I feel Dane and Sterling’s gazes on my back as I stomp toward the bathroom to join their evil triplet.
I burst through the door of the men’s room to find West pacing, steam practically rolling off him now. My heart races double-time, and only quickens when he snatches me all the way inside, and then turns the main lock.
He has me trapped. In so many ways.
Just above the door, a speaker cranks out an oldie I’ve always loved—‘Time of the Season’ by the Zombies. It echoes loudly in the small space and I have a feeling I’ll never hear it the same again after tonight.
“What do you want?” I ask as boldly as I can.
A cold, jarring look snaps toward me. “You still don’t get it do you?”
The question sets my nerves on edge.
“Of course, I don’t get it!” I yell. “That’s what I’ve been saying this whole time! Every chance you get, you’re in my face, giving me shit, but you still don’t have the balls to say what I’ve done to deserve it.”
There goes that stupid tremble in my voice again. The one I’m sure West has mistaken for weakness, instead of what it really is.
Rage.
Frustration.
“All you need to know is I own you. So, when I say jump, your only response is how fucking high,” he roars, coming toward me with quick steps.
Startled, I back toward the green-tiled wall until there’s nowhere else I can go. But he doesn’t stop. He comes closer, until we’re breathing each other’s air, and I’m suddenly at a loss for words.
“Now, talk back again,” he warns. “When I’m done with you, you’ll wish your ass had stayed in line.”
I struggle to look into his eyes, but force myself. I’m not his pet, or one of his mindless followers.
“You think you’re hot shit because you have these assholes falling at your feet? Because you rule Cypress Prep with an iron fist? Well, newsflash, I’ve lived with a bastard just like you my whole damn life, West. One who thinks the louder he barks and the more shit he breaks when he rages out the more of a man he is. And, just so you know, I’m not scared of his ass either,” I snap. “So, whatever you think I’ve done to you, you can either man up and say what you need to say, or get the hell over it,” I declare. “But pushing me around? Having your groupies do your dirty work? Threatening to burn this place down? … Bitch moves, West. All of them.”
I just struck a nerve. The vein throbbing in his forehead tells me so.
“So, what’s it gonna be?” I ask. “Are you ready to tell me what I’ve done to piss you off? Or should we just continue with the games because you’re weak?”
The steady glare that’s trained on me is impossible to escape. He is impossible to escape.
“Weak?” he groans, challenging me with his tone. “That’s what you think of me?”
The deep rasp causes me to freeze. Even when there’s suddenly no gap between his body and mine, I don’t move.
Massive hands press into my hips when he grabs me rough, but I say nothing, show no sign of being affected by his touch at all. Especially not the sick, twisted part of me that doesn’t hate it entirely.
I even stay quiet when his sadistic power-play becomes something more.
Something I didn’t see coming.
The dark centers of his eyes turn even more sinister as a smirk takes over his expression. A smirk that touches his hot, fleshy lips … just before they’re on mine, moving against them.
Heat is coming from everywhere, burning me up, making me perspire a little. I manage to keep my hands hanging limp at my sides, but it isn’t easy. They’re twitching with lust, aching to touch every inch of the beast I hate more than words can ever express.
And he smells so damn good, freshly showered after dominating on the football field. No, I wasn’t there to witness for myself, but I know he’d have it no other way.
I breathe him in deep and it’s my undoing, the reason I’m not lucid enough to protest when his tongue pushes between my lips. A taste of mint lingers in his mouth and I’m keenly aware that this is something I shouldn’t know about him. It’s wrong on so many levels, but there’s no use fighting. It’s a lost cause. I’m a lost cause.
Feverish sucking and tugging on my lips has my head hazy, until I barely know who I am anymore. He’s stolen all traces of flavor from my gloss and still isn’t finished with me. A dangerous feeling builds in the pit of my stomach—the realization that I want more of this.
More from the wolf who’s made it crystal clear he intends to do more than just blow my house down.
He wants to level my entire world.
A slow, deep push of his hips toward mine reveals something else. He’s rock hard and isn’t bothering to hide it, isn’t ashamed that I now know for sure there’s more than one kind of tension steeping between us. It’s there, it’s real, and in a flash … he takes it all away.
Everything.
The sound of our sharp, rapid breaths is all I hear. He’s still flush against me, and still very much turned on. There’s something different about his eyes, though. They’re softer, kinder as he searches my face for something I’m not sure he’s found. An explanation for the energy that just surprised and then wrecked us both a second ago.
With my chest heaving against his, neither of us rushes to move, which is telling in and of itself. But then, just like that, he flips the switch again, appearing to have felt nothing. The moment I realize he’s reverting back to his d-bag default setting, I snap back to reality, too, straightening my
