14. Nick
14
NICK
W hat the fuck?
Those men weren’t supposed to be there.
Sabrina was supposed to be stranded with her car not starting, but that was it.
Those thugs showing up wasn’t part of the plan. Tiffany put me on the spot this morning and demanded that I disable Sabrina’s car out here. But that was supposed to be it. The three gangsters surrounding her and making her look so scared weren’t part of the plan at all.
Fuck!
Just the idea of those men pawing at her and bothering her pissed me off. Sabrina was mine to bother and make uncomfortable. She was my target. She was the object of my attention.
No one else’s.
It would’ve felt like getting even to give her a chance to experience real terror with those men encroaching on her personal space. Yet as I drove along the parking lot’s perimeter to find the entrance, I knew I couldn’t leave her. Stranding her out here was the goal. My stepsister put me up to it, all so Sabrina would miss the dinner at the house tonight.
Not like this, though. I didn’t care if she pissed me off. I didn’t care if she was the target and that I was supposed to ruin her.
Not like this.
The idea of her actually being hurt wasn’t happening, not on my watch.
Speeding up more, I circled the lot until I found the gates to enter. I zoomed through the gates before the arms fully raised, and I didn’t care about parking very neatly. Stopping in the space next to her car, I killed the engine and got off.
I had their attention. From the second I walked toward them, murder on my face, they had to know they’d trespassed on another man’s property. Sabrina couldn’t be mine when my mission was to ruin her. But this possessiveness over her wasn’t so clean cut anymore.
I stalked toward them, letting them see the utter rage on my face.
“Nick,” Sabrina said. She spoke it with surprise, gratitude, and confusion in her tone. The fact that she recognized me by name did the trick. The three thugs got the hint that someone she knew was with her. She was no longer alone, no longer vulnerable for them to act so predatory.
“Is there a problem here, Sabrina?” I asked. Keeping my voice level but lethal, I gave those fuckers another hint to back the hell off.
“No, no problem,” the thinnest thug said.
For all they could tell, I was armed. I wasn’t, but I knew how menacing I could look. The long hair, the tats, the anger at the world that I couldn’t mask. They would be fools to think they could win just because they outnumbered me. The closer I got, the more I realized they were very young. Teenagers, even. They were bigger than Sabrina, and that served to scare her, but they wouldn’t dare fuck with me.
“Come on.” One of the guys pushed at his buddy, the stupid one who’d dared to grab Sabrina’s wrist. He released her, and as one, the group backed up, not taking their eyes off me until they were far enough away to turn and run.
I didn’t move, staring in the direction that they escaped. If they thought to come back, if they had another idea to bother her, they’d regret it. I’d make sure of it.
For a long moment, we just stood there, me and Sabrina, just the two of us under the hot, humid sunshine that scorched us on this mostly empty end of the parking lot.
Being near her again felt like the equilibrium I had no business wanting. She settled me at the same time she excited me. Her presence was a complicated force that I didn’t know how to handle anymore.
Her silence ate at me.
The lack of eye contact intrigued me.
She was too sweet, too good not to thank me for helping her.
A thanks was due from her stubborn lips, but as I waited and waited for it, I fought the urge to cringe. It was because of me that she was stranded in the first place. Yet, I wanted her to thank me for getting those guys to leave her alone, too.
“Well?” I asked, walking the few steps closer until the soft hints of her jasmine scent reached my nose. Propping my butt on the edge of the car, I leaned back and crossed my ankles.
Now that I was in front of her, she had to look at me. “Well, what?” she asked, skeptical and still on edge.
“You can tell me thank you any second now.” I smiled a little at her scowl.
“Sure. Thanks.” Her cool demeanor gnawed at me.
“That’s it?” I stood, tilting my head to the side.
She shrugged, scoping the parking lot as if she worried something else would threaten her next. As if I were too big of a threat to handle up close.
“I scare off those guys and all I get is a tiny thanks like that?” I stepped into her space, and she frowned deeper.
“My bad. Thank you very much, Nick. It just seems strange to thank you for wanting to help because the only reason you’re here is that you’re stalking me.” She licked her lip, her gaze still darting around as if she wasn’t sure about being near me.
I stepped closer, prompting her to back up in this futile hope to keep a buffer of space between us. She turned, backing up to the side of the car as I advanced.
“That’s better.” I stared at her lips after she licked the lower one again.
“That’s it,” she corrected. “I’m not in a generous mood to praise you as some kind of a hero.”
“Why not?”
