Chapter 11 #2
I don’t know how the intruder managed but he was on his feet quickly, lunging toward me even before I could take another swing.
He shoved me against the wall with enough force the air was ripped from my lungs. Everything happened so quickly, I couldn’t stop him from yanking my security weapon from my hand. The bastard actually growled at me when he slammed it on the back of the toilet.
“Goddamn it. What the fuck, lady?”
“Get off me!” I managed a single brutal punch against his jaw.
“Fuck. Ouch. Ouch.” He had one hand wrapped around my throat within a split second. With the other, he snapped his fingers around my fisted hand, preventing me from punching him again. “Calm the fuck down.”
The voice.
Whoa.
No.
Hold on. I recognized the voice. That wasn’t possible. Was it? Not again. What was going on?
Not three times in one day. It wasn’t possible. He’d come to finish me off.
After blinking a few times, his face came into focus. “You!” The single word from my mouth was barely audible.
“Oh, this is insane. What in the hell are you doing here?”
I continued struggling, horrified that I hadn’t paid attention he was following me. The entire day.
“No, I don’t need to tell you anything.”
The look on his face was one of incredulousness. “Okay, little ballerina, this is soon to be all about you. You broke into this house. You’re not supposed to be here. Now, you and I are going to have a conversation about who you are and who you work for. You will tell me the truth.”
Was he kidding me?
“Me? What do you mean who I work for? From what I remember about last night, you were intently watching me, including undressing me with your eyes.” Oops. Well, the cat was out of the bag.
“Me? You didn’t seem to mind what happened after you danced. Did you? Were you just playing a game of seduction?”
“Oh, yeah, right. I don’t know who you are, buddy, but you’re definitely not supposed to be here.”
“You fuckin’ hit me.” Hissing, he shook his head, which caused me to glance at his forehead. He was bleeding from a large gash. Good. He deserved the pain for breaking in.
“Of course I hit you. You’re a criminal. You’re stalking me. Three times in one day isn’t normal. And I don’t know what last night was other than a huge mistake.”
“That’s not what you said after your fourth orgasm. Or was it your sixth?”
Oh, the man was infuriating. Heat washed across every surface of skin.
Words of hatred were ready to spew from my mouth.
“In your dreams, buddy. Are you so insensitive that when a girl left you alone in bed you had a possessive streak and decided to stalk me?” This conversation was going nowhere.
We were both on edge, in an entirely different way than we should be.
Even with blood streaming down his face, he was fully aroused.
“I’m doing no such thing. I have every right to be here. You do not. Now, make it easier on yourself. Calm down so we can talk.”
“Calm down? Are you kidding me?”
“Not in the least. I don’t want to find the need to hurt or restrain you, but I will, if necessary,” he gritted out.
“My God. You’re some kind of horrible criminal. I don’t know anything. I should have known better. What was wrong with me last night?”
Now, the bastard grinned since he knew every inch of my body. “If you ask me, not a damn thing.”
While I was doing my best to keep from falling prey to the building rage, I was suddenly losing the battle.
He was far too strong. If I didn’t get away from him, I might not survive.
I struggled with everything I had to try to free myself.
In doing so, a rush of cool air slipped all the way my toes.
“Stop fighting me.” His chest rising and falling, he narrowed his eyes, allowing his gaze to fall from my face.
When I dared look away from him, I realized I’d still been wearing the towel when I’d attacked him.
Which was now pooled around my ankles.
We both followed the trail to the floor. When he lifted his head, the grin I’d seen initially upon almost meeting him had returned. But his eyes were cold, perhaps unfocused.
The blood continued to run down the side of his face and it would seem he had no intention of letting me go.
Mortified, I sucked in and held my breath, still struggling to try to free myself.
“Now, are you going to be a good little girl and calm down so we can talk?”
“Why, sure. Asshole. Why don’t you let me go so I can contact the police? They’ll get it straightened out for us. And a good little girl? In your dreams.” I was hot, the Italian blood in my flaring. As much as I’d tried in my adulthood to temper my anger, in a situation like this forget it.
His laugh sent a shower of electric tingles through me.
“I mean it, my lost angel. If you aren’t very, very good, I’ll restrain you again. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“Neither do I!” Was it possible the brutes from New York had found me, calling in local reinforcements?
By the way he dropped his gaze, his nostrils flaring, my powerful intuition told me he wouldn’t mind restraining me in the least.
“No, you will not. You’re going to explain to me what the hell you’re doing here.”
He cocked his head and I’ll be damned if tingles weren’t tickling every nerve ending. The rush of heat crisscrossing my face in what had to be ugly blotches didn’t seem to faze him in the least. I was barely two inches away and completely naked, yet he was huffing and puffing.
Granted, the man had a gash in his head, blood streaming down his face and quite possibly a concussion, but that was beside the point. I lived here. I was allowed to be in this house.
He wasn’t.
We glared at each other for at least a full thirty seconds. Both with labored breathing. Both with pinched faces. The only difference was the trickle of blood had finally reached his lip. I shifted my gaze to the soft rosiness of his full lips, loathing how much his physicality affected me.
He’d changed shirts, the one he was wearing no longer splattered with blood. With the sleeves rolled up past his elbows, I was given an incredible view of a spectacular rose tattoo on his forearm in full display. The artistry was classy, intricate in design and detail.
While the shadows from the night before had seemed protective, I’d missed seeing his body. This was bad. Very bad.
Without his tie and with several buttons undone, I was also allowed a quick view of his massive chest. He was as rock hard as I’d envisioned before.
With my hand free, I shifted my arm and he growled at me. As if I intended on hitting him again. When I rubbed my finger across the stream of blood so the distasteful element wouldn’t get into his mouth, he was shocked.
In a move so unexpected I was also surprised, he lowered his head until our lips were almost touching. Close enough that I licked mine in response, fighting a series of urges that had nothing to do with an intruder standing close enough to crush me with his bare hands.
“My lost angel. Now, you’ve become my captive.”