Page 59 of American Hellhound
Vince puffed up his chest, bristling with indignance. “This guy,” he started, and Maggie had had enough.
“Stop.” She shoved his shoulder, harder than she should have, and earned a startled look in return. “Just go.”
“But…” He cut himself off this time, eyes wide and wounded. “Maggie,” he whispered. “That’s aLean Dog.”
“I know. Please.” She tilted her head toward the street. Begged him with her eyes.Please just leave me alone. Please, please.
He took a trembling breath and shrugged out from under her hand. Betrayed. Sad. “This isn’t you, Maggie,” he said, and finally walked away.
Maggie watched him go, ignoring Ghost for the moment – at least pretending to. His presence was palpable.
Vince stuffed his hands in his pockets and crossed the street. He didn’t go far, though, propping himself into the doorway of Ace Hardware, watching her not-so-covertly through his eyelashes, head ducked.
“Please tell me he’s not your boyfriend,” Ghost said. “’Causedamn.”
She glared at him. “What do you care? You made it very clear you think I’m disgusting.”
“No, I think you’redelicious. It’s the whole me-going-to-jail thing that gets caught in my throat.”
“You…what?”
Someone her own age, even Cody Manwhore Brewer, would have blushed and backpedaled after a comment like that. But not Ghost. He pushed his shades up onto his forehead and looked at her in a way that made her feel very young, very vulnerable, and way in over her head.
He grinned at her, sharp and feral, eyes crinkling at the corners. “You heard what I said.”
And she had. That was the problem; the words were pinging around inside her head like her skull was a pinball machine.Delicious. There was something so casually sexual about it. She felt the tendons clench in her neck as her whole body tightened.
Every time she was around him, she felt like there were so many things she could and ought to say, and that any attempt to lecture him would earn her a laugh and a wink. He was infuriating. And he was gorgeous. He called her delicious and she wanted to lean forward and let him snap her up like the Big Bad Wolf.
Ruined, Cody had said. She smelled like a virgin and she needed to beruined.
For a moment, staring up at Ghost’s dark, smiling eyes, she allowed the fantasy to spin out. Getting herself involved with a man like this, with an outlaw, the scourge of the city, she wouldn’t just be looked-at askance; she’d be completely ostracized from all her current circles. Imagine: a girl who’d dallied with a Lean Dog being allowed into all the upper-middle-class charity clubs and cotillion balls. Inconceivable. Her mother might even disown her.
The idea left her breathless and sick – with want. She was an idiot, but shewantedthat. To just be left the hell alone already. To not strain her back beneath the weight of others’ expectations. Not a boy in school would tag along after her if he thought she belonged to a Dog; no one was that brave or that stupid.
She had no idea what sort of face she was making, but Ghost’s dark grin widened; he looked like Aidan when he smiled, she thought with a sudden pang.
“What?” he asked.
“Where were you just now? Before you came over here?”
He shrugged and glanced away. “Why?”
“You were in Bell Bar, weren’t you? You smell like beer.”
“How’s a good little high school girl know what beer smells like?”
“If you’ll remember, you’re the one who got me to try whiskey for the first time.”
He made a face and turned away from her, scrubbing a hand back through his hair. “Shit. You can’t say things like – likefirst time. Sixteen. Fuck, I’m so stupid.” He moved as if to walk away from her.
“Ghost.”
He paused, back to her now, but listening; he vibrated with the tension of waiting.
“Whydidyou walk over here?”
He heaved out a deep breath, turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. “Believe it or not, I was gonna try to sell you a car.”
