♫ Bodies - Drowning Pool ♫
Took me two days after the Great Whiskey Flood of 2017 to quell my anger enough to finally react. Had I taken action on Monday morning after walking into the distillery, things would’ve ended badly for anyone who stood in my path.
Lux especially.
It had nothing to do with the whiskey, by the way. That I couldn’t care less about. The whiskey business was all Vic, though he didn’t seem too bothered by the loss, if I’m being completely honest. He was more concerned about Liza resurfacing, and while I was, too, I was far more preoccupied by the fact Lux seemed to have pinned me for a fool.
My thoughtful silence obviously gave her the wrong impression. While I was contemplating the next best attack, something that would top my last charade, here she was, laughing at me, pissing all over me, asserting her dominance.
Trying and failing to prove her goddamn point.
And she was about to find out just how wrong she was.
“Can I help you, sir?” asked this elfin blonde at the tidy Victorian desk I’d seen all those nights ago.
“I’m here to see, Miss Mercier,” I answered, in the smoothest voice I could manage.
“And your name is?”
Grinning, I shoved my hands into my slack pockets. “Just tell her it’s an old friend.”
“Okay…” She eyed me keenly, but went on to dial Lux’s extension without further questioning. “L, you have a visitor… Mhmm... An old friend? Are you sure? O-okay…”
Setting her phone back in place, the small woman rose onto her feet and waved a polished hand toward the doors. “She was just leaving, so you’ll have to make it quick, but go right through those doors.”
“Thank you, love.” I tipped my head at her graciously and strolled to the doors with leisure strides as directed.
Curling my hands around the cool handles brought back the same rush it did the first time around, only this time it was amplified in tenfold. I could already smell her, could just imagine her pretty face as I stormed in on her much in the same way she’d barreled in on me.
My grin widened.
Showtime.
“Knock, knock,” I sang cheerfully as I threw open the doors without care.
They slammed against the walls with a loud bang, snapping Lux’s head up toward me immediately, baby blues widening in genuine surprise.
Clearly, she hadn’t thought an old friend could be me.
Score one for the King.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” she barked, shooting onto her feet.
Almost instantly, I felt the shift in the air around us.
Intoxicating us.
Suffocating us.
My entire body buzzed like a live wire. I couldn’t help myself from devouring her whole with a singular sweep of my eyes. They slid over her subtly curved form, mentally removing the strapless mauve dress clinging to her figure along the way.
She was fucking stunning, and I was itching to get closer, for multiple reasons.
“Oh, nothing… Just paying you a little visit.” I smirked, shutting the doors behind myself.
One of her perfectly arched brows shot up curiously. “Is that so?”
“Indeed,” I conceded, starting toward her with purpose. “You see, it appears my business was vandalized a couple of days back, now I’m simply doing my due diligence.”
“And that would be?”
“Crossing you off my list as a possible suspect.”
“A whole list, huh?” she asked on a chuckle, crossing her arms.
“It’s not very long, but nonetheless, it is a list that needs to be addressed, and you’re at the very top, pigeon. Not that I’m implying it was you or anything, but you—”
“Cut the shit, Roman. You know damn well it was me.”
The snarl in her tone left me hanging onto my words.
Well, shit.
Had she really just admitted that?
Cocking my head to one side, I stilled mere feet away from her.
“So you’re saying it was you?” I questioned, the black hole in my chest kick-starting into overdrive when she started toward me.
“That’s what I just said, is it not?” she purred, dragging an ebony claw along my chest as she sauntered around me. “How’s the distillery doing by the way? Still flooded? Bet it reeks to high Heaven in there.”
Burning.
I was burning with anger, frustration—lust.
Denial, too.
This woman made me crazy in a ways that made no sense whatsoever. The hold she had over me made no sense whatsoever. I hated her, or at least, I did. Tormenting her, bringing her pain and hardship, brought me great pleasure. But in the same hand, that hate somehow bled into something else, something I didn’t want to feel for her.
I didn’t want to want Lux, yet here we are, the force between us unstoppable.
Relentless.
Inevitable.
Consuming.
