Page 47 of Scorched King

My eyes widened. Don’t what exactly? I kept that question in my head because I was afraid of the answer. I couldn’t stop replaying yesterday’s events in my head. Considering how he had almost sprinted out of my apartment and then vanished into the clubhouse as soon as we got back, it was clear he wasn’t pleased with what had happened.

And now we were lying in a bed…

I had to admit that his escape the day before still kind of hurt. I was sick to death of the mixed messages and his ultimate refusal to see me as anything more than an employee that he needed to take care of.

“I need to get up,” I insisted, pulling my hand free from his hold and scrambling off the bed. Without looking back at him I grabbed my clothes and disappeared into the bathroom. If heconsidered my doing yoga in his living room as some sort of torture then that was his problem not mine.

My recovery hinged on the physical therapy, and it couldn’t be avoided. He had an office and his own bedroom he could escape to.

I scraped my hair into a high pony, brushed my teeth and stood staring into my mirror as long as I could. Hiding in the bathroom wasn’t my style before the accident and it wasn’t going to be my go-to now. I took a deep breath and bracing myself, I opened the door.

The breath I’d been holding froze in my lungs at the sight of JD sitting on the side of my bed, facing the bathroom door. Waiting.

“Look, we should?—“

“No,” I interrupted, shaking my head. “I don’t want to hear your excuses again. If you’re too afraid to face this thing between us then that’s on you and you have to live with it. I don’t want or need to hear it again. I’ve had enough rejection from you to last a lifetime.” I reached for my mat and skirted past his big body nearly blocking my way.

Or so I believed.

Just as I thought I had escaped, he grabbed my wrist and yanked me toward him. I stumbled, colliding shoulder-first into his chest and landing squarely in his lap.

And what I felt there… I sucked in a sharp breath. The man wasn’t just huge as already evidenced from the tight briefs, but now he was hard and it poked against my hip like a hot poker attempting to brand me.

I barely stifled a whimper, as I froze, suddenly afraid to move.

“You aren’t walking away like that,” he growled.

I bristled against him. “What’s that supposed to mean? I already told you I have to do my yoga. It’s part of my therapy. If my appearance is too difficult to handle with your sensitive sensibilities, you can either hide in your room until I’m done or I can return to my apartment. I don’t have to stay here, you know.”

“Sassing me again, huh? That’s a surefire way to find yourself on the receiving end of a spanking.”

We both froze as those words sizzled over my skin for a solid minute before fizzling out when he didn’t say anything else or make a move. The more time that stretched between us, the more obvious it was that he’d made a mistake in saying them.

I blew out a breath and did my best to force the image of JD drawing me across his knees to make good on this threat from my head.

“I really could move back home. It would make things easier for us both.” Well, him. For me, the idea of being alone in my apartment kind of scared the crap out of me. Although I knew I couldn’t hide here forever. The time for me to be alone again was coming, and maybe it would be better now than later before I got used to the company no matter how maddening it was.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

I sighed again blowing all of the air out of my lungs on a huff. “I don’t want to fight with you, JD. It’s too confusing.”

“Are you sure about that?” He said the words in that low and deep tone of his that I felt deep in my core. His mouth was inches from my ear and his breath caressed my skin. I didn’t really wantto fight, but what choice did I have? I didn’t want to manipulate him in any way either. Because, right now, I’d do just about anything for his attention.

“What I want I can’t have so I guess fighting is the next best thing. At least knowing I get something from you is better than nothing.” I said the words on barely an audible whisper but I knew he heard them. If I wasn’t sure, I was when his entire body stiffened against my back.

“And what is it you want?” he asked on a growl.

“Don’t ask questions you don’t really want to hear the answers to, JD. We both know you already know. I’m not stupid and neither are you.”

He moved so quickly I barely saw it, but in a flash I was turned in his lap, facing him with my legs straddling his legs. But it was the shock of his hardness now pressed against my core instead of my ass that threatened to melt my brain. If I moved just an inch I could have all of that right where I wanted it and to say I wasn’t above rubbing against him like a cat in heat was more true than I should want to admit, even to myself.

“Don’t you get it, Sasha. Look at me. I have lived, and still do, a rough life. I have more scars on my body from bullet holes and knife stabs than any one man should.” As he spoke, I zeroed in on one of the bullet hole scars he mentioned almost center on his chest. I rubbed my fingers over it and tried to imagine the damage it must have inflicted. How close he might have been to death because of it… He grabbed my hand and held it against his skin, not letting go. “That one definitely should have killed me. But I guess not even the devil was ready for the likes of me. I’m hard and mean when I have to be, which is most of the time,and I’ll take on just about any risk I have to in order to get a job done.”

“You’re like a cat with nine lives,” I whispered.

“Then I’m probably on the ninth now and since I won’t retire from this life until I either can’t ride my bike anymore or I’m cold in the ground, I might not be much longer for this world.”

“That’s a pretty bleak outlook even for you, JD. You’re the strongest man I know. You always have a plan.” His rough fingers were rubbing the back of my hand and I wondered if he even realized it was happening. Or the kind of effect that simple touch had on me.

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