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But he pulled away.
My lips tingled, wanting his mouth on mine again, feeling like they might shrivel without more of that delicious pressure.
“Yeah, that’s the fucking voltage I’ve felt since I arrived on your doorstep.” He growled.
Logical Bou came out of hiding before his lips narrowed the gap again. It was my only opening. If this went much farther, I’d be naked and begging here on the shop floor. I turned my head. “Wait. No. I-we can’t.” My breathing was hard, and I swallowed to try to calm my body. I pushed at him again. There it was. The ‘no’ he’d asked from me earlier and I’d given it to him.
He stiffened, but this time, he loosened his grip. He didn’t quite allow me out of his arms, but he was no longer holding as tightly. He looked at me with a furrowed brow, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths. “Fuck, Bou? You sure know how to kill a man. You trying to do what the AX3 couldn’t and finish me off?”
“What do you mean by that?” I escaped his grip and walked to my work bench. Away from him, the air was easier to breathe. I grabbed a rag and polished Luke’s bike, gripping it to steady my trembling hands. He didn’t respond to my question, just looked at me through doleful eyes that had my heart hurting. “Look, maybe it’s best if you wait for Doc in the studio. I know nothing about you—where you came from, why the fuck the AX3 shot you, why you were even riding through The Ridge—and you’re probably leaving before sunset. My life’s simple. I don’t need any complications. Plus I have work to do, The owner of this bike is due to pick it up this afternoon.” I hoped he didn’t noticed that I’d already polished Luke’s bike to a bright sheen.
“What’s going on here, Bou? Wilde’s hand rasped over his beard as he spoke. “You want me. I’m not stupid. There’s no way I’m mistaking this. You want me and you can’t deal with it. That’s why you keep running away like a scared kitten. I thought it was me you were running from, but I see now, you are running from yourself. What exactly is it you’re scared of Bou?”
I dropped the rag fisted in my hand and glared, willing him to leave me alone. “You can be a pretty goddamn cock-sure asshole.”
He ran a hand over his cropped hair and adjusted himself before turning and limping back to my apartment. I released the air in my lungs and tried to calm the pounding in my heart.
I moved Luke’s bike out back to wait for its owner to arrive and pay. The routine soothed the heat that had boiled in my blood. When I came back into the shop, water was running. Apparently, Wilde needed to do something to cool the fires too.
An engine—car, not bike—sounded outside, and I quickly threw the tarp back over Wilde’s bike. We didn’t need any questions about an unknown ride sitting in my shop. He’d be gone later today, and that would be that.
Luke strutted in, walking a wavy line, as the car out front peeled away.
“You can leave the payment over there. Your bike’s in the back.”
He pulled out a stack of bills and dropped them on the table before he sidled in my direction. I tossed him the keys. He caught them one-handed and slid them into a pocket. I turned, preparing to put away the compressor, but as he passed, a strong hand clasped my wrist and twisted it behind me.
My shoulder screamed in pain. I gasped, inhaled through my nose, trying to get control of myself. His breath reeked of cigarette smoke and god only knew what else. His pupils were dilated.
Fuck.
“What are you on, Luke?” My voice came out as a croak.
Luke shoved his free hand in my hair, pulling so hard he ripped some strands from the roots. “This time, I’m not giving you the chance to whip a piece out and get me in your sights, bitch.”
“Luke, please, no,”
He yanked on my hair again, turned his head, and spat. “Bitches in The Ridge—unless they’re claimed—are here to serve. And you’re going to fucking serve me now.”
He wrenched my neck painfully. I hissed in a breath between my teeth and yelled as tears ran from the corners of my eyes.
Luke gave me a depraved smile that sent a shiver of fear down my spine.
He spun me round and pulled my back to his front, wrapping one arm round my middle, trapping both my arms. With his free hand, he pulled on the buttons on my jeans as I struggled against him.
“I like ’em feisty,” he said. “Gets me really fucking hard.”
He wasn’t lying. I felt his erection in the small of my back through his own jeans. Celt’s self-defense lessons ran through my mind. Kick them where it hurts and follow it up with a knee to the chin when they buckle. It sounded so simple when he’d taught me, but now that I was in the situation, I was having a hard time trying to get into the right position.
I kicked back at him, missing his crotch but my boot contacted with his shin or knee forcing him to stumble backward, pulling me with him. I made to use the motion to try to rip myself away, but a click then the cold touch of metal at my temple stopped my plans. He let go of my arms and pushed me back into a corner, shoving the barrel of his gun right up under my chin. “Nice little role reversal we’ve got here, yeah?”
He licked his lips and pressed them against my mouth. A sickening dread filled my heart and made my stomach drop as the taste of cigarettes hit me. When he opened his mouth and tried to rape mine with his tongue, I bit his bottom lip until I tasted copper.
Luke pulled back and licked the blood, then glared back at me “You’ll pay for that, cunt.”
He held the gun right to the spot between my eyes. “Don’t try me. My trigger finger gets antsy when I don’t get what I want. Lower your pants.”
I glared at him and held still. I knew Luke, I should have known he’d try something like this, but was I certain he wouldn’t pull the trigger? He was high as a kite, anything could happen.
