I recalled the warning Sheldon gave me four years ago. It was one of our last conversations. She had been encouraging me to give Dash a call. I had a moment of weakness and asked about him. Sheldon had taken it as her cue to convince me to talk to him. She said I was only fighting the inevitable, which was a sad waste of time.
“Shit.” I spotted a security officer waiting nearby and headed for him instead of where the buses would be. I could only move but so fast in these godforsaken shoes, so I decided to get his attention another way.
I hesitated long enough to question if I could really get Dash in trouble but soon learned it would cost me. Just as I made my decision, a car that had been sitting idle at the curb moved forward the few feet it took to reach me. The back door opened and a man tall enough to be a building wrapped his arms around my waist as if hugging a loved one and pulled me into the car—all before I could even scream.
My attempt to calm the panic rising was lost when the car pulled away from the curb. I looked out the back window to see if any witnesses had seen what had happened. However, as the car opened the distance between it and my salvation, it became harder to see.
“Calm down, Miss.”
“Are you out of your mind? Let me out.” My breathing quickened when I caught sight of the exit as we drove toward it. We finally came to a stop near a service road, but by now, the man had my hands cuffed. All I could do was kick and scream. My shoes had long flown off and rested on the car floor. I expected the man to lash out or hit me, but he remained stoic and silent, occasionally checking his watch as if waiting for something. In the meantime, I called him every name in the book and cursed his mother, too.
I was still cursing his mother by the time the door opened and another person entered. “Now there is no need for that. Just because your mother is a manipulative bitch doesn’t give you the right to insult his,” the familiar deep voice scolded. “Thank you, John.” The man nodded and silently exited the car.
“You son of a bitch.” I screamed and lunged at Dash, forgetting momentarily that my hands were cuffed until I fell onto my knees after tripping over my shoes. My upper body rested in his lap while his hands remained at his sides.
“Exactly what were you planning to do?”
“I hate you.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one you’re getting.”
“Well, then. Let’s try another question.”
“I won’t answer.”
“We’ll see.” His hands lifted me by my arms and into the seat while continuing to watch me with equal parts amusement and anger. “Let’s start with an easy one. Where were you going?”
“You mean you don’t know?”
“Would I be asking if I did?”
“Then how did you find me?”
“I had you followed.” He shrugged as if stalking wasn’t a big deal. “It wasn’t hard to figure out your next move.”
“Well, since you’re so good at it, predict the next one because I’m not telling.”
“Fine.” He reached for me, and I sunk back into the seat, unable to do little else. However, instead of grabbing me as I expected, he grabbed my purse.
“You’re not going to find the answer in there. Give me my purse.”
He ignored me and dumped the contents of my purse on the floor. I watched my wallet, keys, gum, and other miscellaneous shit scatter across the floorboard. When a tampon emerged, I nearly died. He flicked it toward my feet with an amused smirk, increasing my embarrassment.
“Bastard,” I couldn’t help but mutter.
“You have no idea how true that is, but you’re about to find out.”
“Let me out Dash and go away. Go back to your perfect little world.”
“You don’t know shit about my world. Once upon a time, I thought you would be my world, but you proved you were less than interested.”
“Then why are you?”
“Because I no longer care what you want… and I don’t trust you.”
“I don’t remember needing you to.”
“Yeah, well, you still have some explaining to do after being thrown out of a moving van in my parent’s driveway.”
“I’ve already apologized for that, but if you need to hear it again…”
“I don’t want your apologies. I want an explanation.” He threw my purse on the floor of the luxury car and sat back.
“Well, you’re not going to get one. It’s none of your business.”
“I’m making it my business.” His tone was soft, but the threat behind his statement was unmistakable.
“It’s been four years, Dash. We aren’t friends anymore.”
“We don’t have to be friends for me to care.”
The look in his eyes made me breathless. “You’re confusing me.”
“I’m confusing myself.” The frown that followed was proof. I’d always thought he looked the most adorable when he was frustrated. His boyish looks made me want to pet him and rub my lavish body against his much harder, narrow frame and feel his strength. I felt my thighs quake and gripped them to gain control. I was not going to allow my body to respond to his magnetism.
Dash oozed sex and it was mostly because he was so… uninhibited when it came to sex.
“Stop eye fucking me and start talking.”
I blanched at having been caught but quickly recovered. “What would you like me to say?”
“Why did you ruin my sister’s wedding?”
“You think that was on purpose?”
“Give me something so I can think otherwise.”
The car pulled into an underground parking lot. The large building loomed over the city, and I could already tell by the exterior design and the valet that the inside would be just as expensive looking.
I tried not to begrudge him or anyone for that matter, his or her financial status. I just couldn’t help but remember that if Dash had been normal, we might have been together.
He read me like an open book that he’d read many times before, but there was one thing he had been wrong about—I wanted him.
That was never the issue, and looking at him now—being this close—told me it hadn’t changed.
