Page 11 of Under His Control

“It can be,” I warned, realizing that she was enjoying this, too.

4

EVA

No one threatenedme. Not if they wanted to live.

Yet, Liam just had. He told me to leave him alone, and it was the last thing I wanted to do. He intrigued me. He annoyed me. There was something about him that I couldn’t ignore.

“Don’t you dare.” Glaring up at him, I hated that I had to crane my neck to face him properly. To maintain direct eye contact—which I always did, with everyone so I would not leave room for anyone assuming I was weak or intimidated—I had to almost dip back as we stood so close together. Inches parted us, and the longer I held on to his sleeve, the more this gnawing desire pushed me to grab hold even more.

I wanted to wrap my fingers around his bulging biceps, knowing they wouldn’t close over the girth. I needed to push against his chest and find out why his shirt strained over his muscled physique, if he really was that lean. I yearned to push and push, to test him and see how soon he’d snap and act on this tension that set up between us as instantaneously as our mutual loathing had.

His nostrils flared as he glowered down at me. The piercing blue of his eyes sparkled darker. And with the hard press of hislips, so tight together in his scowl, I felt tempted and encouraged to prod at him just that little more, to poke and push his buttons and see him really react.

He stepped closer, into my personal space. “What shouldn’t I dare?”

Having him nearly flush to me short-circuited my logic. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t comprehend a witty comeback. Men didn't have power over me. They didn’t intimidate me.

Buthedid. Within each other’s space, we were caught in a firestorm of chemistry that ticked closer and closer to combustion.

“Don’t you dare tell me what to do,” I replied, hating that it wasn’t the strongest string of words that I was capable of.I already said that, didn’t I?

“Listen to me, Eva.” He took a chance to step one more foot toward me. The toes of his boots bumped my shoes. His scent hit me, something clean and spicy. His body heat radiated to me, enticing me to curl toward him. As I dragged my gaze up from his chest to find those blazing blue eyes, I licked my lips and wondered if I could still taste his drink on his.

“I’ve had a shitty few days. Tonight has been nothing but a surprise, and not all of it is favorable.”

I steadied my breath, unwilling to show him how much his gravelly, gritty growl turned me on even more. I had no business wanting someone like him. Rough and tumble, rugged, and dressed down, a simple but strong man unlike the glossy, proper Mafia soldiers and men supposedly worthy of someone with my status.

“The last thing I want to do is put up with an icy pain in the ass like you. Mafia diva or not.”

Anger charged through me, twisting with the threads of desire he stoked in me.

“If you don’t leave me alone and find someone else to pick on…”

Then what? Then what!I had to know. I wanted to learn what he’d try to do. If it included giving in to this sexual tension that I had no way to explain, then I wanted to hear it.

He lowered his head. His breath whipped so hotly over my ear, tickling me and turning me on at the same time. “Then the next time you push me, I’ll fuck you so hard that I’ll ruin you for any other man in this world.”

I shivered and closed my eyes at the vision he painted. His big hands on me. His mouth tasting me. Fingers exploring and teasing. His dick sliding into me.

Oh, God. Please. I need it.

I shouldn’t want him, but I did. Inexplicably, I yearned for him to deliver on that filthy threat.

As he stepped back, I opened my eyes and glared at him. “You wouldn’t.” It was a weak argument, one I doubted. But I couldn’t let him have the last word. I didn’t know who the hell he was. He was a stranger, not from my world. Regardless, I would never let a man have the last word.

He didn’t speak, staring back at me with such an intensity, I wanted to lunge at him and test his theory.

Then he turned, giving me his back and striding through the crowd. I stood there, rooted in place, stunned.

My heart hammered so fast, as though I’d run a marathon. My lungs strained to pull in air, too shallow to fuel the adrenaline rush of being challenged, rejected, and scolded away. The realization that he’d walked away was too much to bear.

That was it. His dismissal. His resistance was what damned us. Because in doing so, in walking away from me and this electric draw and what pulled us together, he’d declared himself off limits. Forbidden. He alreadywasforbidden. I had no business lusting after a nobody like him. Wanting him wasa form of rebelling—against my life, against this need for a distraction.

I didn’t care how weak it would make me, but I had to chase him down.

This was not the end of it. It couldn’t be.

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