As is.
Clearly, she was no fool, and she knew as well as I did there was little she could do to hinder or halt our plans. Instead, she’d appealed to our better natures with the thinly veiled promise of legal recourse.
She knew she had little grounds. Still, every word had been delivered with strength and an undercurrent of her base faith in humanity.
Somehow, it’d made me crave her all the more.
It was sheer strength that had forced me from her office.
Biding my time.
All too eager to show up at the bar this evening, knowing she would do the same, the lure too much for her to resist.
Shaking myself off, I turned the opposite direction and headed to my hotel, the luscious taste of her still on my tongue, my cock hard as stone as I rode the elevator to the top floor. Entering my suite, I went straight for my laptop still open on the conference table.
You are delicious. I knew you’d be. I can’t wait for the full meal.
It took all of five seconds for a message to show in my inbox—just like I knew one would.
I’d rather starve.
I chuckled beneath my breath. God, there was nothing I liked more than a feisty woman. And I was beginning to think I liked this one best.
“Your father is pushing to close this deal by whatever means it needs to be done. So far, he hasn’t sent anyone down there, but you know what will happen if he does.”
Anger ratcheted up in my chest as I stared out the window from the backseat of the Lincoln, my attention hooked on the old building that had seen far better days. “I told him this was my deal and to stay out of it. I’m tired of him making a mess of things. There are protocols that need to be followed.”
James sighed. “He’s not exactly a man who listens to reason. What’s the end goal here?”
I swallowed hard. “The same as it always is.”
“Then I’ll try to hold him off.”
I nodded, even though I knew he couldn’t see it. “Thank you for giving me the heads up.”
“You know I always have your back.”
“I do.”
“Keep me posted.”
“Okay,” I said as I killed the call, giving myself a few moments to study my surroundings. Finally, I sucked in a breath, pushed open the door to the car, stood, and straightened my jacket as I headed straight for the door.
I didn’t hesitate.
I just swung it open and strode inside as if I owned the place.
It was only a matter of time before I did.
My entrance didn’t seem to faze the elderly woman who stood hunchback behind the counter. She just tilted her head a fraction to reveal her knowing, gray gaze.
Ah. No doubt, this was a woman who had seen many things. Made wise through the wounds of life.
“Addelaine Tindall,” I said, my voice low but somehow soft.
She gave a slight nod. “Mr. Wolfe.”
“I take it no introductions are necessary?”
A deep, short laugh echoed from her as she shook her head and went back to organizing the papers she had strewn across the counter. “That fancy suit you’re wearing is really what gives it away. Considering I’m the only one in these parts who could make something so fine, I know you must be from out of town.”
I began to wander the small storefront on the bottom floor, taking in the old pictures on the walls. The vast majority of them featured beaming brides in their custom wedding gowns. Others were family portraits that served as thank yous and endorsements. Proof of the talent that resided within these walls.
“Besides, men who look like you don’t typically walk through that door, Mr. Wolfe.”
I barely glanced back at her. “And what do I look like, Mrs. Tindall?”
“You look like a broken heart.”
I hummed in question. “Do I really look that dangerous?”
The small sound she made was somehow both disbelieving and affectionate. Catching me off guard, it made me pause and shift so I could read her expression.
“Wasn’t talking about you breakin’ the hearts, young man. I was referring to your own.”
I started to correct her ridiculous assumption but before I could, she winked.
A smile threatened, but I bit back my amusement. How was this woman making jokes when I was the one dragging her right up to the line?
I turned back to wandering the store, studying the pictures, my eyes going wide and my feet faltering when my sight landed on a cluster of pictures arranged on the wall near the counter.
Image after image of a raven-haired girl.
Young.
Beautiful then.
But different.
Broken.
Timid.
Not the bold woman who’d captured my thoughts and stoked my desire.
“She’s something, isn’t she?” Addelaine said from right behind me, startling me.
A lump suddenly felt prominent in my throat. I forced the heavy words around it. “I didn’t realize she’d worked here.”
Mrs. Tindall tsked. “Men like you often don’t take the time to realize a lot of things. Look closer. You’ll see she didn’t just work here. She found herself here. I’d reckon this place was more like a home. A safe haven, if you will.”
Realization settled into my bones. “Which is why she wants to save your store?”
She shrugged a thin shoulder. “Women like Lillith fight for what they believe is right. For what they believe is fair.” She eyed me without fear. “So, why don’t you tell me what you’re doing here, Mr. Wolfe.”
I fully turned around. “I came here to find out what it is you think is right.”
8
Lillith
I pounded on one side of the double doors. A frenzy of fury sped through my veins. It was the only thing that made me stupid enough to show up here. Of course he would be staying at the nicest hotel in town in the best suite. One call and I knew exactly where to find him.
I pounded harder.
Finally, the door to the penthouse suite flew open. My breath caught, and I swallowed around the awe that suddenly thickened my throat as a startling jolt of attraction flashed in the air.
