Tegan squeezed back. The familiar smell of Hailey’s perfume brought back the days when they had roomed together as freshman. “I’ll keep in touch. I promise.”
“You’ll be at class on Monday, right?” Jennifer was shooting suspicious glances at Wrath every three seconds.
Wrath had moved a few feet away, presumably to give them privacy. Tegan shot him a surreptitious glance. “I think I’ll be at class. I should be. I really can’t afford to miss any of those Econ sessions. I’ll flunk the final for sure.”
“You’ll never flunk,” Jennifer argued. “You’re one of the smartest women I know. Even if you are a horrible snob.”
Tegan laughed, but her earlier thoughts that day when she had compared her own behavior to Judson Politte’s had left her feeling a little vulnerable in that department. “Talk to you soon,” Tegan whispered to Jennifer.
Then she let go of her friends and watched them walk together out the front of the alley. That left her alone with Wrath. It wasn’t exactly horrible. No. It was totally horrible. The alley was well lit, but it smelled like old cheese. There were crates stacked near the dumpster. A few bags of trash hung over the top of the big green dumpster itself as though the thing was so full it couldn’t handle any more refuse.
Wrath cocked his head at her. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” She didn’t feel fine, but she would be. She had to be. There really wasn’t much choice. Was there? “How long are we going to be hanging out together?” There. That was a very politic way to put it.
There was something of an actual smile playing around the corners of his mouth. “These jobs are typically wrapped up in a few months.”
“Months?” Tegan was horrified. “I was thinking weeks, you know?”
“We have to find out what the mafia wants with your father, and then we have to neutralize the problem—whatever it is. Then you guys will be able to go back to your regular lives.”
“Okay.” She started turning in little circles, pacing almost a box step as she tried to process what he was telling her. “A few months. That’s—oh God, that’s graduation!”
He looked nonplussed. Did he not get what it would mean for her if she had to have him escort her across the stage to get her MBA? Maybe she would just skip the ceremony, right? It wasn’t like it was really all that big of a deal. She’s graduated more than once before.
“You’re making this a lot more dramatic than it needs to be,” Wrath told her. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Just like you made that situation inside the bar way more dramatic than it had to be.”
“What?” Tegan realized that he was actually right. There was really no reason to say that he was her boyfriend. That had been a rumor that traveled around the school. It wasn’t even something that Tegan had perpetuated—until tonight.
Wait. That was the answer! She would just pretend that he was her boyfriend. Of course, he was going to need some new clothes, but she could take care of that. And maybe she could convince him to wear a different hairstyle that didn’t seem quite so severe. She wondered idly if he used product.
“What?” Wrath snapped. “I can see your brain moving at about seven thousand RPM. What kind of nonsense are you cooking up now?”
“It isn’t nonsense,” she shot back. “If you’re going to be part of my life, then you need to be something other than a bodyguard. I don’t need that kind of attention.”
“Attention?” Wrath scoffed. “I would have thought you loved the attention!”
Oh, that made her mad! “I’m not that kind of person! You think you know me, but you don’t.”
“I know a hundred Tegan Hyde-Piersons,” Wrath snarled. He got right in her face, closing the distance between them in barely two strides. “You’re all spoiled little princesses who think that you can buy your way in and out of any situation you want to. You look at people like me, and you either pity me because I don’t have what you do or you despise me for the same reasons.”
Okay, this guy was toting around some major baggage! His dark eyes flashed fire, and the veins in his neck were starting to bulge out. His hands were fisted at his sides, and she was suddenly so hot for him that her panties were wet and she was positively aching inside.
What. The. Fuck?
One second they were fighting, the next he wrapped his arms around her and slammed his mouth down on hers. Their lips meshed, and the pressure was almost bruising as he kissed her until she could not breathe and did not care.
Tegan flung her arms around Wrath’s neck and stood on tiptoe to get closer. Her lips parted on a little sigh of pleasure, and he slid his tongue inside her mouth. It pushed sexily against hers, and Tegan felt as though she were going to melt into a little puddle right there in the alley.
He let his hands slide lower, until they were resting on her butt. Then his right hand slid down over her cheek and all the way down to where her short skirt sat on her thigh. The heat of his hand against her with nothing but a thin layer of pantyhose between them was exciting and made her feel so very naughty. She was making out with a bad boy while standing in an alley. She had either reached rock bottom or the heights of rebellion.
THIS WAS SO wrong. Unfortunately, Wrath could not even spare the brainpower to force himself to take a step back and put some distance between himself and Tegan. She was so soft and so very willing. It was an irresistible combination. He gave her leg a gentle squeeze. Her muscular leg felt good in his hand. Lifting it up, he used the position to nudge himself just a little farther between her legs.
His cock was hard. The ridge of his erection was pushing painfully against the fly of his jeans. There was going to be a zipper mark on his skin, and he didn’t even care. He wanted this woman so badly right now that he was willing to take her right here in this alley. It was down and dirty, and that’s how he wanted this little princess.
