Page 47 of Unforgivable

“What’s obvious is that you’re an overbearing brute. I don’t need your so-called help. You sure as hell didn’t help me in the cafeteria. That’s when I needed you.”

She wiggles out of my grasp, turns to face me, and taps her front tooth. “This broke when I got pushed to the ground by your fiancée. Trust me, the last thing I need in my life is your kind of help.”

She sniffs as if she’s about to cry and my heart tightens in response.

Tensing her shoulders, she grimaces as she forcibly fights back her sob, and announces, “I’m going home.On my own.”

She’s frustrated, I get it, but why can’t she understand what I’m saying. Taking a deep breath, I try to calm my temper. “Will you stop? Okay, I didn’t come to your aid in the cafeteria, but this is different. This isn’t about saving a bruised ego; this is about safety.”

“You don’t get to tell me what I feel,” she replies mulishly. “I don’t need your help. I needed you back then, and you let me down, so I reject your offer. I will go homealone.”

“Is this your way of getting back at me?” I ask incredulously. “I’ve already explained myself.”

Temper flaring once again, I wrap my fingers around her wrist and yank her toward the car. I lay down the law. “You’re coming with me. Inside. Now.”

She tries to break free, but I pin her against my car. She grips the lapels of my jacket, tearing at them violently.

Face to the sky, she screams out, “No one cares! I made it here on my own perfectly fine. Don’t give me some lame excuse about the Bratva and make me repeat myself a hundred times.” She shakes me in frustration, tears falling from her eyes. “Why won’t you get it? No one cares. No. One. Cares.”

A shout comes from one of the lofts above us. “If no one cares then shut the fuck up!”

My head snaps in the direction of the disembodied voice and a snarl emanates from my chest.

I cover her, crushing her fingers to my chest, and whisper in her ear, “I care.”

She pushes against me, struggling until there’s a bit of space between us.

The corners of her mouth sag into a deep frown. “Lucky for me, your opinion doesn’t count.”

Angry words push against the back of my front teeth, desperate to leave my mouth, but I clamp my jaws shut.

There’s no point in arguing.

I’m not leaving her here. I just had my tongue in her sweet pussy and she’s lost her damn mind if she thinks I’m going to abandon her in the deserted back alley of a Chelsea gallery in the middle of the night. She’s angry because she thinks I betrayed her in the cafeteria, but high school drama is nothing compared to the real dangers out here.

And the dangers are real. She doesn’t know what I know. Her brother, along with the brothers of hersef, killed the Russian boss and his second-in-command. Why her brother abandoned her and left her vulnerable, I do not know, but I’m the one who took advantage of their weakened state to attack the drug distribution of the Jersey shore and wrangle it into our hands. It’s what tipped me over Dinu as the next in line forconsilier.

Her brother, and now I, are responsible for what’s coming next. The Bratva may still be regrouping, but revenge against our clans is imminent. Of course, I can’t relay any of this information to her and dispel this crazy-ass theory she has that no one cares.

Tamping my anger down, I cup her breast and warn her with a squeeze.

Her eyelids dip.

Fuck, that small reaction is almost too much, what with my hard cock and my heated blood from all of this arguing.

Fighting to keep focused on the issue at hand, I reply, “My opinion’s the only one that matters right now.”

I push a knee between her thighs and press into her so she can feel the ten hard inches I have packed for her. “There will be rules for you to follow, and by God you will follow them.”

“And if I don’t?” she taunts me, glaring up at me with defiance.

Quickly, I drag her skirt up, yank her panties down, and give her ass a sharp slap.

“Ow!”

Ignoring her protest, I spin her around, flattening her against the car. I ache to give her a series of swift, painful smacks. God knows, she deserves a good spanking.

I’ve watched Star for years. I’ve seen how she leans into the attention I give her, even negative attention.

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