ZEKE
“Don’t you dare fucking march around like you’re the one with a reason to be angry,” I warn her on the way back into the building. There’s a separate entrance from the garage, leading straight to the elevator without the humiliation of walking through the lobby with her so obviously furious. I don’t feel like getting red-flagged by management, especially so soon after we’ve moved in.
“Would you drop the act already?” She tosses her hair, and I have to pretend the scent doesn’t light me on fire. “Daddy isn’t here to give you a gold star. And I’m not impressed with you.”
“Maybe you should be.” We get on the elevator, and I punch the button. “Because all it would take is a quick phone call.”
“A quick phone call, huh? Stop, or I’ll piss myself.” Another hair toss. It’s almost enough to make me want to cut it off.
“You think I’m joking?”
“Considering he would have your ass in a sling, not mine, yeah. It’s pretty goddamn funny.” She folds her arms, tapping her foot on the floor before almost bursting out of the car the second there’s enough room between the metal doorway and the door that’s sliding open.
The worst part is, she’s right. It would mean admitting I let her get away, and she knows it. “I could point out that you knew better, and I’ve gotta take a shower at some point. Unless I’m supposed to have you in the bathroom with me, there’s no way around it until the security system is put in. You know that, and you took advantage of it.” She unlocks the door and tries to close it on me, but of course, that’s a wasted effort. I shove the door open, then slam it shut.
She whirls around to face me. “You made a fucking fool of me out there. Do you know how embarrassing that was for me?”
“Don’t blame me. You had to know I was going to find you.” I strip off my leather jacket and toss it onto the couch, but it does nothing to cool me off. “It’s my job.”
“You mean it’s your job to stalk me.”
All that gets is a laugh. “Don’t turn it into that. It’s not stalking when I’m doing a job. My job is to-”
“Your job is to keep me prisoner.”
“My job is to keep you safe!”
“Safe from what?” She throws her arms out to the sides and points through the doors leading out to the balcony. “It’s just a bunch of people trying to hang out together. Wanting to have fun. What’s so dangerous about that?”
I wave a hand, indicating her excuse for a dress. “Right, and you had to go to that party looking like that?”
“What’s wrong with this? Other girls were wearing dresses.”
Yeah, but I saw those other girls. They were nowhere near her league, and I’m not thinking that because I know what she looks like underneath. Her tits are about to pour out of the top, and if she bends down, her entire ass would be visible.
“You might as well have laid down in the middle of that party so the guys could take turns.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” She folds her arms over herself defensively. “And I don’t see why you have to be disgusting about it, either.”
“News flash: this is the way guys think. We have disgusting, perverted minds. You’re a smart girl. Don’t tell me you don’t know that.”
“Girls have dirty minds, too.”
“You’re missing my point.” Her eyes widen, and she backs away when I approach her one slow step at a time. Like a wolf scenting his prey. “Somewhere along the line, some of us figure out it’s more fun to make those dirty, perverted little fantasies come true rather than fuck our fists. Now…”
She hits the wall, trapped. I lean in, one hand on either side of her head. “Some of us are disciplined enough to keep those thoughts to ourselves. But others… especially those teenagers, don’t have that discipline. They also don’t have the imagination to make those fantasies come true in a safe, legal way.” My eyes widen when hers do, and I nod slowly. “Then there’s your subset of guys without the discipline or the imagination, but what they do have going for them is the money to make problems disappear. And that’s what you’re going to find here, at this school. Lots of rich boys who would love to be the one to take you for a test drive.”
She blinks, silent. Her pulse is fluttering like mad in the side of her neck-even now, with only the light coming in through the glass door, it’s visible. It shouldn’t get me off the way it does, knowing I have this effect on her, but I’m fighting off a hard-on while staring her down.
Her grin takes me by surprise. “You really think I’m stupid, don’t you? I already faced one of those guys before you even got there, and I took care of myself.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. I also threw out the punch he gave me, which was probably spiked, but even if it wasn’t, it wasn’t worth the risk.” Dammit, she’s so triumphant. “Anything else?”
