Chapter 10
10
COLLINS
If Penny is trying to rile me up, it sure as hell is working. She has been hell-bent on proving some sort of point that I have yet to figure out. Ever since we walked out of my apartment today, she’s been different.
But so have I.
When we got to the Rose City Cafe earlier today, I got that same eerie feeling as I had the last time we attempted to dine there, and it’s only added to my shitty mood. It’s clear I’m being a jerk. Even I know that. But no matter how many times I try to convince myself that I can protect Penny from the evilness of this world, I’m starting to grow paranoid that maybe I can’t.
And that fucking terrifies me.
She’s getting to me, and it’ll be my emotions toward her that will get us all into trouble.
I need to keep a clear head. I need to remember my job. And I need to not allow lust to cloud my judgment.
Except wishful thinking is useless.
No matter how hard I try, Penny melts a layer off my heart that has been encased in ice for so many years. She’s different—special.
And being in public and around those we both care for has made it all become very real.
I’m falling for Penelope Josephine Hoffman, and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it.
Except be fucking angry with the universe for giving me the most beautiful girl in existence and then making her be the one girl off-limits to me.
Even when Penny is irritated with what she probably thinks is a sudden mood swing on my part, she is still radiant and confident when she speaks to me.
I love her passion.
But it’s her innocence that makes me want to be the villain. And no matter how many times I can fuck her into exploding on my cock, she will always be the sweet girl that I can never corrupt.
She’s too pure of heart. And it’s that sweetness that causes me to go crazy at the thought of losing her.
As soon as we walked out of my apartment today, I felt the clock start ticking for the first time since we signed the contract.
We are finite. And finite things always have an end.
So I silently vow to savor each day I have with Penny like it’s my last.
Reaching for my phone, I send her a text.
Collins: I’m sorry for being in a mood today. It isn’t you. It’s me.
Grabbing her phone, Penny drops it on the ground and then nearly falls out of her chair to retrieve it. I watch as she struggles to type in her unlock screen password, and when she finally gets it entered, she appears to forget what she was doing and just shuts off her phone entirely.
By the way she’s throwing back margaritas after already having a dizzy spell, Penny’s making it clear I should show her she needs discipline and boundaries.
Is she trying to make me go crazy? It’s not like I can make a scene right here at the table and cut her off without drawing suspicion. Surely she understands the effect her defiance has on my self-control.
Sliding out her tongue, Penny rims the glass, gathering salt onto it.
“You’ve had enough,” I whisper into her ear, causing her to shiver.
She picks up her cactus glass higher, sloshing liquid out of the top. “Here, here, here,” she slurs proudly. “I’ve got a cheers so perk up those ears.”
The girls raise their glasses, looking at Penny for her to continue, while I silently brace myself for the next set of words that will pour from those fuckable lips.
“Did you forget the lyrics?” Angie giggles, only causing Claire to laugh.
At least I know one of them isn’t drunk.
Dammit.
How does this even happen on my watch? Today has been a complete shit show, and it’s barely halfway over.
Was I so distracted by Penny’s presence alone to not cut off this source of fun? This is sloppy work on my part. In the past, I’d just slip the bartender or waiter money and they made everything weaker.
Penny clears her throat, takes another sip, and then raises her glass above her head, shaking a few crystals of salt into her hair. How can someone acting so tipsy be so fucking adorable? She makes me want to spank her raw but then cuddle her at the same time.
While this is all fun in the safety net of my bodyguard services, I worry about what trouble Penny would get into without me at her side. She has completely infiltrated my life. If only she knew just how much control she has over me.
“To friendship, tacos, orgasms, saying what you mean, and doing whatever the fuck you want!”
“Here, here!” Claire chants, while dipping a chip into the guacamole and gnawing on it. “I’m always down for orgasms.”
“Are you now?” a masculine voice booms behind us.
“Nic?” she squeaks, almost knocking the table over as she spins around. “You come to check up on me?”
“I came to get my woman.”
Her eyes light up with mischief. “You know I’m always down for some role-playing and exploring this caveman kink.”
Penny covers her ears. “Ew. Seriously, you two!”
A few seconds later, Graham appears, making Angie pout her bottom lip out.
“Game over.”
“Or it’s just starting,” he says with an edge to his voice.
“Say goodbye to the margaritas. They were fun while they lasted.”
Graham bends to give her a kiss and whisper something into her ear, making her laugh. “I’m taking you home, Sweetheart. Let’s go. You can test-drive some of those outfits for me.” When she looks at him with confusion, he smiles and shrugs. “The credit card statement popped up on my phone, and I assume it wasn’t just Penny and Claire spending a few grand on only themselves.”
Angie snorts. “Of course it did, stalker. Besides, you aren’t seeing any of them. You have a habit of just tearing them off me anyway. And I like these outfits!”
