Page 15 of Don't Game Me
“She’s not for you,” Jake said to Chris. He brushed past the guy, wrapped his fingers around Becca’s arm, and pulled her toward the exit. No way in hell so long as he was alive would he allow some tool like Chris to make Becca his one-night-stand.
He hoped like hell Chris wouldn’t push this. Miracles of miracles, Chris backed off.
Outside, she yanked her arm free of his grip and tilted her head back to glare up at him. The move exposed her long, elegant neck. “Who shoved a stick up your ass?”
“Becca…” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry for earlier. I shouldn’t have—”
“Don’t.” She held up a hand and marched up the street away from him, threading through the few people in her way.
He jogged to catch up to her, latching her arm. “Hold up.”
She pulled her arm free. “You made it perfectly clear how unattractive you find me.”
“Whoa. This has nothing to do with that.” He rocked back onto his heels.
“I know I’m not as pretty as your normal dates. Besides, you acted like you committed a mortal sin when you kissed me.”
He compressed his lips to suppress a smile that he bet would escalate her anger to the next level. “That’s not how I acted. You know I don’t go to church, and I definitely don’t believe in mortal sins.”
“Convenient excuse to justify sleeping your way through life with anyone who’s not me.”
“That’s right.”
Becca flinched.
Damn it, not what he meant to say. But he needed distance the width of the Atlantic Ocean between them.
“You can be such an ass.” She strode up the sidewalk.
He should let her go. Let her hate him.
But he didn’t.
Jake caught her arm again and whipped her back around. “You don’t have a freaking clue.”
She tugged to pull her arm free, but he held on this time. “About what?”
“This has nothing to do with me not being attracted to you.” He pulled her into the alley between two buildings and pressed her against the wall, his body flush to hers. “Does that feel like I’m not attracted to you?”
She swallowed hard and met his gaze but didn’t answer. The challenge in her eyes indicated she was turned on too. He leaned in.
What the hell was he doing? He almost kissed her again. He stepped away. “We’re not doing this. Not because I don’t find you attractive. Not because I don’t think you’re good enough. We’re not doing this because this is one risk I can’t take.”
5
“Here’s the coffee,” Becca yelled as she pushed into her parents’ condo in Greenwich Village at eight a.m., balancing eight to-go cups.
“Your mom said put them in the kitchen. She’s devising her master plan for today in the dining room, which scares me a little bit.” Tori greeted her in the entryway. She came off edgy and total badass with tattoos peeping out of the edges of her tight black shirt and her little silver nose ring. She’d pulled her long dark hair up into a ponytail. Becca couldn’t believe her brother, the guy who freaked out if a girl spoke to him, was about to marry someone as incredible as Tori. She was also more than a little jealous Tori had escaped Symphis’s clutches.
Becca pecked her on a cheek as she relinquished four of the cups. “She scares all of us sometimes. Is Dad back from the hospital?”
Tori nodded. “He’s asleep upstairs.”
“Oh, okay. I won’t bother him. He seem okay?”
Tori glanced toward the stairwell. “They were already back from the hospital when I got here. How’re you? How’re things out in California in the big bad life of a grad student?”
She couldn’t meet Tori’s game. “Fine.”
