Page 71 of Reckless Temptation

I didn’t stop to find my bra or panties. Relieved my car keys were still in the pockets of my shorts, I dashed away. Pumping my arms, I sprinted as hard as I could—barefoot, because I hadn’t slowed enough to look for my sandals—and I winced at the sound of him chasing after me.

“Sabrina!” His heavier footsteps thundered after me.

“Stop!” He didn’t slow down, running all the way outside.

Whimpering with the need to escape, I turned around a corner too quickly and didn’t have the time to correct myself before tripping over a parking lot curb.

Before I could crash down and face plant on the pavement, Nick was there. He’d chased me so quickly and stayed hot on my heels so well that he was closer than I realized. His strong arms reached out to break my fall, but I still felt a jolt of pain searing up my leg. My ankle screamed in agony from twisting it in the fall.

I cried out, gasping and tensing at the inevitable crash to the ground.

But I didn’t.

He’d captured me. Holding me as he breathed hard and fast to catch his breath, he kept me secure and off the ground. He stared down at me, his brow furrowed with concern and annoyance.

“Sabrina,” he got out around panted breaths.

I shook my head and wiggled to get free.

He didn’t budge. “Just stop. Stop. Before you hurt yourself again.”

“I only tripped because you chased me,” I accused, so nervous and lost with how to handle this. Still, I clung to the belief that I couldn’t trust him. Not with my heart, which he was getting too close to owning. Not with the truth, either. He could very well not want anything more to do with me since his mom shared so much with me.

“And I only chased you because you ran.”

“I ran because?—”

He growled, lifting me higher in his arms. “Stop. You have some explaining to do.”

Carrying me from the edge of the parking lot, he watched my face, searching it for the answers I was too afraid to give him.

“I have to explain why I wanted you to fuck me?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t lie and try to tell me it was just a quick fuck. That was more. That was something else.”

Dammit.He was playing hardball.

“I want an answer for why you showed up out of the blue and acted like you care about me.”

I looked away, clamping my lips shut tight. I wasn’t acting, but could I tell him that and trust him not to use it against me?

“You’re coming home with me and?—”

“No!” I fought to get loose again. “I don’t want to go there and see?—”

“Settle down.” He carried me toward my car. Of course, he’d know which one it was, the stalker he had been lately. “No one’s there. They went to a family thing that I got out of.”

I didn’t speak as he set me down next to my car. After helping me keep my weight off my injured ankle, which was already feeling better, he took my keys out of my pockets and got me in the passenger side. Then he got in the driver’s seat and headed off.

The ride to the Lorsen mansion was silent. I didn’t dare speak, and he seemed to be simmering and waiting to demand more answers.

He parked out front. “Don’t move.”

I scowled, nervous, as he rounded the car and opened my door. “Oh, you’re a gentlemannow?”

He reached in and picked me up easily, frowning.

“I can walk,” I protested.

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