, Doll,” he says. The hand not locked around mine creeps to my knee.

“You need to keep your hands to yourself,” I say.

I should knee him in the balls and call it a day, but no, my brain’s short-circuiting with visions of him flipping my skirt and hoisting me up to straddle him.

Damn it, Katie, get it together. His grin widens into something downright predatory as his hand slides from my knee upward along my thigh. I shove his hand away with a sharp slap, but it only makes him chuckle low in his throat.

Part of me wants to send him away when we get there, but another part—the reckless, unraveling one—wonders what his weight would feel like pinning me against my bed inside.

“Okay, you can come in to my house under one condition,” I snap, crossing my arms over my chest.

“What’s that?” he asks, leaning in so close his breath fans hot across my lips.

The dominance he showed on our date last night is definitely escalating, and my brain is having a very hard time pretending it doesn’t like it.

“You let me invite my friend Sarah over, and Luca comes inside,” I say.

He sits back.

“No.”

“Cool,” I say. “Then you can go home.”

“Katie,” he growls.

I shrug and knock on the partition. It slides down.

“Hey, Luca. Do you like pizza?”