Me.
I hold my breath as I stare down at him, but it’s like there’s a magnetic pull connecting us because his head tips up and his eyes come up to meet mine, piercing me with their intensity despite the distance between us.
He swears under his breath before calling up to me, “What the fuck are you doing up there? You could break your goddamned neck.”
I roll my eyes at him. I’ve been climbing trees almost since I could walk. I’ll be fine. I don’t tell him that, though. Instead I simply call down to him smugly, “You do realize you’re trespassing on our land?”
His face breaks into a wolfish smile as he shakes his head. “I have your father’s permission to be here, little jailbird.”
I scowl down at him, pissed that I don’t finally have something to lord over his head like he does me.
He just throws his head back and laughs. “Come down here, Daisy, and let’s talk.”
I settle my back against the tree trunk and smile down at him saucily. “I’m just fine where I am, thanks.”
He shakes his head and curses again. Good. Hopefully, I’ll piss him off enough he’ll go away.
My eyes widen in consternation when he comes over to the tree and swings himself up on the first branch, hauling his big body up in a fluid movement.
“What the hell are you doing?” I ask him as he climbs resolutely up to where I am.
Damn it. I’d thought I was safe from him up here, but I’ve actually effectively treed myself. I have nowhere to run to get away from him. In my defense, I hand’t counted on a city boy like him being able to climb a tree.
He doesn’t answer me until he’s standing on the branch right below me. The height of it puts his face level with mine, and I can’t even lean back to escape his proximity without risking falling from the tree.
“You’re the most infuriating woman I’ve ever met,” he tells me, his breath fanning over my lips.
“So you’ve said,” I snap back. “So why bother?”
His golden eyes rove over my face before they settle back on my lips. “Fuck if I know,” he growls before he wraps a hand around my back and holds me still as his lips crash onto mine.
I cling to him as he devours me, partly because I can’t help melting into his possessive kisses and partly because I don’t want to topple out of the tree.
“Come down,” he orders me when he finally pulls back just enough to allow me room to breathe.
I nod my agreement and then follow him as he climbs back down the tree. I have to come down sometime anyway, right?
My feet don’t even get to touch the ground. He’s waiting for me at the bottom of the tree, and as soon as I start to swing myself down from the last branch, he puts his shoulder into my stomach and flings me over his shoulder.
“Nick!” I scream, beating my hands on his back. It’s no use, though. His back is like a hard slab of marble, and he doesn’t even flinch under the assault. “Put me the fuck down!”
“Don’t curse,” he reprimands me, and that only serves to piss me off even more.
“Fuck! Shit! Fuck! Shit!” I scream, kicking my legs as he stalks resolutely through the woods, never slowing his stride.
Suddenly, I feel a hard swat as his palm connects with my ass. It stings even through my jean shorts.
I gasp, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I’m outraged and start to wiggle even more. “Put. Me. Down!”
“That’s another one,” he grunts, his hand coming down to smack my ass again, causing another sting to spread across my cheek. “One for each time you’ve cursed,” he says, his hand coming down on my ass three more times.
I can’t believe he’s spanking me. It’s fucking humiliating.
I’m seething.
“You going to watch that pretty mouth of yours? I guaran-fucking-tee I have a better way to fill it with filth if that’s what you’re determined to do,” he comments dryly.
He finally stops walking and pulls me from his shoulder, sliding me down his front as he does so until my feet touch the ground. He doesn’t release his hands from where he holds my hips against him, and I can feel his arousal through his pants.