Trying to shake off the thought of the man who had just stolen a piece of her, she turned back to Lucca, trying to pull herself together. “Yes, sorry. Um, you wanted to see me?”

Lucca stared at her for a moment, the amused look on his face never wavering. “I did?”

“Yes …?” Adalyn stared back at him in confusion. “You asked me yesterday to come by your office at noon.”

“Must have slipped my mind,” he said simply as he leaned back in his chair. “I’m taking Chloe out to lunch in thirty minutes, and I have some work to get done before then, so if you don’t mind.”

Her mouth dropped open, and her brows furrowed, even more confused as she started to head out the door.

“Have a good day, Adalyn.” The smile in his voice gave her a bit of a chill.

“Y-you, too.”

Walking away from the strange encounter, she wasn’t exactly sure what had just happened. What the heck?

She began her journey back the way she had come, heading toward the elevator. Why did he want me here in the first place if he was just going to shoo me awa—

“Ahh—”

A light scream had started to escape her throat, but it was quickly interrupted by a firm palm covering her mouth while she was pulled into a dimly-lit cleaning closet.

Adalyn looked up at her captor, who was pushing her against the door she had been swiftly pulled through. Staring at the angel before her who held her body spellbound, she could see this was no angel of the light; this angel was of the dark, and his eyes held a promise of wickedness unlike any she had seen before.

“You’re not going to scream, are you?” he asked coolly, already removing the tatted hand from her mouth, which indicated his words weren’t really a question but an observation.

“How did you know I wouldn’t?” Her brow rose. Any other girl he would have pulled into this closet would have in a second.

Angel’s dark eyes traveled over her face. “Because you’re not scared.”

It was true; she wasn’t.

She was unable to keep her eyes off the fascinating man. “And how do you know that?”

A smile started to upturn one side of his lips. “You came into Lucca Caruso’s office, skipping and smiling, so you’re either really fucking stupid or you don’t scare easily.” With the hand holding her wrist, he began traveling slowly up her arm. “Let’s find out, shall we?”

Adalyn stood dangerously still, wondering what he was going to do, until he stopped his hand over her throat, his thumb catching her pulse.

“Strong … and steady.”

It was hard for her not to melt into his light grip. Bad boys were her weakness, and fuck if he didn’t seem like the pinnacle of one.

Trying to stay collected being this close to him, she licked her dry lips. “Well, you must not scare easily either, considering you stole from him.”

The slight smile on his face seemed to vanish. “I took something that didn’t belong to him.”

“Does the ring belong to you?”

He reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out the gold ring that bore a horseshoe surrounded by diamonds. He stared at it for only a moment before placing it back in his pocket, returning his attention to her. “No, it belongs to a friend.” His voice cold and sharp, it was more than obvious he didn’t care much for talking.

“Okay, then.”

“So, you won’t tell?”

“I meant I believe that it actually belongs to your friend”—a smile now came to her lips—“not that I wouldn’t tell Lucca.”

Maybe I shouldn—

She saw the lightness behind his dark eyes flash as he used the hand on her throat to force her to look up at him even more. At the same time, he moved his face and body ever so close to her, until there was hardly any space left between them. Then he dropped his voice to a dangerously low tone.

“I don’t think you see that I’m the one with the upper hand in this situation, sweetness.”

Now her heart raced, and she knew very well he could feel it under his grip, but it wasn’t from fear. No, it was from what he was doing to her uncontrollable body. It was putty in his hands, and if she didn’t get out of here and far away from him soon, the bad boy would find out exactly what kind of upper hand he had with her.

“You’re not going to hurt me,” she told him with just as much certainty as he had told her she wasn’t going to scream the second he pulled his hand away.

Something in him changed again, bringing the half-hearted smile back to one side of his lips. He brought the hand that wasn’t over her throat up to her face, running his long, cold, tatted fingers down the side of her cheek to gradually sweep her thick brown hair behind her left ear. He kept pushing until the locks fell behind her left shoulder, exposing her tanned skin. When he then began to lean down, she would have sworn he was going to kiss her exposed shoulder. Instead, he stopped and turned his mouth to her ear, getting so close that, when he spoke, his scruffy beard tickled it. “You sure about that?”

Adalyn bit her lip, trying to fight the warmth that was rising in her belly. She really, really needed to get away before she did something she would soon regret … Most likely regret.

“You hurt me, and you’re dead. Considering you’re not a Caruso, you’re in enemy territory. You’ll be in much bigger trouble hurting one of their women than if you were simply stealing a ring.”

Angel backed up only an inch, telling her he knew she was right.

She turned her head slowly, wanting to look into his dark depths once more before she had to leave.

“Don’t worry; I’ll keep your secret. But you’ll owe me.”

He spanned his hand along her throat, stretching her neck up farther. “Sweetness, I’m the last person you’d want owing you.”

She could hear the hint of a threat in his tone, but it didn’t stop her. Too enticed by the angel, she whispered, “Something tells me I do.”

“I was wrong about you.” Letting his eyes travel all over her, he finally dropped his hand from her throat as he took a step back. “You are stupid.”

She guessed a part of her should have been hurt by those words, but she couldn’t deny the fact that she must have been stupid for not screaming when he had removed his cold hand from her mouth.

When she twisted the doorknob and cracked the door open, the light from the hallway began to illuminate the shadowy man, causing a dim halo to outline his body. She couldn’t help smiling as she stepped out and started closing it, causing the halo surrounding him to slowly disappear.

“Probably, but I wasn’t the one stupid enough to steal from a Caruso.”