She was making those hungry noises in the back of her throat as he kissed her. He grabbed the hem of her skirt with his hand and yanked it up until he could feel her panties. Her stockings only came to the tops of her thighs. Perfect. He could feel the silky skin of her hips and the scrap of satin that made up her panties. It was tempting to look and see if they were the virginal white he figured they were, but that would have required him to stop kissing her.
Wrath moved away from Tegan’s lips to devour her jaw. He kissed her ear and nibbled her neck. Her head lolled back, and he sucked at the base of her throat where her shoulder met her neck. She moaned again and again. He wanted her so badly, but this was not the place. Not for fucking anyway. But to have a little fun? Absolutely.
Wrath anchored her leg over the crook of his arm as he supported her weight against his body. She had no choice but to lean against him. She was pliant as wet clay. Using the other hand, Wrath delved between her legs. He found the edge of the elastic edging the narrow strip of fabric shielding her pussy. Still kissing her neck, he slipped his fingers past the barrier and gently rubbed her mound.
Her short hair tickled his fingers. He wanted a better look. What he really wanted was to lay this woman on a bed and spread her wide. He would gaze at her open pussy and memorize every detail before he gave her a long lick from opening to clit.
Tonight though, there was only time for an appetizer. So, he very gently spread her swollen outer lips to see how wet she was. The amount of cream coating her slick inner folds made him almost desperate with need. She was so fucking wet. Wrath growled against the skin of her neck as he licked and kissed his way back to her mouth. He pushed his tongue between her lips and kissed her hard just as he began to circle her clit with the tip of his index finger.
Tegan went rigid in his arms. Her hips began to shake and give little involuntary jerks as he teased and fondled her clit. He focused right there on that bundle of nerves and gave her no mercy. He was going to pull an orgasm out of her now no matter how much she might be fighting it.
And she was fighting it. He could feel it in the way she wriggled and moved a
gainst him. He could hear it in the high-pitched grunts and cries as she struggled not to give in.
Finally, Wrath put his lips right beside her ear. “You will come for me, Tegan. Now.”
She soaked his hand as a gush of warm fluid heralded her climax. Her fingers dug into his shoulders and the back of his neck as she was suddenly moving and practically grinding herself against him with each wave of her orgasm.
It was over quickly—too quickly for Wrath’s taste. She collapsed against him. He removed his hand from her panties and very gently lowered her leg. Wrath’s fingers were wet with her cream. He longed to lick them clean, but couldn’t be sure what Tegan would think of that right now. The woman was obviously experienced to some degree, but it was very unlikely that she’d ever been with a man who had his tastes.
“I can’t believe I just did that,” Tegan murmured against his shoulder.
“Oh, really?” He tried to keep his tone mild, but his voice sounded gravelly all the same. “And why is that?”
She managed to take all of her weight on her own two feet. “It was naughty.”
Wrath laughed. He could not help it. Naughty? That was the word she applied to being fingered in an alley? Whatever worked for her sensibilities was fine with him.
She swatted his arm. “It’s not nice to laugh at a woman after you’ve touched her in—that way.”
“You can’t even say it, can you?” he challenged.
She smoothed her skirt down. He did not believe it was possible for her to work any harder at looking composed. “Say what? Sex? Of course I can say sex.”
“We didn’t have sex.” He leaned in and exhaled so that his breath whispered across the base of her neck. She shivered and he gave a dark chuckle. “When you have sex with me, there will be no question in your mind that it happened. This was just a bit of fun. That’s all.”
“Fun,” she whispered. “Just a bit of fun for you?”
“That’s right.” He licked the delicate skin on the side of her neck. “I had fun making you come. And I’ll have even more fun when I do it again.”
Chapter Eight
Tegan was going to hell. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind about that. Or maybe she was already there. Yes. That was it. She was in hell, and Wrath was really some demon sent to torture her with lusty thoughts.
Ugh! Why was she being so dramatic? She flopped down onto her bed and tried to be satisfied with the fact that she was in her own home. That should have thrilled her. Spending the night at her father’s hadn’t been great. She wasn’t as comfortable there as she was in the little brownstone townhouse she had purchased several years ago in the Back Bay.
She loved everything about Back Bay. She loved the neighborhoods and the fact that there was a donut shop or coffee house on every corner. People lived and worked right here in the Bay, and it was a close-knit sort of community even though it was a pretty large neighborhood.
Her narrow brownstone was three stories high. Her bedroom suite took up the entire third floor. She loved it up here. There were guest rooms on the second floor, and the living areas were on the first. A circular staircase wound through the very center of the house and connected all three floors. It was old and quaint, and she had fallen in love with the place the first moment she stepped inside.
Now she was feeling cooped up. Maybe it was a side effect of being brought home and told to stay put until someone came to fetch her to run her errands the following day. She was already bored, which was stupid because she had plenty to do.
With that in mind, Tegan attempted to open her Econ binder and study her notes. She turned to the corresponding chapter in the textbook and sat down at her desk. Unfortunately, concentration wasn’t working for her tonight. After reading the same paragraph four times without remembering a word, she got up and headed downstairs. Maybe a soda or coffee would help her focus.
She tramped down three flights of stairs to her main floor. By the time she had reached the ground floor landing, her mind was completely engaged in a mental replay of her earlier interlude with Wrath. What had she been thinking? That was worse than foolish!