“Seriously,” Penny hisses, each s sounding more like a shh sound. “I’m right here soaking up all your weirdness. Please stop.”
Nic and Graham give me a look and I nod, confirming I’ll see to it that Penny gets back home safely. When they texted earlier, I was relieved that they planned to meet us here, and especially now that I know how strong the margaritas are. Penny’s either a lightweight or they have a heavy-handed bartender. Regardless, she needs to be cut off and given a chance to sober up.
The brothers shake hands with me and thank me for taking care of their women, and I can’t help but feel that raw feeling of betrayal sneak up my throat as I think about how I’ll be taking care of Penny in the bedroom as soon as I can get her home.
That girl has driven me nearly to implosion over her antics today.
Taking my last bite of a taco, I wipe my mouth and push back my chair. “Ready to go?”
“Yesh,” Penny says, but then whines and starts looking underneath napkins and behind drink glasses.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t find my phone.”
“The one in your hand?” I point out.
Tossing her head back, Penny lets out a laugh. Yup. Spanking sounds pretty good right now. This drunken princess needs a lesson in overindulging.
Regaining her focus, Penny tries to unlock her phone using weird faces. What the hell is so funny? She won’t stop laughing as her screen rejects her. “My phone doesn’t recognize my tipsy face.”
“That’s probably true,” I say, resisting a laugh. At least she recognizes her state of mind. That’s semi reassuring.
“Bingo! Now I can call a ride thingy,” she says with purpose.
“The hell you will.”
“You not the boss of me, Mr. Boss Man.”
“Why would you call a ride when I’m right here willing to drive you back to my bedroom?”
“Because I’m not even sure you like me after today.”
I growl. “I like you, Penny. But when we get home, I’m going to fuck you like I hate you. You pulled way too many stunts today.”
This girl is going to cause me to lose it in public. I’ve been on the verge all day.
I toss some bills onto the table to cover the tab and tip. “Let’s go.”
Her arms cross in defiance. “Fine.”
I can’t help but smirk at her distaste for giving in to my wishes. I’m all about testing boundaries, but drinking like she did today is irresponsible. What would have happened if I wasn’t here to watch over her?
I watch as Penny struggles to stand up, yet refuses the hand I’m offering to her. “Take my hand, woman.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Oh shit,” she snaps, as her handbag contents spill out onto the concrete slab underneath the table. “I made a boo-boo.”
I help her pick up her items and then haphazardly toss the entire handbag into one of the shopping bags. “C’mon,” I say, taking her hand.
Penny doesn’t resist this time as we walk back to my car with her two left feet. It’s a sheer miracle I keep her from face-planting multiple times.
I get her settled into the front passenger seat and then round the back of the car where I have a case of water in the trunk. I grab one, put the shopping bags inside, and then enter the driver’s seat.
“I’m not thirsty,” she says, but takes the bottle anyway when I insist.
“Drink it all.”
“No.”
“Telling me no is only adding kindling to a flame. Drink it all, Penny.”
She pouts out her bottom lip, and instantly I want to bite it. But she starts to comply, downing a large sip and flicking the lid at me—which I easily catch. I think my reflexes surprise her, and I resist chuckling.
“What if I have to pee?” she blurts out, a bit panicked.
It’s such a simple question and yet so human. My eyes soften. “Then I will find you a place to relieve yourself.”
Leaning over the center console, her expression turns serious. “What happens if I need to relieve myself in other ways?” And she has the nerve to spread those little thighs a few inches to punctuate her desire.
Fuck.
I should have known this is how the drive back to our apartment building would go with a tipsy Penny riding shotgun. Every time she drinks too much, her mouth loses its filter and her body craves to be worshipped.
At least the apartment is closer to us than the past two times at the club where the drive was over thirty minutes long.
I’m not sure how much I can take before losing all control.
After a long pause, I sigh and then ask, “Are you ready to go?”
“Back to the convent? I guess so.” Then she proceeds to mess with the seat adjustments. Busting out in laughter, she sits up so straight that there’s no way possible it could be comfortable. I just watch. And she just grunts and keeps playing with the buttons, making herself into a human accordion.
She’s a beautiful disaster.
“Are you okay?”
“I can’t get comfortable.” Her slurred words come out as a whine. Her bottom lip pops out again, and I doubt there can be anything more adorable in the world than this image. “Quit enjoying my struggle and help me.”
“Slide the button on the right toward the back seat and then tilt the back portion of that button down so that you can recline some. Just go slow.”
I start the engine when she seems to have found her sweet spot with the settings and pull out of the parking spot to merge onto the street.
Penny takes it upon herself to reset all my radio stations to some with static and classical music.
And I let her.
Even in her drunken state, she is angelic, with the sunlight causing her blonde tresses to shine gold. A fiery enchantress with the sweetness of a strawberry.
We drive in silence, listening to a choppy Mozart song.
