Page 17 of Crashed
She lurched back. “Me? All over Jarrod?”
His nostrils flared when she said the other man’s name.
“Like plastic wrap,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Jesus, you’re acting like I jumped in his lap and took a ride on the guy’s disco stick. We were talking business, Deacon. Just like you did before me. That job could be worth a lot of money, and anyway, you had no problem ignoring me while you two talked about whatever the hell you were droning on about.”
He thrust a hand in his hair—the slicked-back look was gone, and his hair fell over his forehead, the way she liked it.
“We have a deal, Alex. You don’t sleep with anyone but me. If you want to renege, fine, I’ll call the valuers tomorrow and reschedule.”
She winced inwardly. “You wouldn’t.”
He wrapped his fingers around her biceps. “Try me.”
A red haze clouded her vision. Was he for real? “When did you become such a raging asshole? No, really, I want to know. Do you think I’m some mindless skank who’ll fuck anything with an available dick? That I’m so desperate, a guy only has to talk to me, show me a tiny bit of attention, and I’ll jump into bed with him?”
“Alex.”
She ignored the warning in his voice and shoved at his chest. The bastard wouldn’t let her go. She shoved again, struggled to get away. He grabbed her wrists, trapping them between their bodies, pulling her in even closer.
“Stop.” His voice was like a whip cracking through the night, and she immediately stopped fighting. His gaze bored into her, intense, but there was a softness there as well. She wanted to keep on struggling, to get away from that look in his eyes, but he was having none of it. “That’s not what I meant.” He let out a harsh breath. “I let my temper get the better of me. I apologize.”
He could be unreasonable and irrational at times, she knew that all too well, but this was extreme even for him.
She wanted to say more. Instead she bit her lip before she said something to make it worse, which was not easy. She refused to give him a reason to sell the garage out from under them.
“Whatever.” She tested his hold, and he let her wrists go but kept her plastered to his side.
“I’m sorry, Alex. I overreacted. I know I can be…possessive.” He stared down at her and just like that, the softness vanished, green eyes going intense, hard. “I need to know we understand each other?”
He was back to Mr. Chill. Good. The way she preferred him. He was so much easier to dislike when he was like this.
“Yeah, we understand each other just fine.”
Martin chose that moment to pull up beside them, thank God, cutting off further conversation. They climbed in, and Deacon stayed quiet—silently stewing, no doubt—the entire drive. When they arrived at his building, she expected him to have Martin drive her home.
But when he climbed out, he pulled her out after him.
Was he serious? “But I thought you’d…” He shook his head in a silent warning. “You want me to come up?” Her voice quavered at the end, and she hated it.
He leaned in and pinned her to the side of the car with a dark, hungry look. “We still have a deal, yes?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Then let’s go.”
Alex followed him into his building. He didn’t wait and strode toward the elevator. Her mouth went dry, heart lodging in her throat, and the relentless pulse between her thighs turned into a bass drumbeat, so strong she ached.
Holy shit.
Deacon didn’t look back. He knew Alex was following.
And right now, he couldn’t look at her. He was too damned pissed off. If he looked at her now, he’d say something else he knew he’d regret later. That list seemed to be growing by the hour around her. She pushed every one of his buttons and enjoyed the hell out of every damn minute of it. She was right, of course. He was acting like a total dick, but he couldn’t rein it in, not yet, not when he’d been forced to sit there while another man all but fucked her with his eyes.
The only thing he could think about was wiping Jarrod from her mind. Making her come so hard, the only man she could think about was him.
The elevator slid open, and he stepped inside and pushed the button to hold the door while Alex caught up. Her dark eyes avoided his when she walked in, and she stood an arm’s length away. The doors slid shut, and he reached out and slid his hand under her hair, around the back of her neck, and pulled her in close. Her soft curves crushed against his side, and he almost groaned aloud when he felt her hard, little nipples against his abs.
