“Blame your brother. His idea.”
“Oh, it’s all Michael’s fault?”
“He was in charge,” said Vinn, not looking remotely abashed. “We visited the video store after the funeral to rent something. We were trying to cheer up our cousin. He’d just lost his mom.”
“Nothing says I’m sorry for your loss more than a porno.”
“Teenage boys.” Vinn shrugged. “We didn’t know any better.”
I shook my head. “Did it work?”
“Well, no. You barged in and ruined everything.”
Waves of heat bounced from me to him as the light overhead dimmed, throwing us into shadows. Candlelight softened Vinn’s stony features, making him less a predator, more Prince Charming.
“Mom was so mad,” I whispered, alarmed by the electricity pinging my skin. “I remember you springing from the couch to cover my eyes.”
“Like this?”
Vinn slid his palm over my gaze.
Warmth bloomed inside me.
A slender thread of attraction slowly formed between us.
His hand weighed as heavy as it had back then, and the arm hooking my shoulders echoed his gentleness. Suddenly I was a breathless girl, disarmed by his undivided attention.
He pressed his mouth into the shell of my ear, sending a jolt through me. “Close them, Little Li. I’ll know if you cheat.”
“I hate this game.”
“Do as I say, and I’ll make it worth your while.”
Twelve years ago, he’d lured me from the living room with those words to the attic. My reward was half an hour of board games, which for a nine-year-old was huge. We’d played while the floor rumbled with my mother’s scandalized voice. My mind swam with the image of Vinn hunched in the cramped space.
Until his lips grazed my neck.
The sensation made my head spin. Still blind, I sank into his arms. He kissed a line from my ear downward, every touch striking a vibrant chord inside me. He slid against my palm, hot and dry. Then he led me by the shoulder, steering me across the room. My heart pounded an erratic rhythm, his magnetism so potent that I obeyed.
A door groaned.
He crowded my back, his impatience making me stumble. The noise from the party dropped as the door slammed. A lock latched. We stood in an empty gallery. White walls and concrete surrounded me.
Vinn grabbed me, dropping the pretense.
My smile dissolved.
Reality set in.
This wasn’t Vinn, my protector. He was a predator who’d lured me away from safety, locked the door, and immobilized me. His arms wrapped me like a straitjacket, freeing my vision but binding me everywhere else.
It’d all been an act—the banter and his gentleness.
He’d put on a show to get me alone.
Fuck.
Eight
Liana
I bucked against his strength, but it was like pushing rock slabs. My breath hitched as he wheeled me toward a blank wall. I was too aware of his brutal power. He could strangle me by squeezing me too hard, but Vinn had other ideas.
“Put your hands on the wall. Bend over.”
The impersonal words lashed my mouth with unbidden heat.
“Too soon, don’t you think?” I rattled off, my nerves haywire. “Usually guys start with dinner and drinks before jumping into foreplay.”
“You’re just like your goddamned brother.” Vinn plastered my wrists above my head, his weight buckling my knees. “Impulsive. Hotheaded. No sense.”
“You’re the one ordering me to bend over.”
I should shut up.
But I relished his punishing grip. Vinn never lost his temper. He seethed. I still remembered the flare of indignation across his brow those few times I’d disobeyed him, but this was something else.
Vinn had no reason to grind against me. His thigh brushed my hip, and a jolt seared me.
“You push me to the brink.” His words blasted my ear. “I should rip off this dress and parade you outside. Leave no doubt who you belong to.”
“My brother would have a problem with that.”
“He can go fuck himself.”
His palm slipped through the side slit and stroked me. My senses leaped to life at the hands roaming my curves, though I could’ve thrown myself off a cliff for my body’s response. His touch hardened as he groped my bruised skin.
His roughened voice interrupted my gasp. “Did you think I’d overlook that little shit? I’ll kill him for touching you.”
“He didn’t.”
“Liar. I saw his arms around you.”
I twisted, intending to slip from his loosening grasp, but his glare riveted me to the spot. The jealousy caught me off guard. Vinn and I were barely friends.
My heart pounded. “Why the hell do you care?”
“Because I’ve marked you as mine.” Vinn pulled the fabric off my thigh, continuing his leisurely caress. “And, petulant brat that you are, you mean something to me. You’re decent most of the time. You’ve done things for me that nobody else has.” He paused for a moment, as though to dwell on them. “I don’t know what happened to the sweet girl who doted on me, but I want her back.”
Now he wanted me?
He’d never known me. He didn’t want the messy, complicated version of me. The girl who exploded when she didn’t get her way. I’d always been difficult, but I’d toned it down in front of Vinn. He missed the girl who worshipped him, never questioned him, who did anything for his attention. I’d immersed myself in distractions, hoping the routine would camouflage the deep ache of loneliness.
Pathetic.
I choked out a laugh. “The Liana who waited on you hand and foot is gone, and good riddance.”
“Bring her back to me.”
The torment of his presence ate at me. A terrible bitterness crushed my heart. “No.”
“Yes.” His sensual touch slid to my waist, igniting sparks. “If I’m faking a relationship with somebody, it’ll be with a girl who plays nice in public. Not a vindictive woman who brings her exes to the party.”
He’d said some infuriating shit, but that bothered me the most.
“James is not my damned ex.”
He paused, his breath tickling my neck. “Bringing him here was a big mistake, Li.”
His painfully light fingers teased me, as though he knew how much I’d suffered, and he intended to make me beg.
I won’t. “What will you do about it?”
“I have some ideas.”
The taunt sent a thrill down my spine.
Slick flames wrapped my stomach as his hands cascaded down my shoulders, rippling over my curves. He seized my dress and pushed it over my hips, dragging a hiss from my teeth.
“No underwear,” he purred. “Was this for James, or for me? Did you want to be prepared?”
“I hate to pop your overinflated head like a bubble, but that has nothing to do with either of you. A thong would show under this dress.”
“You wanted to look hot for me.”
My jaw dropped. “You are so delusional.”
He gathered the flesh under my ass and pinched brutally.
“Fuck—ow!”
“Can’t help it,” he murmured, his thumb drifting close to my pussy. “You’re so inviting, with your tight ass shining with my handprint. I never in a million years pictured myself doing this.” He traced the fullest area of my butt, sighing. “Now it’s all I think about.”