Page 55 of Devilish Ink

I halted on the icy curb.

“Lee,” I hissed. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to go.”

“No, it isn’t.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “The car isthisway.”

“I amnotgoing to your car.”

“You are,” Lee said, grinning lazily. “On those pretty legs of yoursorover my shoulder. You choose.”

I clenched my jaw.

Lee clicked his keys. Red lights blinked on a car half a block away.

“I don’t need you to—”

He stepped swiftly up to me as if to hoist me over his shoulder.

“Alright! Alright,” I snapped, holding out my hands.

He chuckled and held out his arm as if to sayafter you.

I scowled as I stomped toward his damn car, trying so hard to ignore the heat between my thighs at his brutish stubbornness.

Damn him. Iwantedhim to drive me home, Ilikedthat hewouldn’t take no for an answer, Icravedhim putting me in my place when I was being a pain in the ass.

Our hands touched again as we both went for the passenger door. Heat shot up my arm and I snatched my fingers back.

“Iget your doors,” Lee said firmly.

He was supposed to be a brute—I liked brutes, but he wasn’talsosupposed to be this fucking sweet.

He held the door open for me. I avoided his gaze as I was forced—yet again—to brush up close to him to get in. I muttered a thanks as I dropped into the seat. But he did not get out of the way so I could close the door.

He leaned his bulk in and his nearness made me gasp. He smirked at me, his lips close to mine as he drew the belt across my chest, deliberately brushing my nipples with his arm, and taking a moment to inhale against my neck before he clicked the belt in.

I squeezed my inner thighs together. Driving me home was not supposed to be this fucking sexy.

He closed the door, muffling the late-night city noise outside so that the rushing blood in my ears sounded like drums. Only then could I breathe properly again.

He climbed into the driver’s seat and my body tightened up again, the aching need growing between my legs.

As he pulled away from the curb I found myself wanting to reach out and place my hand on his thigh or on the back of his seat. All things that I shouldnotwant with a one-night stand.

I scooted over as far away from him as I could and pressed my hot cheek up against the cold window of the passenger door.

As he drove the nearly silent streets of Dublin, I tried not to look at him. But I found my gaze drawing to him. I found myself becoming mesmerised by the steadiness of his hands on the wheel, the flicker of his eye to the rearview mirror, the ease with which he shifted.

He could be driving me anywhere. Into a windowless basement. Over the edge of a cliff. And I wouldn’t even know it.

Finally, the car came to a crunching stop outside my—Rian’s—apartment. For a long moment the silence in the car rang in my ears and his steady gaze sent sparks rattling down my spine.

I clawed at the door, desperate to get out before I did something stupid like kiss him or invite him in.

But it would not unlock.

Panic clawed at my throat, as memories of being tricked slammed into my mind. Oh God. He’d trapped me inside.

He was a monster just like—

---