Page 12 of Angel Condemned

Jody

Iwas so mad I was sure my heated skin smoked. How dare the bastard tease me. Kiss me like his life depended on it and then…Wham…get out of my face. His leaps from steaming-hot to frigid were getting on my nerves.

And we’d finally made some progress.

Kissing could lead to sex and what I needed to complete the contract with the Roulex. Well, a pregnancy, but I wasn’t going to get there at this rate no matter how much of a fabulous kisser Dilbert was.

His gaze bore into me as I marched back and forth in the small cell. He was damn lucky they took our food trays away because I would have used it to bash some sense into his head. No wonder the Roulex offered me so much money to do this—Dilbert here was unbelievably frustrating. His horns must be descendant from a freaking bull or a mule if they had horns.

“Are you just going to sit there?” I seethed. “Or are you going to say something?” Or hell, even apologize. I shouldn’t have kissed him back. I should’ve pushed him off me. Played hard to get, which is what this guy—alien—seemed to like. I could do irritating and mean. I had been a goddamn waitress. I knew how to become a chameleon to whatever the customer wanted. How to flirt to get a bigger tip. How to get the wife or girlfriend happy if I got the vibe she was paying or would get angry if her partner got too much attention.

I had to remember that this was business, not a dating gig. Get pregnant and get the hell out of here and away from Mr. Moody.

“You know, usually when I kiss a woman, they’re the opposite of angry.” He snorted. “You are just here for one thing and angry that I didn’t fuck you.”

I stopped in my tracks. Did he suspect? I’d never get what I needed if he thought I wasn’t real, which I wasn’t. But I couldn’t let him think that. I spun.

“Really? Cause I don’t think you kiss well at all,” I lied. “In fact, it was the worst kiss of my life.” Did he imagine that I’d fawn over his treatment of me? Chase after him? Fuck that.

“And you clinging to me wasn’t proof that you are not speaking the truth?”

He had me there. My body still hummed where we were pressed together, and my lips tingled. And hell if I didn’t want more. If I didn’t want to rip my clothes off and pounce on him.

“A momentary weakness.” I rolled my shoulders back. “Don’t worry, I won’t let it happen again.”

Knowing his dark eyes watched me gave me a thrill. I swung my hips slightly as I walked to the far corner of the cell, opposite him. Not enough that he’d know I was playing him, just enough to entice him.

“Never had any females complain before.”

I laid down with my back to him. Let him think about what he wanted. I wasn’t here as his mental and verbal punching bag. Time was ticking away. The Roulex weren’t going to be happy if I bungled getting pregnant or not even having sex with my cellmate.

What would they do with Dad? There was no way I’d be able to pay them back for the money they’d already loaned us so far and Dad needed funds to get the mechanical organs. I couldn’t back out of this even if I wanted to.

My breath hitched in my chest. I couldn’t back out now.

The Roulex warned me never to tell Dilbert, or whatever his name was, the truth of why I was here. They said he could get violent if I did so. His size and horns, even shorn flat, attested to the truth of their caution along with his wildly-swinging moods.

Right now, he tolerated me.

“Tell me you hated me kissing you.”

I touched my lips wanting more. Chalk it up to his kiss and his hands on my hips, but I felt branded somehow. Not in a bad way…in a hint of a promise…of sweeping us both away to pleasure. Even if I hadn’t been paid to have sex with him, I’d have given in to keep kissing him. To keep his hands on me. Hell, to touch me all over and touch him.

“Answer me, damn it.”

With a groan, I looked over my shoulder at him and gave him the sweetest-I-hate-you smile that I saved for all my difficult customers. I hoped to God he couldn’t tell when I was lying or hear the fast beating of my heart, because right now I really wanted to crawl over to him and kiss every inch of him, even his black, spiral horns.

“Maybe none of the other women were honest with you. Didn’t want to hurt your fragile, male ego.” I turned back around before I laughed at the way his face turned dark red, but I kept my voice even and said, “Goodnight, Dilbert.”

I laid facing the wall and trying to breathe evenly so he’d think I’d fallen asleep. Which was hard because I was still fuming inside at him.

But I lay there on the stone floor listening to every creak, every sound. Would he come after me? I’d insulted him and I had no way of knowing how this alien would react. My gut said this was the right thing to do, but everything else was saying not to turn my back on a dangerous stranger and plead with the Roulex to let me the hell out of here.

Lock me up with some other crazy, sexy lunatic.

But I didn’t want another. I wanted this one. Which wasn’t possible. One kiss and my attraction to him had tripled. No. It was more than that. It was the way he talked about his sister and how he had cared for her. So much so that he risked his freedom to warn her and her husband and all three of them were caught anyway. The sincerity in his voice…the pain and sorrow deep in his eyes. I wanted to comfort him.

And how he’d talked louder to hide the beatings of the other prisoner and tried to distract me, proved he had a super-sweet side I’d glimpsed and wanted to know more. Now I regretted acting so furious with him earlier when I needed him on my side. I needed him to want me.

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