“You’re much too close for your own good, love. I suggest you back up,” I warned her, breathing through each wave of temptation that rattled through me.
“All bark, no bite, Mr. King,” she cooed in my ear, her body pressed flush to my back. “You don’t scare me.”
I was about to respond, to follow that up with a ‘you should be,’ until I heard the safety click of a pistol on my right. Then she pressed the cool tip to my temple, chucking quietly as I righted myself all the more.
“Weren’t expecting that, huh?”
“Drop it,” I gritted out, pulse roaring in my ears.
“Or what?” she challenged.
“Or this won’t fare well for you.”
Lux choked out a laugh, adding more pressure to her weapon. “Somehow, I doubt that.”
“Last chance, Lux. Drop it,” I warned again, breaths ragged and unsteady.
“Go on, Roman. Do your worst,” she hedged, mimicking my exact words from that night in my office.
One…
Two…
Three…
I tried taking deep breaths, eyes squeezed shut in attempt to block her out, but the heat radiating off her body was impossible to ignore. That primal need within me, the one that drew me to her despite every red flag set raised before me, was raging like a storm.
I wanted her.
Wanted to wreck her.
Possess her.
Fuck her.
Own her.
Christ, I was so screwed if these were the directions my mind was going to so early on. They were dangerous, dangerous thoughts, thoughts that had the ability to wreck us in one simple implosion.
How was it even possible this woman could make me feel so insane?
More over, the better question was, did she feel this way, too?
I was so sure of it the other night, so damn sure, but here in this moment, she didn’t seem as fazed by my presence anymore.
And I didn’t like that.
Needed to change that.
With lithe speed, I ducked and swiveled around, body slamming her into the nearest wall. The force of my strike dislodged the weapon from her hand, dropping it right in my grasp.
I grinned, and struck again.
Digging the tip of her pistol deep under her chin, I pressed myself impossibly closer, watching in complete fascination as she gasped for air like a fish out of water.
That stare of hers, though…it didn’t waver, lethal blues biting into me as she tried clawing herself free.
My grin widened.
There it is.
“What’s wrong, pigeon? Did you really think the big, bad wolf doesn’t bite?” I hissed, relishing the feel of being this close to her.
She fit perfectly against me.
“Stop calling me that,” she choked out, and then with a growl I wasn’t expecting, she kneed me almost right in the nuts, whacking her palm straight across my cheek.
She struck me so hard, the bloody gun went flying out from my grasp, clattering to the floor several feet away as I folded over just slightly. The entire left side of my face burned from her assault.
Little bitch had good aim.
Chuckling, I snapped my jaw back in place and swiftly trapped her throat in my hand, touching my forehead to hers as I forced her further into the wall. “That’s fine, pigeon,” I snarled again, placing emphasis on her favorite word. “Hate me all you want. I can assure you the feeling is fucking mutual.”
“Fantastic, so get the fuck out of here already,” she tossed back, chest heaving.
“Not a chance in hell, especially now. You wanna play? Let’s play, love. I guarantee you’ll lose,” I murmured, dropping my stare to her lips.
They looked so soft, so damned plump and delicious. I wanted to suck them between my teeth and lick into her mouth…
“I’m fast, King,” she growled, distracting me from my wayward thoughts.
“And I’m faster,” I countered.
“I’d never guess considering I had to provoke you a second time to get you moving.”
“Because you have no patience. Trust me, I was coming for you, sweetheart,” I advised softly, bringing my lips impossibly closer. They were so close, I could almost taste her. “You just never gave me the chance.”
Lux swallowed, the action defined by the prominent bobbing of her throat, and yet still, she held her head high, as if she weren’t at all affected by our proximity.
“Don’t think, Roman. Just do,” she grated softly. “Like I said, do your worst. Balls in your court. That, or you can leave, and you’ll never have to worry about me again.”
“I told you, I’m not going anywhere,” I reminded her.
“Then make a move and don’t keep me waiting. The faster I can wear you down and knock you out, the better.”
“You have no idea what you’re asking for,” I growled in warning, because it was the absolute truth.
She wanted me to do my worst?
Then the worst she shall have.