So scaring her is off the table. She’s not naive. “Fine. I’ll have to bring out the same threat as always. You know, I’m getting tired of using your fear of your father to keep you in line.”
She sucks in a deep breath that pushes her tits closer to me. “Fuck you.”
“I thought we already went over that. It’s not going to happen, remember?”
Her hand is up in a flash, pulled back like she’s about to slap me. If I wasn’t half crazy with disgust-and the frustration of not being able to get her in line-I might regret being an asshole. But no, this is her fault. This is what she’s made me do.
“Go ahead, princess,” I growl, leaning in close enough that I swear I smell her hatred. “Slap me. See if that makes you feel any better.”
Instead of using her hand on my face, she makes a chopping motion with her arm. It hits my elbow, bending my arm and knocking me off balance. She uses that to her advantage, getting herself free and scrambling across the room. I’ll give her this much: she’s quick.
Her brain moves pretty quick, too. “You need to stop projecting onto me, you know that?” She plunges a hand into her tiny purse and pulls out her phone. “Out of the two of us, you’re the one who’s really afraid of my father. Anything I do, he’ll forgive. But you?” She blows out a low whistle, shaking her head like she feels sorry for me.
“Why don’t you test that theory? Give him a call and tell him what you’ve been up to tonight. I know that’s what you’re about to threaten me with. I’m pretty sure you’ll find him taking my side.”
“Not if he finds out you made a move on me.” She bats her eyes. “Poor, innocent me, all alone with a predator.”
For the second time, she’s knocked me off balance, but this time, it doesn’t show outwardly. At least, I hope not. “You would lie like that? Are you that fucked in the head?”
“Would it be a lie?” The little bitch even pouts. “I mean, you did just get awfully close to me. You described how gross and sick your brain is. And fantasies-you talked about having filthy fantasies. It made me very uncomfortable. I think you behaved extremely unprofessionally.”
She holds up her phone, wiggling it around. “Now, whose side do you think he’s going to take?”
There are limits to even my patience. “So help me, God. Mia, I will take you over my fucking knee and spank the shit out of you if you ever try something like that.”
She thinks I’m bluffing. “Oh, so you want to give me more ammunition. Awesome. Come on, threaten me again. Keep making my job easier.”
I lunge for her, and only then does she panic, scrambling for the kitchen. I’m too quick for her-one arm is all it takes to grab her around the waist and haul her in close to me.
And that’s a mistake because now her wiggling, overheated body is rubbing against mine in the best and worst way possible. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to fight off the erection that keeps threatening.
“Now you listen to me,” I warn in a growl. “You lie to your father about me; you make up stories where I’m the aggressor, and you’re the innocent party. He might get to me, but believe me, I’ll get to you first. It takes ninety minutes to drive here from the compound. That’s an awfully long time for a bad girl to receive her punishment, don’t you think?”
“Release me,” she grunts, doing her damnedest to break free. While I pull her closer, whirling her body around in the process. I’m not going to make it easy for her this time.
“No way. Not until I know you understand.” I take her by the chin, lifting it so we’re eye to eye. “I’m the one with the power here. And you are going to behave yourself. Not because I give a shit whether some frat boy uses and discards you like a cum-filled tissue, either. Because it’s my job.”
Something I don’t recognize flashes in her eyes, drawing her brows together in what looks like sadness. Hopelessness.
“Tell me you understand,” I mutter, my fingers pressing against her jaw a little tighter with each passing moment she’s silent. “Tell me, or else we can stand here like this all night.”
She trembles, but something tells me it’s not from fear.
More like blinding rage. “I hate you.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Fuck, yeah. It’s a yes, you bastard.” My arm loosens, and she shoves herself away from me before running to her room and slamming the door loud enough that the walls shake.
One night down. One night when I was barely able to hold on to myself long enough not to cross the line.
How many nights like this do I have left in me?
Because something tells me I might have won the battle, but the war is far from over.