Her back hit the car, and she frowned up at me, drugging me with the curiosity in her light-brown eyes. “Because I don’t trust you.”
I smiled, loving that she’d admit it, unafraid to tell it like it was.
“And like I’ve told you twice before now, I don’t have time for someone like you in my life. I don’t have time for anything but trying to get my car working again.”
“Hmm.” I closed in on her again, setting my hand on the car and caging her in slightly. “Broken down?”
She nodded, gasping when I wedged my leg between hers and leaned in.
“I could help.”
Slanting closer, I relished the heat of her soft body. Almost hugging her, I tipped my head down until I could inhale a deeper breath of her.
“I could help you… for a price,” I whispered into her ear.
The idea of her submitting to me tempted me. The chance of her cracking and letting me in to see her, not this cool shell she showed the world, made me hotter with relentless desire.
She shivered ever so slightly as I leaned over her. It was hotter than hell. She couldn’t be cold, but my proximity made her fucking tremble.
I held in a growl and pressed against her a little more, nuzzling her cheek as I moved my hand toward her waist. “What do you say, Sabrina?” I whispered as I gripped her hip.
She sucked in a breath, and I knew I had her. That tiny gasp was all I needed as proof that she wasn’t immune to me. Not like this.
“Want me to help you?” I asked as I kissed the skin below her ear.
More shivers rocked through her as she breathed faster.
I squeezed my hand, digging my fingers in at her hip at the same time I ground my growing erection against her stomach. She couldn’t miss it. She knew exactly what was happening here.
I just didn’t know if she’d accept the fact that I was making a move on her.
“Huh?” I prompted, kissing her satiny soft skin again. Lower along her jawline, I pressed my lips over her.
“No.” She whispered it on a long exhale, weak and reluctant.
“No?” I teased as I lowered my hand to rub over her pussy. Kissing down her neck, I maintained steady pressure over her wet panties. Already, she was dripping for me.
Stubborn girl. I closed my eyes, giving in to the total pleasure of finally touching her. Of kissing her. Of not thinking possessive thoughts about her but giving in to this lust that had spawned from stalking her and keeping her in mind.
Something was shifting between us. The mutual loathing remained. She didn’t want to surrender. Her body was still stiff with hesitation and being on edge around me. Yet, she trembled. She sighed. She furrowed her brow, determined to be proper and behave, while her body gravitated toward mine.
“You don’t want me to help you fix your car?”
She barely held in a whimper as I rubbed harder, making sure she felt all the friction on top of her clothes. Faintly, she shook her head.
“Not even for the price of a kiss?” I gave her one, on the underside of her chin, prompting her to tip it up and give me access. She did, reluctant but tempted.
“No,” she repeated breathily. “No thank you for the… the help.”
I pressed against her more, addicted to teasing her and hearing her react in those little gasps. “Why? Because you’re too much of a good girl to want someone like me?”
She didn’t reply, sagging against the car as I continued to feel her up, smearing her cream beneath her panties out in the open like this.
“I can help you…” I nipped at her ear then sucked on the lobe, loving how expressive she was even while she resisted me. While she resisted what she wanted.
Offering her help with her car wasn’t what Tiffany intended. She put me up to sabotaging Sabrina and keeping her from getting to the dinner tonight. It was sick and twisted irony for me to offer a one-eighty of helping her fix her car after I tampered with it. But I could so easily envision many other ways to keep her preoccupied and late for any dinner or meeting tonight.
Splayed out on my bed.
On her knees beneath me.
Arching back and gasping even louder.
Erotic visions filled my mind, making me harder yet.
“I can help you,” I taunted, not slowing down with the kisses or rubbing her, “for a price.”
“No.”
Determined to get her to crack, I rubbed my cheek over hers, seeking out her frowning lips. Pressing mine over hers, I stole the first faint taste of what I’d been dreaming of for too long.
But she didn’t yield. Her mouth remained firm, not bending. She stayed stiff, so stubborn that she wouldn’t kiss me back. Even though she breathed so quickly and raggedly and she was dripping with her arousal from my touch, she would still close herself off from me.
Her bold words played back in my mind.
“I won’t let you get close to where you can hurt me.”
She meant it. At the cost of what she wanted herself, she would still reject me.
Furious that she’d shun me and aggravated with how fiercely I desired her, to the point I couldn’t think straight, I stepped back.
She exhaled a harsh breath as I backed up. Without conscious effort, she canted forward, chasing me as I retreated abruptly.
Fuck this.
Fuck you.
Fuck this…
This unstoppable draw to her.
Casting her one more filthy glare, I turned and left her there.