God, how could I find this man so attractive?
He was so gorgeous. So appealing and big and bad.
I hated him, didn’t I?
I took a deep breath and found my resolve. Yes, I hated every single perfectly sculpted inch of him. I fisted the reason for my hate in my hand and charged passed him through the door. I spun around and shoved the paperwork his direction. “What is this?”
He widened his eyes as he let the door fall closed. “Please, Ms. Redd, do come inside.”
“I asked you what this is.” My voice was gravel as my gaze flashed down his body.
Desire burning me from the inside out.
I tried to stop them, I did, but I was assaulted by the memories of the alleyway from last night
His fingers.
His mouth.
Heat swept across my flesh.
I looked away, as if I were suddenly interested in taking in the luxury of his suite. The area was dim, only a spray of light that tumbled in from the attached bedroom to my right cut across the floor. A living area was at the front and a long conference table was set up in the back near the floor-to-ceiling windows. It offered an awe-inspiring view of the city I loved.
The reason for my visit.
I turned my attention back to him and refused myself the pleasure of taking in his glorious face or his irresistible body. It was close to impossible to do, considering his shirt was unbuttoned, showing off a hint of the toned, olive skin of his chest and abdomen.
Oh God. This was so very bad.
I struggled to keep my mouth from trembling when I spat the words again. “What is this?”
He looked at me as if he couldn’t believe I could be so dense. “A contract of sale.”
“I know it’s a contract of sale. What I want to know is how you already
have it and why Addelaine Tindall signed it.”
He stood a mere ten feet from me, the lines of his face playing in the shadows.
He slowly stalked forward. “I warned you, I always get what I want.”
“Not this time, you don’t. I told you I would see to it that building remained intact. I know her signature was coerced, and I intend to prove it.”
In a flash, he was in my face, his stance fierce and bristling as he backed me deeper into the space. “I would suggest you get your facts straight before you barge in here making accusations.”
My teeth grated. “She would never sign this of her own free will. I know her.”
He pried my fingers from the papers I fisted and tossed them onto the table I hadn’t even realized he had me backed against. “Ms. Redd, maybe you think you have it all figured out, or maybe you know absolutely nothing at all.”
“I know you’re an asshole.” It was a whisper against his lips. His lips that were suddenly crushing mine.
It was a tyranny. The way his mouth moved over mine and his hand fisted in my hair, jerking my head back as he commanded the kiss.
Aggressively.
Precisely.
Air shot from my lungs when he hoisted me onto the table, a massive hand gliding up my backside as he pushed up my skirt. He greedily gripped my ass. “I bet this ass will feel just as good as that sweet cunt.”
“Fuck you.” I hissed the words as I tore his shirt free from the wide, foreboding strength of his shoulders, exposing the raw beauty of this overpowering man.
Desire spiraled, pulsed, and ached.
He wedged his hips between my thighs as the demand of his kiss intensified.
Devouring.
Provoking.
His hands were at the belt of my jacket, tugging at the loop, setting it free. “Red drives me wild. Did you know that, Lillith? Did you know finding you standing in my doorway in it was nothing less than a provocation. A bull set to charge.”
“I hate you,” I barely managed.
“Are you sure about that?” he crooned. “Maybe you’re wrong about all of that, too. I think you want me just as badly as I want you.”
A moan rolled from my tongue when he yanked my coat down my arms and peeled it from my body. The movement forced me back. His mouth was instantly on my neck, licking and biting, building a frenzy of need in my belly.
My fingernails dug into his shoulders as he rocked against my center.
Need lit up like a torch behind my eyes, and my full focus turned to the button and zipper of his pants, tugging them loose.
“What am I doing?” It was all a delirious jumble of words as he gripped my breasts in both of his enormous hands before sliding them against my belly and rushing them up beneath the satiny material of my blouse, stoking flames across my skin.
He tore the fabric over my head.
“You’re getting ready to find out just what it’s like to have a man you’ll never forget.”
He released the clasp of my bra. The cool air that blew across my nipples beaded them into tight, hard peaks. He leaned down, flattened his tongue across one in the same second he was twisting out of his pants and his underwear.
My fingers drove into his hair. Tiny sparks of pleasure shocked through my body. Tightening my belly and throbbing between my thighs. Teeth scraped my chin. My neck. “Asshole,” I whimpered.
“Bitch,” he grated before my skirt and underwear were gone, casualties of this man who laid every reservation to waste with every hungry touch.
God, how badly I needed this.
And how badly I hated I did.
I gulped when I realized we both were bare, my eyes wide as I took him in where he towered over me.
Everything about him was compelling.
Formidable.
Unstoppable.
Irresistible.
Every sculpted inch of his body was perfection.
But his eyes…his dark, dark eyes were demanding something I couldn’t read.
“You won’t win this,” I somehow managed as I stared up at him, my chin rigid.
He gripped it between his thumb and forefinger, his words a breath against my lips. “I already have.”
