Page 26 of Deviant

“Not a damn thing,” he responded, clearly disgusted. “Mighta told him a few things we like to do in here, but it wasn’t fun anymore when he started crying and shit.”

Amused at Stone’s attitude, I shook my head as I moved to stand in front of Eddie. “You got a thing for Alice?”

Eddie nodded and sobbed. “I thought she was pretty and so nice when most women are mean to me! I was sure I could make her want me if she got away from you. I could make her happy in bed and then?—”

I slapped him hard across the face, furious that he was even thinking about my woman in that way.

“You thought egging Britney on was the way to Alice’s heart?”

Eddie shrugged, looking bewildered. The guy was every bit as stupid as he looked.

Sighing, I turned to Stone. “Make him see the error of his ways and convince him to stay the fuck away from Alice. One wrong step, and he better run as fast and as far away as he can, or I’ll put him in the fucking ground.”

Stone glanced at Eddie skeptically. “He’s not gonna last long.”

I shrugged. “I’m sure you’ll find a way to make it fun.”

He grinned. “True. I’m nothing if not fun.”

I chucked on my way out of the room, then headed home to shower and pick up Alice. On the way, I made one quick stop to pick up the present Fox had been holding for me.

It was time to make Alice officially mine.

12

ALICE

Ihadn’t wanted to go to work after what happened to my car, but I’d committed to Nora and didn’t want to let her down. My shift yesterday went okay, but I was still worried. Especially since I’d barely seen Grady during the last two days—although he’d kissed me senseless at night and when I left for work in the morning. The effort he put into finding the person who spray-painted my car made me wonder if there was more of a threat than I realized.

Once I got to school this morning—with a prospect stationed outside to watch over me again—my day had turned around a little. The first thing Nora told me when I walked into the break room was that my classroom was going to be short an aide. Normally, this would be bad news. But the reason behind it meant that I wouldn’t have to deal with Britney ever again.

I kept my happiness over her quitting to myself all day long, but only because I didn’t have the time to call Grady to tell him about it. With another aide out sick, we were seriously shorthanded, so I’d barely been able to shove a couple of pieces of pizza that Nora had ordered for everyone into my mouth for lunch.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted and hungry. As much as I was looking forward to seeing Grady soon, I was tempted to send him a text to let him know that I wasn’t feeling up to doing much of anything tonight. Pondering the idea of a night in at my place with some take-out food, I wasn’t paying much attention to my surroundings as I walked out of the school.

I stumbled to a stop as I neared my car and found Grady leaning against the trunk. “When did you get here?”

“A couple of hours ago,” he answered, wrapping his hand around my wrist to tug me close.

After I crashed against his chest, he tilted my head back to capture my mouth. My lips parted on a gasp, and his tongue slid inside to tangle with mine. Not caring who saw us, I twined my arms around his neck and gave myself up to his kiss. When he finally lifted his head, I blinked up at him for a moment, trying to clear the sensual fog clouding my head. “Wow, that’s a heck of a way to end my workday.”

He smirked at me, his thumb brushing against the inside of my wrist. “Then I’ll just have to meet you when you’re done as often as I can.”

“I like the sound of that.” I stroked my palm against the scruff of his beard. “It was the cherry on top of a ridiculously busy but awesome day.”

“Awesome?” he echoed, tilting his head to the side.

“Soooo awesome,” I confirmed with a grin, bouncing on my toes. “I had this coworker who wasn’t nice, like at all. She was kind of giving me a hard time about going out with you, as if I cared about her opinion.”

“Wish you’d told me about the bitch,” he muttered.

“Well, it doesn’t matter anymore because she quit.” I did a little celebratory dance. “So now I never have to see her ever again.”

He heaved a deep sigh and raked his fingers through his thick, dark hair. “Yeah, but if I knew she was giving you a hard time, I woulda known to look into her when your car was spray-painted. A head start like that might’ve saved me some time in figuring out who had it in for you.”

“Whaaa?” I cried, my eyes going wide. “Are you trying to tell me that Britney was behind it?”

He nodded. “Some guy she was seeing gave her the idea and goaded her into it.”

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