Without a word, I waited for the car to stop before popping the lock and bolting from the car. I spotted a taxi a few feet away and just had to make it. The driver’s back was turned as he held a cell phone to his ear, but one look at his cab told me he wasn’t currently servicing a customer. I unwittingly left my purse in the car and had no money, but I would worry about that later once I was safely from Dash’s grasp.
I was almost to the cab and would be home free, but I was still afraid, and it had everything to do with the silence. I didn’t hear footsteps chasing or a yell for me to stop.
I quickly learned why when arms wrapped around my waist. This time, the touch was familiar and created the need to melt into the embrace.
Dash.
He’d run after me and caught me.
Why did that make my stomach flutter? I was undoubtedly a foolish girl.
His hand clamped over my mouth, and as if rethinking it, he dropped it just as quickly. I held my breath as the feeling of his cock against my ass took over my brain. I wiggled out of curiosity rather than to fight.
After unnecessary taunting him, I was thrown into the waiting car that followed the chase.
The altercation was quiet and quick, and all the while, the cab driver was none the wiser as he continued to talk on his cell.
“You ran from me for the last four years, little girl. It ends here.”
“Dash...” It pissed me off how breathless just the sound of his name made me. “What do you want from me?” I felt almost desperate.
“I want you helpless... trapped,” he whispered in a way that made me think it was what I wanted, too. Like a secret wish shared between only us.
“We can’t—” The grin that shone over his model features was almost cruel.
“Maybe you can’t. But
I can.”
“You’d force me?”
My voice was laced with disgust, but still, I felt my sex clench, and I shamefully wondered what it would be like to have the decision taken from me... I knew he would never force me sexually, but something told me he had other ways of bending me to his will. Suddenly, those warnings four years ago didn’t seem so harmless.
“For you, I’ll do whatever it takes, and this time I won’t stop until I own you.”
* * *
ONE DAY AGO
I had a bad feeling about this. But then, I always did when coming home. Only this wasn’t the normal butterfly effect in my stomach.
I felt as if I were being watched as I moved through the crowd at the airport. I realized it was silly with the amount of people crowding the airport, traveling after the end of the holiday. Thankfully, I was able to move faster than the rest because I only had a day’s worth of clothing.
I wasn’t staying long.
I never did.
With a town the size of Six Forks, a lengthy stay meant the chance of being seen, so I never stayed more than twenty-four hours.
It was more than enough time to fulfill an obligation.
None of the twenty odd visits were ever pleasant, and I had no high hopes that this one would be, so one day it was.
In the past, I would always make some excuse to my parents about a test I had to study for, and they would always accept as long as I was spending my time on something they approved of.
Six Forks was a place that always remained familiar to me despite how far or how long I stayed away.
It was late afternoon when I walked outside, and I took a moment to enjoy the Nevada air. The temperature was surprisingly tolerable considering it was late November.
I looked around but didn’t immediately spot my mother’s car. She sent a text ten minutes before my plane landed to let me know she was waiting outside, so where was she?
I readjusted my bag on my shoulder and dug my phone out of my back pocket. This was another new thing for me—wearing jeans. I used to always think jeans were so plain and easy but then I discovered colored jeans. Eventually, even that little freedom faded away to plain, washed denim,
A broken heart had done what eighteen years of scolding and parental control couldn’t. It normalized me.
I always studied hard, got good grades, and totally ignored boys… for the most part. All I asked in return was to be able to express myself, but my mother refused to let me have that small source of independence.
Already regretting this visit, I angrily typed out a quick text and waited.
CHAPTER SEVEN
PRESENT
DASH
I WAS PISSED way the fuck off. Add to that, my sexual frustration and I were a ticking time bomb waiting to blow. I never felt more alive in the past four years than I did now.
And it was all because of her.
She managed to dupe me once again and flee the car, and without hesitation, I gave chase. It was more than enough to send my pumping blood into a quiet rage. One glance ahead and I knew where she was heading.
Despite the suit, I moved swiftly and silently, recalling all of my basketball training. The parking lot was empty excluding the cabbie. His back was turned as he spoke on his cell. Music poured from the open windows of his cab, allowing me to steal Willow away once more.
Surprisingly, she didn’t fight and scream, which I fully expected. Her temper matched her hair, but she seemed distracted, and when she wiggled her ass against my erection, I found why.
I bent low to whisper but bypassed her ear for her neck where she was most responsive. “Unless you’re prepared to do something about him, I suggest you stop.”
“Stop what?”
“You know what.” And she did. I could tell by the way her cheeks pinked and the ragged flow of her breath.
“Let go of me.”
Instead of letting go, I shoved her into the car none too gently with my hand on her ass. Her low growl made my dick jump in my slacks, and for a moment, all I could think about were things I could do to force more sounds like that from her.
Bending her to my will would be the cherry on top.
