“Come on,” the woman in the bedroom doorway groans. “Either bring her to bed or get rid of her. I’m not nearly finished with you.”
I scoff again. “Oh, honey, cut the shit. You and I both know that little kitty of yours dried up half an hour ago. You faked the last three orgasms, at least, so just grow a pair and tell him you’re done before you end up with a friction burn up in your cooch. Take it from a womanwho has been in your position more than she cares to admit: It’s not fun. Cut the Energizer Bunny over here loose while you still can.”
The woman just scoffs. “You really are a bitch, but I like it. You look like you’d be fun. Come join us.”
“Uhhh, yeah. I’m gonna pass on that,” I say, turning my attention back to the stunningly naked man before me. “You. You are going to be a problem.”
He just laughs as Milan roars in my ear. “GET THE FUCKING PHOTO!”
I clench my jaw, and as I fix him with a hard stare, letting him know just how serious I am, he steps toward me. I suck in a breath, his sweet scent assaulting my senses and doing something wild between my thighs. “The name’s Raiden, by the way,” he murmurs, his dark, gold-specked gaze lowering to mine and eating me alive where I stand.
“I don’t need your name.”
“Oh, you will when you go back into that lonely apartment and start thinking about me. You’ll need to know whose name to scream when you make yourself come on your fingers.”
I just laugh. “Oh, you think so?” I murmur, dropping my gaze over his delicious body and desperately wishing I could bite it, if only for a second, but I don’t dare give him the satisfaction. “You think this impresses me?”
He grins and lowers his voice, knowing exactly how to get under my skin. “There are no secrets when you’re standing here in nothing but a pair of black panties. I see you. All of you. You might not wantme, but your body sure does.”
Fuck.
My eyes widen in horror, and I suck in a gasp, desperately wishing that I’d brought that gun after all. But hell, the only peace I have is knowing that I could end this asshole’s life with nothing more than a flick of my wrist. “You . . . You—”
“Easy, Firecracker. You look like you bite.”
Clenching my jaw, I let out a loud huff, and with not a single thought in my head, all I can do is turn on my heel and storm back toward my apartment with Raiden’s booming laugh flowing through the hallway behind me. “Invest in a pair of noise-canceling headphones, Firecracker,” he calls. “My fun has only just begun.”
My door slams behind me, blocking him out, and the last thing I hear before I scream is Milan’s hesitant voice coming through my AirPods. “So, where are we on that photo?”
CHAPTER 3
RAIDEN
"Gimme More" by Britney Spears blasts through my apartment at four in the morning, so loud that I throw myself out of bed, landing on my feet in a fighter’s stance, while frantically searching the darkness for a threat.
What the actual fuck is going on?
My heart booms out of my chest as reality quickly comes rushing back. There’s no one here. It’s just music. Very fucking loud music booming through the too-thin walls.
The firecracker next door.
If I weren’t so fucking pissed off about being shamelessly woken at four in the morning, I might even laugh about it. My new neighbor came to play, but she doesn’t know who she’s messing with.
A thrill rumbles through my chest, and I rub my tired eyes as Imarch through my apartment, dodging and weaving past unpacked boxes.
I made sure to keep my new neighbor up as long as I could through the night. Jessica gave up about an hour ago, and the second she called it quits, she packed her shit and was out the door. I crashed the second the door closed behind her, but I have to give my new neighbor credit; I didn’t anticipate that she would fight fire with fire.
She was shellshocked when she came banging on my door. She hadn’t anticipated just how forward I’d be, and I suppose, I hadn’t anticipated just how hard she’d be to crack. Shit, I should have known better. Women that fucking gorgeous are generally immune to a man’s bullshit, and my new neighbor . . . Fuck. I’ve never seen a woman so fucking beautiful in my life.
I don’t know if it was her overall beauty that did it for me, or the way she seemed to despise me from the get-go, but the moment I opened that door and saw the fury in her eyes, I knew I’d never be able to let this one go. Getting under her skin became my newest obsession. I needed to see her break, but I didn’t realize that getting under my skin in return was going to be a part of the fun. What can I say? I’m a sucker for punishment.
Storming out into the hallway in nothing but my black boxer shorts and my messy bed hair, I make a quick turn to my left, my long strides easily eating up the space between my door and hers. I pause for only a second as my hand hammers against her door, certain that nobody on this green earth would be able to hear my insistent pounding over theinsane sound of her loud music.
She pulls the door open a moment later, and just as expected, the firecracker from last night stands before me, but what isn’t expected is the full eighties fluorescent workout leotard with leg warmers, sneakers, and a matching headband.
“Oh, hey neighbor. Everything okay?” she asks with a wide smile that blows me the fuck away. Shit, I thought she was stunning when she was pissed, but that fucking smile just tore my soul to shreds.
I go to respond when her gaze sails down my body, her greedy eyes unable to help it until she gets to the front of my boxer shorts and cringes. “Oh, that’s a shame. Cold?” she questions. “It’s okay. It’s a common issue.”
