Page 17 of Passing the Red Line
“Am I? I didn’t even notice. You can go around,” I answer, not even looking up to see his face.
“First you break into my house and now you’re denying me access to a public beach?” He asks.
I guess he recognized me right away. And here I thought that he was going to forget all about me.
“First, I didn’t break into your house,” I finally look away from my kindle and turn in my chair to face the man towering over me, “your door was wide open. It’s not my fault that you don’t take your security seriously and keep all the doors closed. Second, like you said, this is a public beach, so I can sit anywhere I want. And I want to sit right here, in front of this cute little gate. Besides, I like this spot, it gives me the perfect amount of sun.”
I give him back again and go back to reading. I make a whole sentence before I feel something leaning against the back of my chair and get a whiff of his scent a little too close to me.
Is that his cologne or his after shave or just his natural scent?
Who cares? It’s not like I like it or something.
“Move,” Christian growls into my ear, his single word traveling down my neck and my body like a shiver.
“Or what?” I say, not turning to face him. His face is too close to comfort and if I turn I will no doubt be able to look into his eyes. I bet they are filled with evil.
“Or I’ll pick you up, chair and all and throw you in the fucking ocean.”
“You wouldn’t fucking dare,” I say through my teeth, turning slightly to narrow my eyes at him. The asshole is bluffing, I know he is.
“Try me, hermosa. I’ll pick your ass up right now and throw you into the cold water. Move. Out. Of. The. Way.”
I roll my eyes at him calling hermosa. The bastard is trying to sweet talk me so that I can do what he wants. That’s not going to happen. No matter how much my body likes being called hermosa, I’m staying put.
I give the asshole a shrug and toss my hair back so that it hits him in the face. “I’m good. Like I said, you can go around or hey here’s an idea, you can jump over me. You’re a professional athlete, you can jump that high and not get hurt.”
I’m acting like a complete brat and not the twenty-nine-year-old woman that I am, I know that, but the man threatened to call the cops on me and ruin my peace and quiet.
He deserves this shit.
For a solid second, I think my hockey player friend here is going to listen to me and go around, but when I feel my chair move I start to panic.
No way in hell is he actually going to pick me and throw me in the ocean!
He is not that strong, no matter how many abs he may have.
Of course, the asshole proves me wrong and moves the chair enough from the other side of the gate for me to face him and when I’m about to ask him what the hell he’s doing I get disoriented. Somehow, he was able to not only move the chair but also slide one of his arms under my legs and throw me over his shoulder.
It takes me a minute to find my bearings. The asshole has my upper body to his back and my legs over his shoulders. I’m literally staring at his ass right now where a minute ago I wasn’t even looking at him.
“What the hell are you doing?! Put me down!” I slap him against his thigh, but Christian doesn’t even react.
He just pushes my chair and all of my things to the side with the gate before kicking them away for good measure and starts walking towards the water.
I slap his leg again, trying to push myself enough for him to put me down, but all he does is tighten his hold on me.
“I told you what would happen if you didn’t move,” he growls, not deterring from his path to the water.
“I swear to God, Rodriguez, if you don’t put me down right now, you're dead. I’m going to break into your house in the middle of the night and use one of your skates on you!” Okay, so I’m being dramatic, but I really don’t want to be thrown in the ocean.
“Hermosa, what makes you think you will get that far? I’ll have you arrested before you even reach the backdoor.”
“Don’t call me hermosa. I’m not your hermosa, save that name for your puck bunnies.” I say, closing my eyes to keep myself from getting dizzy from all the movement. I swear I can feel all the blood rush to my ears.
“I’ll call you whatever I want. Seems only fair since you know my name, but I don’t know yours,” he says right before slapping my hand against my thigh to hold me still.
“I hate you so much.” Now I’m the one growling.
