I slip my hands into my pockets and lean against the wall. Defiantly, I look at him and say nothing.
Fury simmers in his eyes. I don’t break my stare. Not even bat a lash.
Quirking my lips into a cold smirk, I run my gaze over him as well.
His pecs are hard and carved beneath his T-shirt.
I take in his shoulders and the hard lines of his torso before dipping my gaze to his tapered waist and tight hips.
The way his jeans hug him below the waist makes my breath hitch. He has those teasingly tilted hips that come with a hard backside, muscular thighs, a perfectly sized package, and a circling, thrusting motion in the bedroom that leaves you breathless.
“Do you hear me?” he barks again, disconcerted by my silence.
A fresh scent lifts off his skin. I almost want to sniff him, but the two rational brain cells I still have left warn me to drop it.
The soft light of a lamppost brings his face into focus.
I silently gasp.
He’s even more striking than I thought. He has a beautifully drawn face with high cheekbones, an angled jawline, and well-defined lips.
His eyebrows––now pinched into a furrowed line––make his eyes remarkably expressive, their color hard to guess under the pale light.
His hair is long enough to run my fingers through it.
“There’s nothing you can do about it...” I toss back at him. “I give money to whoever the hell I want,” I deadpan, flashing an icy smile at him.
He digs into his pocket, pulls out a wad of cash, and hands it to me.
My hands curl up into fists before diving deep into my pockets.
“I don’t need your money,” I say.
“I don’t need yours, either.”
He tugs at my arm.
“Don’t you dare to touch me,” I bark, baring my teeth at him.
Furious, he slaps his hands against the wall on either side of me. Boxing me in, he leans to me, his lips inches from mine.
“You shouldn’t have given me money if you didn’t want me to touch you,” he growls against my temple.
Without another word, he pulls my zipper down, opens my jacket, and slips the cash into my pocket.
While stashing it inside, he grazes my breasts with his fingers, and I sense a rush between my legs.
Baffled, I flick my gaze to his face.
This has never happened to me before.
I’ve never had this kind of reaction to a man, especially in this sort of circumstance. It should make me happy.
Instead, it saddens me.
I flick my head to the side to conceal my eyes when he clasps my chin and turns my face to him.
His eyebrows tilt up in surprise as he glimpses my expression. The moments tick by, and none of us is keen to speak. He searches my eyes for a few more seconds before finally breaking the silence.