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That suspicion is what kept me from driving to Lindell and trailing her all the way back to her sister’s house. I flipped the bird and left, spending hours stewing in my truck.
I could easily show up on Madelene’s doorstep and she’d probably welcome me into her home with open arms, but I’d never do that either. Connections make people sloppy. Chivalry pulls at pieces inside of you that will only get someone and everyone around them hurt.
It was a brutal lesson I learned many years ago as the light faded from Maya’s eyes.
When Alani looks back over her shoulder, her teeth digging into her lower lip as she steps off the front porch of the frat house, I want to rush up to her and shake her. I want to take her for a few hours and force her to watch videos of what happens to pretty little careless girls until it finally sinks in that she isn’t invincible, that’s she’s putting herself at undue risk.
I can’t do that, however. If anything, I think making my presence known will only make things worse for her. Each staggering step feels like a challenge, her way of trying to control me.
My blood boils when some cocky motherfucker starts walking alongside her.
I’m too far away to hear their conversation, but they seem friendly enough. It proves she at least knows the guy in passing, but I’m educated enough, have seen enough, to know casual acquaintances are just as likely to take advantage of a debilitated girl as they are a stranger. Men like that don’t think in terms of consequences. They think with their cocks first and then victim blame later. It’s a story as old as time, and they always rest the blame on the woman.
It shouldn’t matter that Alani is walking down the sidewalk alone or that she’s wearing a skirt so short it made me think probably the same things the guy that’s walking beside her is thinking. Honestly, I’m not much different from him, come to think of it, but the huge difference is that she’s fucking mine. Mine to torture, mine to taunt, mine to touch.
I step out of the shadows, not bothering to try and sneak up on them. Keeping to the darkness comes to an end tonight.
I shove the guy, watching his face pale when he spins to argue with me. Like the fucking coward he is, he doesn’t even argue when I growl in his direction. He’s concerned about his own safety and that’s it as he scurries away.
It makes me want to track down that pussy-ass Marine who shouted obscenities at me for hours and threatened to rip me to pieces. At least he had the balls to fight back a little no matter how futile it ended up being.
I drag Alani into the darkness with me, pressing her back to a thick tree as I clamp her face between my fingers.
Instead of fear in her eyes, she grins right in my fucking face, her hips pulling away from the tree to press against mine.
Her eyes widen, a little moan slipping past her swollen lips when I clamp my hand around her throat.
“Who the fuck have you been kissing?” I growl.
Her eyes are slow to blink at me, but she doesn’t answer.
It’s as if the accusation of kissing someone else diverts her attention, and I feel more than I should when she lowers her gaze to my mouth.
“Fuck you,” I hiss, stepping back and grabbing her arm.
I all but drag her through the darkness. As much as her feet can’t keep up, she doesn’t open her mouth to argue as I close the distance between where I had her pressed to the tree and my truck.
“What you’re doing is fucking reckless,” I snap as I open the passenger side door. “Get in the fucking truck.”
She’s slow to move, so I help her. The hand on her ass to help lift her to the seat is a big fucking mistake. Skin meets skin, and it carries with it too many memories to keep me sane in her presence.
I slam the passenger door with a growl of frustration. I wasn’t supposed to make contact with this woman. I never planned on stepping out from the shadows. If anything, being close and keeping my distance proved my strength. It all changed tonight.
She wants my attention? Well, now she well and truly has it.
I ignore her eyes on me as I climb in the truck and drive away from the curb. Not once in my life have I ever had the urge to bend someone over my fucking knee. I can’t seem to push the idea out of my head, and I don’t want to spank her in some fatherly fucking way either.
I want the brat to learn her lesson, but I know better than to risk getting my hand anywhere near her ass.