“Take us to the apartments,” I ordered while ignoring the hateful glares from Willow. She remained silent, although I believed it was a refusal to talk to me that kept her quiet rather than self-preservation. Nonetheless, it allowed me to think of my next move.
I had her. But what would I do with her?
I took her in, noticing her clothes once more and for some reason, it pissed me off how much she’d changed. She’d even lost a little weight but managed to keep some of the curves that helped make me fall for her.
“Why are you dressed like that?” I asked again.
“I told you—”
“You had to grow up. Yeah, I get it. But why are you dressed like that?”
“It’s none of your business.” She sniffed.
“You lost weight,” I observed out loud. Her indrawn gasp of horror signified I did the one thing men were never to do, and that was to comment on her weight, but I couldn’t give less of a fuck right now.
“Don’t worry. I’m still fat,” she snidely replied.
“You’re not fat and I’m not worried.” Her look of surprise and confusion made me continue. I liked unnerving her. “I’d still fuck you hard and fast into that leather seat under your sexy ass… even if you are twenty pounds lighter.”
She blinked once and then a second time with a blank expression as if trying to convince herself and me that my words didn’t make her wet. I could practically feel her walls clenching around my dick as I clocked her subtle squirm.
“There will be someone looking for me, you know.”
The part of me that wouldn’t accept she wasn’t mine flew into a rage all the while I remained silent and calm by picking at imaginary lint. Was she running back to a man?
“Who is he?”
“What makes you think it’s a guy?” The smirk on her lips should have pissed me off, but all I wanted to do was feel what that smirk tasted like.
“For your sake there better not be.”
“Excuse me?” The snap in her voice caused my dick to jump.
The car stopped just outside the apartment building, and after uncuffing her, I used the opportunity to escape the confines of the car and the temptation to jump her. I dragged in huge breaths of air, willing myself to erase the intoxicating scent of her from my senses.
Once I pulled myself together, I reached in, and without asking or waiting, I grabbed her arm, pulling her from the car. She fought my hand on her arm, but I ignored her and dragged her behind me into the building.
I gritted my teeth as she blasted me with every curse word imaginable, drawing attention from the few residents who were milling about. The elevator waited ahead and I powered forward, forcing her shorter legs to double time to keep from falling.
We stopped inside, and when I was once again facing the residents watching us with curiosity, I laughingly shouted, “It’s that time of the month.”
The few men laughed while the women glared on, but it was all blocked out when the elevator doors closed and I was left alone once more with her. I quickly punched the code in for my floor and then leaned against the back wall, keeping her close.
She was silent when the car started to rise, and I was content until she said, “This is practically kidnapping, you know.”
My head rested against the cold wall of the elevator, and I shut my eyes before answering. “I know.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Because I’m kidnapping you.” A snort of laughter filled the elevator just as the doors opened. “Something funny?” I took her elbow in my hand and led her from the elevator car. Her laughter died, and I assumed she was feeling the same current of electricity that was fast spinning out of control. We stepped into my private corridor leading to my penthouse apartment, and I quickly led her to the door where I keyed in
another code to unlock. I watched her eyes widen in shock and her chest heave. “Not so funny now, is it, Angel?”
“Don’t call me that.”
Her rebuff pissed me off past the point of being reasonable. “Why not? You loved it. I loved it. You blushed every time. You’re blushing now.”
“Yeah, well, I have a lot of opportunities to be stupid.”
“Are you going to take that chance again?”
“Not on your life.”
“What about yours?”
She took a step back. “What?” The question came out barely more than a gasp of breath. I could see her mind racing and her body tensing up to fight or flight.
I wanted to console her and ensure I’d never hurt her, but I could only grit my teeth at the realization that she didn’t trust me. “It’s obvious you’re in trouble. Is this secret worth dying for?” I clarified.
Her eyes shifted left. “There’s no secret.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“And once again, it’s none of your business.”
“Until you get yourself killed.”
My counter didn’t seem to faze her, which only alarmed me more.
“I think you’re jumping to conclusions.”
“How so?”
“I won’t be the one dying.”
“What the fuck did you just say?” My feet moved on command and I charged her. It wasn’t until her back hit the door when she retreated that I realized we were still standing in the entrance. I caged her in with my arms on either side of her head to keep them from finding their way to her throat..
“Nothing. I—I don’t know why I said that.”
“Are you sure?” Sarcasm rolled off my tongue along with bitter rage. Not only had Willow eluded me for the last four years, but also, when she finally returned, she wasn’t Willow. My angel. “Should I trust you, Angel?”
I didn’t bother to hide my suspicion. The entire idea of Willow in Six Forks again was like a bad omen. It wasn’t what I expected to feel whenever I entertained the idea of ever seeing her again.
“No. You shouldn’t.” The air left my lungs as I bent in half. Fire spread from my groin where her knee violently connected to my brain. I was forced to take a knee as I attempted to breathe through the pain shooting through my dick.