The cool air from the AC against our sun-heated skin made me hiss, shivering as goosebumps covered my arms. My nipples hardened in response to the coolness of the air. Paisley’s phone was ringing, so she stopped in the kitchen to answer it.
By the sound of her voice, I knew it was her long time on again off-again boyfriend, Adam. Last I checked they were off, but from the sounds of it they were about to try again. I wish she’d quit the asshole, but there was no telling her that. I tried, and she didn’t talk to me for a week afterward. She was stubborn, so I was just going to wait until she was ready to listen and leave the douche behind.
I was in the foyer when I came face to face with Mr. Growl. He gave me a disapproving glance before setting another box down on the floor. I moved to grab it since I was going upstairs anyway, but he stopped me.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking my box upstairs?” I questioned, bending again to try to pick up the box he’d just brought in. I swear I thought I heard him groan.
“Leave it. I’ll get them up the stairs after I have them all in the house.”
“It’s ok. I need this one when I go up there.” I moved to pick it up, but he pushed my hands away. “I can get it,” I told him.
“No,” he grunted, picking the box up like it was nothing, “Which room is yours?”
“The one next to the master.” I watched as he walked up the stairs. His firm, tight ass was cupped by his straight-legged jeans. God, he really was beautiful. His dark hair and brooding eyes were sinful. I even liked how he was standoffish. It made him an alluring puzzle that I wanted to figure out and solve. Gabriel Maddox was too tempting for my own good.
Chapter Four
Lexi was written on the side of the boxes in thick, black marker. My girl’s name is Lexi. ‘Dammit,’ I mentally kicked myself. I didn’t need to think of her as my girl. She wasn’t mine, and she never could be. Relationships aren’t an option for someone like me.
When I had an itch that needed to be scratched, I paid for a club that would satisfy those needs and hold me over until the need to scratch that itch rose again.
Club Deviance was perfect for someone like me. No commitments other than the membership fee every year. It was an old colonial home on the outskirts of town that Damian Savage bought and restored a few years ago. Now, the old home hid a kink club in plain sight. If you didn’t know it was there, you’d never think it was anything but a family home.
Word of mouth is the only way to know what really goes on there. He brought a few people in that he knew went to the bigger cities to play with their fetishes. Now, three years later, he had people from the city escaping to play at Club Deviance. When I went, I looked for a single sub that lived out of town. If there wasn’t one, I didn’t play.
Thinking about the club made me think about having Lexi cuffed and bound to a table or a bed. God, my dick swelled with the thought of seeing her body stretched out and on display for me. I hadn’t fantasized about a woman since I got my first boner, and all it took was seeing Lexi to send all the blood rushing to my little head.
I looked up from the box to see her perfect ass cloaked in black, barely there fabric. The bikini left little to the imagination, but I wanted to see more of her. Hell, I wanted to see all of her, in every fucking way possible. She’d look beautiful with her lips wrapped around my dick as her dark eyes looked up at me begging me to fuck her. She’d look even better with her hands bound behind her back in leather cuffs, her ass in the air, pinkened by the stroke of my crop.
By the time I got to the top of the stairs and took the box toward her room, I knew there was no way I’d be able to step inside without seeing if the electricity I felt pulsing between us was one-sided. I was hyper aware of her every movement.
“How long have you known Paisley?” I asked, finally taking my mind away from the fantasies of seeing her bent to my will.
“We’ve gone to school together since elementary, but we didn’t really become friends until middle school.”
“Why?” I set her box down by her door not trusting myself to go inside and be anywhere near a bed with her.
“You ask a lot of questions.”
I gave her a small smirk and leaned my shoulder against the wall, “I’m a cop, Darlin’, it comes with the territory.”
“My dad was a cop, too. He was killed on the job when I was nine years old. Then, I was taken from my public school and put into a private school. My whole world had changed in the blink of an eye. I was angry and not interested in making friends, that’s why we weren’t friends until middle school, and why I will never date a man with a dangerous job.”
Lexi bent down and picked up the box, then carried it into her room, shutting the door in my face. She left me speechless and feeling like a piece of shit. Maybe I shouldn’t have pushed so hard for answers, but I wanted—needed to know more about her. Something about her called to me in a way no woman had before. I had no idea how to handle this attraction I had for her.
I went back downstairs and continued to unload the cars. The heat and the physical activity of the job kept me busy as my thoughts drifted back to the beautiful brunette creeping under my skin.
In one conversation, I discovered something about Lexi that changed everything. She would never have me as long as I came with a gun and a badge. Not only that, but it was obvious she needed a commitment, something I wasn’t interested in. We were all kinds of wrong for each other, but that didn’t make me want her any less.
I had to keep my distance from this girl, even if that meant me moving from the Monroe property that I’d called home for the last four years.
Chapter Five
My heart was pounding when I slammed the door shut. Gabriel Maddox was dangerous in more ways than one. He was whipcord lean with just the right amount of muscles to make my mouth water.
He was cocky and confident, and his eyes darkened with interest when he looked at me. It was like he was trying to get a read on me, and it took my breath away. When we were walking up the stairs, I could feel his gaze on me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I suppressed the shiver that ran down my spine.