That was right in the same second a frenzy of movement ignited between us. The man covered his cock with a condom in the flash of a second before he fisted himself at the base, his dick just parting my slit.
My head spun, dizzy with desire and a hint of pain as he spread me.
“Oh…oh…” I panted for coherency. “You’re…too big.”
He gripped my thigh, and his teeth clenched as he worked himself inside. “Big is better, baby. I thought we already established that.”
“I’m more a ‘how you use it’ kind of girl.” Where that came from, I had no idea. But with him, I couldn’t stop. The hostility that raged against this attraction I didn’t understand. An attraction too great. Something beyond reason.
Because this was insanity.
He gripped my knees, spreading me wide. Wider and wider. My hands barely clung to the edge of the table as he rocked, thrusting deeper with each pass. Deeper and deeper.
The clutch of my walls taking him. Needing him.
He groaned a guttural sound when he finally seated himself fully. It was something animalistic. Primal. “I knew it. I knew your pussy would be perfection. Sheer, utter perfection.”
His fucks grew harder, a demanding concoction that escalated with each deadly stroke. His hands slid from my knees to under the inside of my thighs, lifting me so he could get a better angle.
“Tight and sweet. I told you I’d make you mine. I told you. You’re mine, Lil’ Redd. Fucking mine.”
His fingertips evoked some kind of madness where he ran them along the crease of where we were joined, brushing all the way back to the pucker of my ass, before his thumb came insistent against my clit.
My head flailed as I fought the mounting pleasure. My nails raked across his magnificent chest and down his stomach.
“Stop fighting it. Stop fighting me. Trust me,” he growled.
“I don’t trust you at all.” I raged against the drive of his body that nearly sent me over the edge with each deep, decadent stroke.
A buzz bloomed in the deepest well of my body.
Physical.
Spiritual.
I no longer knew.
Building and building. Tingles shimmered and danced. Growing in intensity.
“Trust me,” he demanded as he pressed down on the base of my belly with a palm, his thumb magic where it stroked me into bliss.
Shattering, all-consuming bliss. A torrent that flowed and lifted and spun.
I cried out, gripping his shoulders as he thrust harder and faster and deeper until he roared, his teeth flashing in the night before they sank into the flesh of my shoulder.
It sent another shot of pleasure to my clit.
Aftershocks.
Quake after quake.
My foundation shattered.
He threaded his fingers in my hair, panting at my cheek. “Trust me. I promise you I won’t hurt her.”
9
Lillith
Throat dry, I gaped out my doorway in shock at the man standing there, not sure if I wanted to slam the door shut or go running through it.
“What are you doing here?” I managed with a pull of my brow, my thoughts just catching up to my heart that was racing ahead of me. “How did you even know where I live?”
Broderick tsked. “Come now, Ms. Redd. It’s a small city where the dirt doesn’t run all that deep. It took nothing more than asking about you at the restaurant in my hotel to gain that information. And don’t tell me you weren’t missing me.” He was dressed in worn jeans and a casual button-up like he had been the first night I’d met him. Only this time, the morning light cast him in a kind of warmth I didn’t think I’d ever associated with him before, his eyes softer than they’d ever been.
That didn’t mean there wasn’t a smirk twitching
at the corner of his gorgeous mouth, something powerful and threatening beneath the informal disguise.
Heat flashed across my skin as my thoughts roared back to last night, and I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth as I looked at the ground for a beat while I gathered my courage and thoughts.
I still couldn’t believe what I’d done. How I’d let myself go. And how much I’d liked it.
I forced myself to look back at him. “So, now you really are stalking me. And does the fact you showed up here mean you were missing me?”
Now I was teasing him.
I’d lost all control.
A grin danced across his full lips. “Maybe.”
He took a step forward, his voice suddenly a low rumble that shivered across my skin. “You were quite unforgettable last night. I have to admit that after you left, my bed had never felt so cold.”
“You don’t need to play me. You already got what you wanted.”
He wound a finger in my hair, his head cocked to the side, those dark eyes ablaze. “That’s where you’re wrong. I’ve only started.”
I swallowed around the attraction, trying to find footing beneath his striking severity.
He stepped back, giving me space. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”
Hesitation warred with the want that tumbled through my belly. “I have work to do. I need to get to the office.”
“I think this will be well worth your time.”
Doubt hovered in the air between us before he reached out and tugged at my hand as he took another step backward. “Come on, Lil’ Redd. There’s no need to be afraid.”
A scowl climbed to my brow, though somehow a tease slid out with the words. “Really…I think I already bear the proof that you bite.”
He laughed. Straight belly laughed. Confusion twisted through my spirit, an inkling of something I didn’t quite understand—something sweet and hopeful—before he tugged me closer, his mouth at my temple. “Do you know how much I like you, Lily Pad?”
I blinked into his shirt, wondering how it was possible that I was starting to like him, too. “You don’t even know me.”
Hunt Me Down: A Fight for Me Series Stand-Alone Novella Page 5