Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Well, that didn’t tell me anything except that he was alive and able to text me.
I’m waiting for you. I typed the message out and stared at it. I should erase it. I shouldn’t do this. I should get up and go home.
I pressed Send.
I grew anxious waiting for a reply. My chest was tight, my body buzzing with the need to move. I stood again, pacing around the yard. The cat watched me but stayed where she’d chosen to sit.
I was considering scaling the fence and getting the hell out of there when I heard a car. The engine cut off, then I heard a door slam.
I rushed back to the porch and sat down next to the cat, who stared at me like I’d lost my mind. I wanted to be sitting there waiting calmly when he arrived. My hands were shaking, so I clasped them together and tried to slow my breathing.
I heard movement inside the house, and then the back door banged open. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
The cat darted inside, not wanting any part of what was going on between us.
“I didn’t know you had a cat.”
He sighed. “I didn’t, but I guess I do now.”
I looked through the door and saw the little animal sitting in the window. “That’s really not your cat?”
“I’ve been feeding her, but no, not really.”
I liked that he hadn’t tried to stop her from going inside. I stood and faced him. “I was waiting for you, like I said.”
“I told you not to come back here.”
“You knew I wasn’t going to listen.”
“You really don’t know what’s good for you, do you?” The growl in his voice sent a shudder through me.
“You’re good for me.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “No, I promise you I’m not.”
When he took a step closer to me, I tried to relax. I needed to stay calm, or he would send me away again. “I was checking on you.”
“I told you I was fine.”
“I wanted more details. Why did you miss class today?”
“I had a family emergency.”
My mind raced with ideas of the kind of emergency mob families had. “What happened?”
“It’s private.” His voice was clipped, and he held himself perfectly still. I could see the tension in the line of his jaw.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I was shameless. I literally batted my eyes at him. Everyone loved my long lashes.
“No.”
I moved closer to him. “Are you sure?”
“Why would you want to help me?”
“We’re friends now, aren’t we? Will you be running tomorrow?
He shook his head. “We are not jogging together. You can’t keep up anyway, and I’m your professor, not your friend.”
“You can’t be both?”
“No.”
I didn’t believe him. “Are you in a bad mood because of the emergency?”
“I’m not in a bad mood.”
I raised his brows, and he sighed. “Fine, yes. Because of the emergency.”
“You want to come get some ice cream? That usually helps me.” The thought of him licking an ice cream cone as he watched me do the same had my cock thickening.
“No. That’s not… I can’t. I have work to do.”
“It looks like you’re making dinner.” I nodded toward the grocery bags he’d sat down on the counter.
“Yes, I have to eat, and then I have work to do.”
“And you don’t have time for dessert?”
13
DANTE
Iknew the right answer to his question, but it wasn’t the one my body wanted me to give.
I’d had a hell of a night. I’d hardly slept. I was angry—at myself for ever touching Alex, at Lorenzo for drawing us into this mess, no matter how unfair that was, at Remington for making unreasonable demands, and at my family for being fucking criminals in the first place. And Alex was here when I’d told him not to come here again.
“Come in,” I ordered, and he did as I said. I took some small bowls from a cabinet and filled one with water and the other with the cat food I’d been putting out on the porch.
The cat—I’d been calling her Adenine, even though I’d told myself not to name her—raced toward the bowls and started eating. Fortunately, I’d gotten some litter and a litter box after she’d stopped by on a night when it was too hot for her to stay outside.
When I turned back to Alex, he was watching me with wonder in his eyes. He was so easy. All I had to do was treat a cat nicely, and he thought I was a decent man.
I looked him up and down, and desire surged through me. I wanted to punish him. I wanted to fuck him so hard it hurt. I wanted to hold him down until he screamed. I wanted to show him what he was getting into by chasing after me. I was tired of sending him away. Maybe the best way to get him to leave me alone was to show him exactly who I really was. “You want me?”