“They’re taking a break. There’s just Lann outside.”
“Good.”
Alice backtracked into the lounge, this time of her own accord. “I don’t get why you’re so upset.”
He took his time to lock the door, as much for her safety as to take a few seconds to calm down. He didn’t feel that much calmer when he turned to her. “Why did you do it?”
“Who says it was me?”
“Nobody else knew, except for your editor, and he wants you badly enough to protect you.”
She walked to the sofa with a faked air of casualness, because her hands were shaking. “I had to do something or else we would’ve had to cancel the show.”
He advanced on her. “Cancel the show?”
“The negative publicity from last night’s attack is killing us.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“What difference would it have made? Johnny called me in a flat spin. I had to act fast. I only—”
“Did your fucking job.”
“Why are you so angry? You’re not the one who’s humiliated.”
He pressed his finger on the article. “It says you fucked me for the win.”
She flinched. “That’s just nasty speculation.”
“You’d make a fool out of yourself for the sake of a lousy theater?”
“Aren’t you happy?” she spat back at him. “I thought that was your intention.”
“To humiliate you?”
“Why else? Getting me on stage, the theater going under… I’d lose everything.”
He couldn’t believe his ears. He threw the newspaper on the coffee table. “You think I want you to lose everything you care for?”
“It would be the perfect revenge.”
“Who said anything about revenge?”
“Zach said—”
“Who the fuck is Zach?”
“The décor manager.”
He lifted his hands. “You know what? I don’t want to hear. I don’t care who he is or what he said. What I can’t believe is that you listened to such bullshit. Is that what you think of me?”
“What am I supposed to think? You walk back into my life after nine years, acting like you own me, talking about how my family degraded you, and how we’re the reason you no longer have a heart.”
“All of that’s true,” he hissed, “but I protect what’s mine. I never would’ve said a word about the scholarship, and you know it.”
“Well, I didn’t. Anyway, it’s too late, now.”
“Why are you being so self-destructive, Alice? You’re everything that’s good. You’re everything I’m not. Don’t you get it, dammit? I need you to be untouchable.”
“If you’ve put me on a pedestal thinking I’ll be some warped kind of Madonna for you, you’ve got it all wrong. I’m human, and I have faults, lots of them. The biggest of them was falling for you.”
“You don’t mean that.” He narrowed his eyes. “You better not mean that, because you’re stuck with me.”
“You forget a crucial point. I have a choice in the matter.”
He regarded her from under his eyelashes. There was one thing she damn well needed to understand. “I’m not letting you go, Alice.”
She rounded the sofa.
The fact that she put an obstacle between them was not lost on him. He was dangerously close to snapping. Right now, he needed reassurance that she was his and denying him by hiding behind a piece of furniture didn’t help. He could handle a lot of things, but giving up Alice pushed all his wrong buttons. He walked around the sofa slowly while she went the other way, the two of them doing a circular dance.
“My father was right about you.”
“Was he now, Princess?”
“He said you’d only hurt me.”
“Hurt you?” His eyes ran over her. “I’d rather fuck you.”
“Going to bend me over the couch, again?” She stopped in a display of bravado.
“No.” He caught up with her. “I think I’ll take you upstairs.”
Before she could blink, he hooked his arms behind her knees and threw her over his shoulder.
“What are you doing?” she exclaimed, punctuating it with pounding a fist on his back.
He didn’t say a word. In her room, he dumped her on the bed. “You were right about one thing. I am going to hurt you, but it’ll hurt so good you’ll scream until you’re hoarse. There’s no one to hear you, tonight.”
She scooted to the top of the bed, regarding him with wary eyes as he removed his clothes.
She only spoke when he was stark naked. “What are you going to do?”
“What do you think?” He pulled open her robe.
Her pussy was exposed but her breasts partially hidden. Exquisite. It was just enough to make him want more. When he reached for her, she scrambled over the bed, but he grabbed her ankle before she could make it to the other side.
“The chase only makes me harder,” he whispered in her ear, pinning her down.
A shiver ran over her body and goosebumps popped out on her skin. It didn’t take long to remove the robe. He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled her over his lap, face down with her ass poised in the air.