In my periphery, I notice Penny doing some stretches.
Why she finds the need to perform chair yoga is beyond me.
But it’s her moaning that causes me to sneak a real glance.
Fuck.
“You’re just going to touch yourself while I drive you back?”
“I’m a passenger princess after all, right? I don’t know how to drive, and I don’t know how to go out without an entourage. So I might as well enjoy the benefits of self-care while having my ass toted about the city.”
I watch as her hand disappears between her thighs and under her skirt. “Penny…”
“Don’t worry. I won’t come all over your precious seats. I’m wearing panties today.”
Dammit. “Penelope…”
“Panties that you bought me. These panties were touched by your hands. And now my slutty pussy is reaping the benefits of using them to protect your seats from my cum.” She shrugs. “It’s all about the simple things in life.”
“Is it now?” I half groan.
She continues to stroke, and a high-pitched squeal escapes her lips.
Dammit to hell.
“I’m going to have so much fun fucking you raw when we get back.”
My fingers grip the steering wheel, about to rip it off the column. Is she trying to get me to pull her onto my lap so she can grind and dry hump herself to release?
Because I’m on the verge of finding us a shadowed alleyway for her to do just that.
“Let’s take a detour. Can you see if the strip club Luke dances at is open?”
My eyes dart to the clock and then back to her in disbelief. “At one o’clock in the afternoon?”
“It’s five o’clock somewhere.”
“Pretty sure that expression doesn’t apply here.”
“It’s one size fits all. Now take me there.”
“You are not going to a strip club.”
Penny runs a hand up her leg. “Why not? I love supporting small businesses.”
“It’s not happening.”
Shit. I swear she murmurs yet under her breath. This girl really has no idea what lengths I’ll go through to keep her from looking at other men’s dicks—especially her fucking roommate’s. I’m still irritated as hell over the fact she scored herself a male cohabitant. It really sucks to be this unlucky.
“Oh no,” she yells.
“What? What’s wrong?”
My fingers grip the steering wheel, as I glance over at Penny. Well, now her entire outfit appears to be soaked from that water bottle she should have been consuming.
“Oops.”
“It’s okay. It’ll dry.”
Her clothes are drenched, and the pout of her lips will literally get her anything in life—at least as far as I’m concerned. It’s my weakness. The way her soft bottom lip curls outward, nearly begging me to pull the car over and show her just how badly I want her and have wanted her for the entire day.
“I messed up.”
“It’s okay,” I soothe. “It’s not a big deal. It’s just water. You will dry.”
“But I promised I wouldn’t come on your seat.”
“You did not c?—”
“I basically did one worse. Uh, I’m sowwy.”
How she can make sweet look sexy has me mystified.
Then she starts trying to lift up her shirt.
Oh, hell no. Does she want me to wreck?
I take a deep breath and then hold it for a few seconds, while counting to ten before releasing.
Penny downs the remainder of whatever water is left in the bottle, sputtering from probably drinking it too fast.
When I get to our building, I park the car and then help Penny out. It is now that I can see the full water damage to her outfit. She must have dumped the majority of the bottle on herself, as there’s not much on the seat or floor. Her hands cross over her chest, where the tank top is completely see-through from the fabric being thin and white.
Penny must be sobering up for her to all of a sudden care about her modesty, when just minutes ago she was trying to remove her clothes entirely.
Her skirt sticks to her thighs, and every movement causes the fabric to ride up higher, toward her squeezable ass cheeks.
I grab her bags from the trunk and usher her toward the elevator, feeling the relief that I have her back on my turf again.
Time seems to pass in slow motion as we make our way to my floor.
I unlock my apartment door, deactivate the alarm system, and go through my routine of removing my shoes and placing them perfectly under the storage bench. Then I feel it. A shoe hitting into my leg, as Penny toes it off and flings it at me.
“Catch.”
I look at her and wait for her to do it with the other one, and she stumbles backward into the door as she extends her foot.
“You’re going to hurt yourself. You know that?” Maybe she isn’t sobering up as fast as I thought.
She shrugs. “I don’t care. I’m having fun living dangerously. Today I was let off the leash, and I lived it up.”
“Is that so?”
Clicking her tongue, she gives me the biggest smile. “Yup. I’m gonna make you work for your money a bit and have a hella lot of fun tempting the beast within you if just to see how hungry he can get.” I watch as she pulls the hem of her soaked white tank over her head.
And then she?—
“Penelope!” I yell, pulling the sopping shirt from my face.
I stalk toward her, and she takes off in a mad dash through my apartment, squeaking like a mouse as she tries to get away.
A thrill runs through me as doors slam.
“Three,” I say loudly.
“Two!”
My hand rests at the back of my neck.
“One!”
I rub my hands together.
“Ready or not, you better hide! When I find you, I’m taking you for a ride!”