Page 12 of Together We Burn
Alex and Mac nodded to their brother and left without a word, with me trailing behind them. No sooner had Will’s office door closed when Alex was on me, his tattooed hands wrapped tightly around my biceps.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he growled. I frowned. There were probably a lot of things I could answer that question with, but Alex didn’t look like he was in the mood to play games. “All over Mac like a goddamned rash?”
“You’d know all aboutrashes, wouldn’t you?” I quipped, trying to lighten the tension that was emanating from Alex. He bared his teeth in disgust. I moved my hands up as far as his hold on me would allow and pushed against his chest. “It was a joke, okay?”
“Hey, Alex, c’mon, she didn’t mean anything by it,” Mac added, grabbing his brother’s shoulder. “It’s not like I minded.” He winked. Pulling Alex back, he dragged him toward the elevator.
The brothers glanced over their shoulders, and Mac asked, “You not coming?”
I thumbed back at the closed office door. “I’ve left my jacket. I’ll be back in a second.”
Without knocking, I opened the door and marched over to the sofa, snatching up my jacket. I felt two sets of eyes watch me as I shoved my arms into the sleeves and turned to leave.
Will cleared his throat. “Stevie?”
So close.
I froze, setting my hands on my hips and glaring at the man who had tilted my world on its axis. “Yes?”
Will smirked, not giving one flying fuck at a look I knew could freeze water, as he pulled out a manila folder and slid it across his desk with his forefinger.
“Since your little stunt proved you’re ready to get back in the field, here is your next job.” Will raised his hand and ran it along his swollen jawline. “And don’t think this will go unpunished. I let you get one cheap shot in, Stevie. Now it’s time to move on and get back to work.”
One punch did not make us even. But I needed him to think I was still the loyal puppy I had always been, and this puppy’s bark was not worse than its bite. Without reading the next assignment, I shoved the folder inside my jacket and zipped it up.
Feeling his hot gaze on my back, I turned to meet Jake’s stare, suddenly feeling very aware that Jake had just witnessed me at my job, that this was the exact way I was assigned him. Holding my head high, I marched away from the two men and out of Will’s office, leaving the door wide open.
Alex and Mac hadn’t waited–the assholes–by the time I made it to the elevator and stepped inside. Jake's hand slid between the gap before the doors closed, and he walked in, pulling at the emergency stop lever when the doors shut behind him.
“What the fuck was that?” he asked, crowding into me.
I shrugged. “Just Will being Will.”
“Not that. That shit with Mac?”
I smiled, placed my hands on the rail behind me, and smugly said, “I told you, we’re sort of a thing now. You can run back to the older, more haggard version of me.”
“Like hell you are,” he sneered, ignoring my jibe about Emilia, even though I stupidly believed him when he said nothing had happened between them. He grabbed the rail on either side of my hands to cage me between his arms.
“How would you know? You don’t fucking know anything about me,” I snarled back, tilting my chin up in defiance. Jake chuckled, dropping his head, so our lips were inches apart, and my breathing stopped.
“Yes, I do, Stefany,” he murmured, each word making his minty breath dance across the flesh of my lips. “And I know all the right buttons to press, unlike anyone else.”
I exhaled a shaky breath and laughed. “Baby, you couldn’t find the buttons even if you had a map or stopped and asked for directions.”
“Oh, really?” he taunted, and his lips briefly grazed against mine when he spoke. “I know how your body reacts when it’smytongue in your mouth, and the sound of your moans when you’re so turned on you could combust ifIdidn’t touch you. And that performance right there was not it.”
He pressed his mouth to mine, instantly demanding access with his tongue. I shouldn’t want this. I should be pushing him away and ordering him to get the fuck out of the elevator and out of my life. Or sliding the switchblade inside my jacket pocket into the lower quadrant of his abdomen. Nothing immediately life-threatening, but dramatic enough to show I’m serious.
But I found myself stuck. Like the kiss in his apartment last night, this one was just as demanding, rough and controlling, and every sweep of his tongue against mine had my brain malfunctioning. I was frozen, clutching the railing in a tight death grip, my fingers going numb from lack of blood supply.
It was like I was playing tug-of-war with myself, my body appearing fickle compared to my brain as one half moved to arch into him while the other half tried to keep me plastered to the elevator wall. Jake moved closer, pressing the hard ridge of his cock, straining against his trousers into my stomach, and I whimpered. He was right; no one turned me on like he did.
A flicker of fury finally had all systems rebooted as I remembered–despite the quiver to my knees, or if he glided his hand beneath my waistband, he’d definitely find my panties soaked–I was not supposed to like this man.
Pulling his bottom lip between my teeth, I bit down hard until I tasted blood. But he didn’t stop. He kept pressing, fighting me for dominance as his tongue lashed against mine, the copper tang of blood mixing between us.
Just slap me on the ass and call me Dracula because making him bleed was becoming my new favourite thing.
