Page 21 of Puck Me Sideways

I swallowed hard, keeping my eyes shut. He’d ask me to open them in a minute, and I would, but I wasn’t ready just yet. “I know, Solace. Mica is a non-negotiable.”

“Done.” He kissed me swiftly, unbuckled my seatbelt and scooped his arms beneath me.

My eyes flung open as my massive hockey defender slithered out of the driver’s seat and lifted me along with him.

“That should not have been possible. Or so easy.”

“Leave the impossible things to me, beautiful. I’ve got plans for tonight that involve a pretty girl, whichever room in my house she chooses, and tearing those clothes off her.” His fingers trailed along my body as he set me down. “The door’s unlocked. Run, Hallie.”

“The door’s un– Who did that, and why?” I stared up at him, a frown twisting my lips as questions layered upon each other in my mind.

Solace stared down at me, not a smile in sight. “Run, beautiful. I’m faster than you think.”

I stared for a second longer at his closed, formidable face. My heart rate picked up when he didn’t move or say anything else. Just watched me like I was his next meal.

I knew this mood. This was the Solace who used to prowl across the parking lot when I left the Jericho Chimeras building each night when I started working with them.

From that first night when I wasn’t sure if I’d end up in the back of the trunk just like the man who keyed Hux’s car. But Solace kept his distance. Just watched, walked behind me, and then…he stopped. I got on my bus and I went home.

Every night after that, we repeated our same strange dance. Him watching me, me knowing he was there, until the night he approached me and our dance changed.

This was that mood only…tonight was nothing like that.

Run, beautiful.

I took one last look at those dark, hard eyes, already lost in shadow, and I ran.

Pivoted on my heel, dropped my bag and my files on the drive where they scattered like so much rubbish, and I sprinted.

He could have caught me at any time. I knew that. I didn’t have a clue where the door to his house lay beyond the archway I spotted when we pulled up that disappeared into darkness. I headed toward that with a silent prayer. Behind me, gravel crunched as he walked—walked—after me. Long, slow steps that shot delicious, uncontrolled fear through me.

Come in so you can thank me for getting you a new job today. Then we can work on your punishment for fucking running from me.

Run.

That’s what I did. Busted through the unlocked door he seemed to have planned, not caring if there was some employee in his house I might scare the living daylights out of as I found the foyer, the hallway, and the living area, then the kitchen in the world’s fastest tour of Solace Hunter’s home.

My legs shook as the front door shut. No, it slammed. I spun on the spot, found a new doorway and raced through it, only to find Solace hulking form on the other side, striding toward me.

I stared over my shoulder at where I swore the front door just shut. “But, the?—”

“Run, Hallie.”His teeth bared as he unbuttoned his shirt from the top down.

My feet didn’t have the three second delay option my brain took, already moving up the curved staircase I found through the next arched doorway. I took those two at a time, my thighs and lungs screaming in tandem. This office girl might work for the Chimeras, but she sure as hell wasn’t one. Not in the fitness department.

Fingers caught at the hem of my skirt. I let out a yelp and powered through, really running now, in full flight mode. This might be Solace, but also?—

This part of him scared me in all the best ways. He was huge and intimidating as shit.

I found a bedroom at a glance and a bathroom, bypassing both of those as options leading to instant doom. The next doorway looked like a hall. I turned it down and realised my mistake.

“My office. Interesting choice.” Solace’s hand closed around my waist. One hand, that’s all it took. He squeezed my curves in an inescapable grip.

It took me less than a second to understand just how sweetly Solace had been playing with me since he broke his vow of silence and approached me. His other hand slid up my front until his fingers caught my jaw and tipped my head back. Our eyes met, my panic and uncertainty meeting the raw, ravaging hunger in his.

“Solace—” I whimpered, my voice a bare thread, needy and pathetic.

“Fuck,” he cursed, propeling us forward. My hips hit the edge of his desk. He bent me over the hardwood, pushing everything in front of me off the other side. Muted thuds announced heavy things meeting lux carpet. He didn’t seem to care. “Christ, I can't think when you make sounds like that, Hallie. The things you do to my mind…” He hissed out a breath, releasing my jaw to rip my skirt up, grinding into me from behind. “At least here I don’t have to worry about anyone else hearing you when you’re in my home, or watching you. Though I do owe you a punishment.”

---