Suddenly His

Her lips pop open, eyes turning glassy with renewed desire. “If you couldn’t keep the promise, you shouldn’t have made it.”

“You’re right.” She tries to stomp off again, but I yank her back up against me, growing hard over the soft valleys that lock to my muscles. I slide my hand up the back of her dress and wedge it inside her panties, petting her bottom, refusing to let the argument diffuse the intimacy between us for even a second. “Agree to be mine, Maisy,” I say against her lips. “Say you’re mine, let me keep you, and I won’t come again until you allow it. Not even by my own hand. Not even if you make me wait years. Torture me for breaking my promise, just don’t leave like everyone els—”

I break off before I can say too much.

Before I can reveal how truly pathetic and unlovable I am.

A kid abandoned at a fire station at birth and lost in the system, never to be claimed.

A man double-crossed by his business partner and best friend.

The purest asshole she’ll ever meet, just as I claimed.

“Please, Maisy.” She’s looking at me with budding sympathy, which I never wanted, so I distract her by sliding my hand further into her panties, cupping her sex from behind. “You’re already mine, just say the words.”

She wets her lips, swaying toward me.

I have her.

I’m going to take her home, worship her forever, convince her somehow that I’m worth a damn—

“Maisy,” a female voice calls. Followed by another one.

I turn and glance over my shoulder to find the girls who brought her here—thus putting them firmly in the enemy category—hustling toward us.

“Are you okay?” they ask in unison, splitting curious glances between us.

I bare my teeth when Maisy rips out of my hold, shaking herself as if she’s coming to her senses. “Yeah, I’m fine. I-I’m fine.” She pushes back the long, dark hair that came loose from her bun while we made love. “Can we go home now?”

“No,” I growl.

“Yes,” she fires back. “You got what you paid for. Now it’s over.”

“This will never be over,” I vow, holding her eyes.

“How does she get her money?” one of the girls asks, both of them flanking Maisy.

I pride myself on my ability to read a situation and it’s obvious that—as much as I’d like to—unless I carry Maisy out over my shoulder, she’s not coming home with me. And it’s my own goddamn fault for breaking my promise. Earning her trust back has to be my next step and it’s something that can’t be forced.

“Don’t worry, she’ll get it. Along with anything she ever dreamed of.” I make a new promise to Maisy with my eyes. “You’ll hear from me first thing Monday morning.”

I mean everything I say, to the T.

I’ll have the girl who’s captured my heart.

And I’ll play dirty to get her, because it’s the only way I know how.

5

Maisy

I splash my face with cold water, remaining leaned over the sink to watch the droplets fall. Plop. Plop. After my second sleepless night in a row, it’s now Monday morning. Of course I’ve been restless in bed—I have no idea what this new week will bring. Furthermore, my feelings have become a tangled quagmire I have no idea how to straighten out.

For one, I should not have an excited hamster running on a wheel in my stomach over seeing Jack Lincoln again. He’s a bad man. A terrible employer, according to my mother and our pathetically empty bank account. A man who buys women. A man who breaks his promises. So I shouldn’t be mentally selecting my outfit for the day, wondering what would melt the glaciers of his sharp blue eyes. I shouldn’t be short of breath wondering if he’ll touch me again with total possession, total control.

My body still carries the memory of last time. His tongue learning the secrets between my thighs—secrets even I didn’t know. His two fingers roughing in and out of me. The words he said, the way his neck and jaw strained, eyes intense. Riveted on me. How sinful it felt to wrap my legs around him and surrender to the friction between us, even with an audience watching.

How at the end…I slowly stopped minding the men watching at all.

I’m not the reserved girl I thought I was apparently. When I select books to read, I usually tend to avoid the more explicit ones, but since Friday, they’re all I’ve been craving. I’m reluctantly anxious to find out more about who I am around Jack. I’m also on edge because I have no idea what’s coming. Or even how I’ll respond.

Something happened between us Friday night and now I’m left with a serious thirst for the man while also wanting to give him another couple of smacks across the face.