“You want the van or not?” he said. He knew how to get Natalie, and that was by irritating her. But it got her to huff and stay, so he’d take it as a win.
“You’re a prick,” she muttered.
“You haven’t had any complaints,” he countered, under his breath but loud enough for her to hear. That got her to glare harder. But she did find a seat and sit down, so he was pretty pleased with himself. He turned his attention to the class.
“Okay, everyone. We’re going to get started,” he said in an authoritative tone.
He walked along the front of the room the way he’d seen professors do it in the movies.
“Normally, I have my CPR dummy to show you some basic skills on, but I thought today I could demonstrate on a real woman. That is, if I have a volunteer?”
Everyone’s hand shot in the air. Everyone but one.
“Natalie,” he called out. She was slouched in her chair, clearly hating life and likely hating him even more. She looked like she was ready to kill him. “Can you come up here, please?”
She made her way back to the front of the room to join him, and he couldn’t help but feel like he’d won a small victory. Or like she’d chop off his nuts at the soonest opportunity. It was a toss-up.
“Lie down right here,” he said and gestured to the long table.
“Are you kidding me right now?” she snapped.
“No, ma’am,” he said. “Go ahead and lie down. Don’t worry, this won’t hurt a bit.”
He winked, she snarled. But she was keeping her composure enough for him to know that he would so pay for this later. And he was looking forward to that. So far when he’d managed to get Natalie’s claws out, he’d ended up having some of the best nights of his life.
He also knew that everyone was watching, and she wouldn’t make a scene and give away that they were…whatever the hell they were. Intimate?
She went to climb on the table. And he might have helped her, just a little, by cupping her butt real q
uick. But she laid down on her back, and he arranged her arms at her side.
“I’m going to kill you,” she whispered so only he could hear, just as he took his place to address the class while standing over her.
“Looking forward to it, baby,” he whispered back.
Natalie was going to kill him. There she was, lying on a damn table in front of every damn woman in town, and East was standing over her, controlling everything.
“Now,” East said as he faced the class. He stood behind the table and seemed to tower over Natalie. “First thing you want to do is check for a pulse.”
He put two fingers on her neck, and just that small touch made her take a quick breath. Damn him and his touch. Damn him and his smell, spicy and woodsy and all manly. And all she could do was lie there and try not to let on how much this man affected her. She was ready to wring his neck and kiss him all at the same time.
She was on display. He’d picked on her on purpose. This was his way of annoying her. The way he’d called her out in front of all these people bugged her. She couldn’t help worrying that someone would notice…whatever it was this thing was between them. She wasn’t delusional enough to think what they had was anything special, but she hadn’t expected him to be so casual about putting her up on display. Her mother had tried that the whole time she was growing up. It hadn’t turned out well then, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to turn out well now.
East went on to discuss various things about CPR, and she tried to follow his voice, but all she could see were glimpses of his hard abs straining against his T-shirt, and flashes of his black belt.
She squeezed her thighs together and focused on hating him instead. Hating that he had this effect on her body. Hating that she knew exactly how he could move those hips as he entered her. Hating that she knew what those abs felt like against her palms when she ran them along his skin.
She was so lost in her own thoughts that she was surprised when she felt East’s hand cup her throat.
“You want to tilt the head back,” he said, and gently raised her chin so that it was pointed at the ceiling. His eyes met hers. “You want to make sure nothing is obstructing the mouth.” He gently ran his fingertip along her lips, and she parted them slightly. “Then you want to blow and start the count.”
He leaned in and place his lips on hers and gently blew as his hand trailed down just between her breasts. Her stupid tongue betrayed her and sought out just a taste of him. He clearly noticed, because he winked at her right as he pulled away.
“One, two, three…” he counted, and started pumping her chest lightly. “When you do this in a real-world situation, you’ve got to get really forceful with it. But Miss St. Clair here is a delicate thing, so I wouldn’t want to give her something she can’t handle,” East said to the class as he kept his hands on her.
“Then you do another breath.” He bent down, and his mouth was back on hers, and between that and the feel of his hands she was going to lose her mind. But she forced herself to stay still. Only this time, it was his tongue that took a brief foray of her mouth before pulling away.
Not fair! His insolence pissed her right off. She could see his dumb grin as he continued his count. He was getting to her, and he knew it as well as she did. Damn that dumb, earth-shatteringly sexy grin.