Pressing her lips together, she tried not to remember how good it had been. The man had magic fingers, and he kissed better than anyone Tegan had ever been with. She had been planning to pretend that he was her boyfriend. Was it so awful that she was getting something out of the deal as well?
“That’s about the stupidest justification I’ve ever come up with,” she muttered as she stepped into the kitchen.
“Do you often talk to yourself?”
The voice belonged to Wrath. She knew that immediately. Tegan groped along the wall and flipped on the small lights over the center island. He was standing in the opposite doorway, the one that led to the den.
Tegan became suddenly and painfully aware of the fact that she was wearing nothing more than a blue jersey nightshirt that came to about mid-thigh. She had on fuzzy green-and-purple socks, and her hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail. She looked ridiculous. But he wasn’t supposed to be here—at least not inside.
She cleared her throat. It was time to take charge and stop being a ninny. “What are you doing in here? You told me that the surveillance took place from outside my home and that I would have privacy.”
There was that smile again. The one that barely turned up the corners of his mouth and looked more like a smirk. He gave her a very obvious perusal, from socks to hair. “I need to come inside and look around every few hours or so just to make sure nobody has slipped past our net. It’s for your safety.”
“I bet it is,” Tegan muttered. “Well, I’m getting a drink and going back upstairs to study. You may leave now. Everything is fine.”
“Wow. You’ve got that act down cold.” Wrath’s drawl was filled with amusement, and that just pissed her off.
“Act?” Tegan stomped across the kitchen in her fuzzy socks. She put her glass down on the island and glared up at him. “It isn’t an act. This is my house. While you are inside it, you will respect me and do what I ask.”
For one second, she thought she had pushed him too far. His eyes glittered and she felt her nipples harden in response. What was with her? It was like she could not control herself around him. Then he leaned in close, and instead of drawing back, she swayed toward him. It was reflexive. Her body was outside her control. At least that was how she felt. She breathed in his masculine scent and couldn’t stop herself from savoring it. He was such a delicious contradiction of sweat and spice. He smelled clean, a little like the outdoors. She wanted to touch him, yet she did not dare. There was no telling what that might start.
“You’re too sassy,” he muttered. “I don’t like that in a woman.”
“Excuse me?” Tegan felt insulted. “I didn’t ask you to like me.”
He grinned. “Oh, yes you did. When you came on my fingers, you asked me to like you, and I did.”
Tegan shivered. He was too forward by half! She should be giving him a set down or something. But when she opened her mouth, the only thing that came out was, “And you did like me.”
“Did I?”
He was so tall and so broad. She felt tiny.
“I don’t remember,” he said in an almost bored tone. “Maybe I need a reminder.”
WRATH SCOOPED THE sassy woman right off her feet and tossed her over his shoulder. She was so damned irritating that he should have been trying to get away from her, not putting her delectable ass so close to his face that he could smell the wetness of her pussy.
He strode into the darkened den and swung Tegan off his shoulder. Taking a seat on an ottoman, he put her belly-down over his knees. “You said you were naughty,” he told her roughly. “So maybe I need to teach you a lesson about naughty girls.”
“Excuse me?” She sounded outraged. “Let me up this instant! What do you think you’re doing?”
She wasn’t wearing any pajama bottoms, just another pair of those pretty satin panties. He pulled the hem of her nigh
tshirt up to expose her ass. She made a strangled sound and started squirming. He put his left arm down hard on her shoulder blades to keep her in place. Then he smoothed his hand over her ass cheeks. To her credit, she stopped protesting. In fact, she went very, very still.
“So, you’re not going to pretend that you don’t like what I’m doing,” Wrath mused. “That means you are a very good girl.”
“You’re an ass.”
He swatted her hard on her right butt cheek. She shrieked and started pounding on his calves with her hands. He swatted her again in the same spot. She hit him once more. He swatted her a third time, this time applying a little more force. With a whimper, Tegan stopped smacking him and lay still and acquiescent over his legs.
“What are you doing?” she panted. “You can’t treat me like this.”
“I’m not treating you badly,” he reasoned. “If you stay still and don’t do something stupid, like attack me, I’ll make you moan with all the pleasure I can give you.”
“Wh—what are you talking about?” The quaver in her voice let him know she was just as curious as horrified.
“Are you a virgin?” He didn’t think so, but it was definitely always best to check, especially since she was several years younger than he was.
“Of course not!” She sounded outraged. “I’ve been with—well, not a lot—but a few guys.”
“Good.” He took hold of her underwear and yanked it down her legs. Then he slipped it off. He arranged her legs in a better position to expose her pussy and ass. “Then I’m going to have a little fun too.”
She started to say something, but he gave her a light tap on her left butt cheek this time. Her mouth snapped shut so fast that her teeth audibly clicked.
“Good girl,” he said with amusement. “You can learn.”
Oh, she wanted to say something sassy back to him, but she didn’t. He respected that. The woman needed a bit of humility. That was for sure. But she also needed someone to make her loosen up and enjoy herself, and that was exactly what he intended to do.
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