Taming the Storm

Liar.

I didn’t want you to have sex with her because the thought of it makes me feel sick.

Blinking, I look up at him.

The look on his face. He’s pissed off, sure, but he looks…hurt.

I can see it there in the depths of his eyes.

And I feel like the bitch I am.

It’s too hard to look at him and say what I’m about to say, so I stare over his shoulder to the glowing lights of the bar behind him. “Look it was a real shitty thing to do…and I’m sorry, all right?”

His face is blank, but his eyes are saying a hell of a lot right now. None of it is good.

“How much?” His tone is brittle.

“What?” I look at him.

His eyes cut to mine. “How much fucking money did you bet Sonny?”

I swallow what feels like gravel. “Does it matter?”

“How. Much?”

“A hundred dollars.” I’m trembling on the inside.

Tom’s eyes widen, and he lets out an incredulous laugh. “A hundred dollars. That’s all I’m worth?” He thrusts his hands through his hair before linking them behind his neck. “Jesus Christ!” His gaze rips through me. “Nice, Lyla. Real fucking nice.”

“Look, I said I’m sorry.” I frown.

He drops his arms and folds them over his chest. “Did Sonny pay up?”

I know I’m stepping into something I really don’t want, but I have no other choice. “Yes.”

In one swift move, he pulls off his beer-soaked T-shirt, exposing that smooth expanse of total awesomeness. He shoves the shirt in the back pocket of his jeans, and then he’s moving. In a few steps, he’s on me, right up close. His chest is in my face. He’s everywhere, consuming me. I can’t breathe. I have to practically nail my feet to the ground to keep me from moving.

I tilt my head back to look up at him just as he leans down into my face.

He smells of beer. But mostly Tom. Everything that makes my toes curl.

“Okay, this is how it’s gonna go. You’re gonna go back to that bar. You’re gonna hand Sonny two hundred dollars—his own hundred back and the hundred for the bet you lost.”

My brows draw together. “I didn’t lose—”

“No, but you’re going to in about five minutes. Lucky for me, the blonde wasn’t put off by your little show in there. She’s coming here, and I’m taking her up onto the bus and into your bedroom where I’m gonna spend all night fucking her brains out while you sit outside, one hundred dollars lighter, listening to the kind of sex a frigid bitch like you could only dream of having.”

If he’d shot me, I don’t think it would have hurt as much.

Tears sting my eyes. “Fuck you!” I yell, shoving him away. I turn and start to run toward the bus.

I just want to get away from him and to rid myself of this goddamn pain in my chest.

I almost make it to the bus, but Tom catches me and shoves me hard up against the side of the bus. My breath leaves me in a whoosh.

“That’s what you want, isn’t it?” He presses his body onto mine.

My body starts to tremble.

“Me to fuck you. You were jealous, Firecracker. Admit it. That’s why you pulled your little stunt back there.”

I let out a laugh, but it sounds hollow, even to my own ears. “Jealous? You wish! I wouldn’t want you if you were the last man on Earth!” I’m saying this, but it’s clearly not true.

And he knows it.

If he can’t tell from the trembling of my body or my quick breaths or the fact that my eyes are glued to his lips, then all he would need to do is put his hand on my panties, and the damp evidence would be there for his confirmation.

“Yeah, well, the feeling is one hundred fucking percent mutual, sweetheart.”

He’s saying this, but I can tell from his quick breaths, the dilation of his pupils, and the fact that he’s dragging his teeth over his lower lip that he’s lying. And even if there weren’t all those signs, then his huge erection, which is currently pressed into my belly, would have told me all I needed to know.

“I think you’re a disgusting man slut,” I hiss, smoothing my hand up his bare chest.

His body shudders under my touch.

God, he feels so damn good.

Tom’s hand runs up my arm, skimming the edge of my breast. His fingers slide into my hair, and he pulls it down, tilting my face up to his. “And like I said, I think you’re a frigid bitch.”

I glare into his eyes. “I fucking hate you,” I seethe. But my voice sounds really breathless. Sexy breathless. I don’t sound like me at all.

He moves his mouth closer to mine. “Yeah, and that feeling is more than mutual.”

We’re locked together. Chests heaving. Neurons of sexual chemistry firing between us like bullets.

And I know all it’s going to take is one more move from either of us and we’ll be kissing.

Is that what I want?

I lick my lower lip.

The last thing I register is Tom growling out, “Fuck!”

Then, his mouth is on mine, hard and fast.

On a groan, I open up for him. His hot tongue plunges straight into my mouth, and he starts kissing me like a man starved. My hands go straight to his hair, and I attack his mouth with the same ferocity.

Tom’s large hands go to my ass, and he lifts me. I wrap my legs around his waist, linking them at the ankles.

In this position, his erection is now nicely pressed up against the seam of my jeans, sending my whole body into a frenzy.