Rule's Addiction(12)

“It was a rhetorical question. I don’t care for the attitude, Maria. You need to lose it, pronto. Capisce?”

Maria firmed her lips. Keep your mouth closed. Just keep your damn mouth closed, Maria. Absolutely nothing good can come from arguing with him. He’ll be gone soon and then you’ll have the job you’ve always wanted and you’ll never have to deal with him . . . at least, not very often. As his hand gripped tighter, then loosened, and then pulsed tighter again, she took one stabilizing breath and then another. When that didn’t calm her down, she counted to ten and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she found him watching her with a merciless expression that was colored with retribution.

Every muscle in her body tightened, and when she remained silent, refusing to give him an answer, his features turned menacing. She could almost feel his inexorable control slipping; the primal attributes that made him so much a man had never been quite so obvious as they were now, as he held her in an uncompromising grasp not six inches away from his torso. Oh, yeah. He was a man like no other, there was no getting away from that fact. She could lie to herself all she wanted, but Garrett Rule was pure unadulterated male, through and through.

Their eyes stayed connected; his intense gaze narrowed and the pagan, dominant personality he usually took pains to keep hidden rose to the fore. Her breath snagged in her lungs. He was dangerous. She’d known that from the moment she’d met him, hell, from the very first phone conversation she’d had with him.

Now, as a wave of anger seemed to grip him, he leaned down until his mouth was at her ear and he demanded an answer. “Do you understand me, Maria? Are you screwing with me? You’ve never been careless enough to fuck with me before. I’m warning you, now wouldn’t be a good time to start.”

Maria attempted to give him a benign agreement as she struggled for control, but she lost it.

Challenge accepted, douchebag.

Using all the strength at her disposal, she pulled back from him and glared, not even trying to hide her truculent expression. At the warning that smoldered in his eyes, her stomach flipped wildly, but she had a point to prove.

She was about to knock the son-of-a-bitch on his ass; she’d teach him to try to intimidate her.

He thought he could subdue her with his hard-core masculinity? Just wait…. how would the motherfucker react when faced with her undisguised femininity? She took a cleansing breath and then purposely softened her features, making her eyes turn liquid. Tilting her head to the side, she let her hair swing forward. She’d caught him staring at her hair more times than she could count and now she put the thick tresses to good use. Holding his stare from under her lashes, she dampened her bottom lip and then caught it between her teeth. Not overtly. Not innocently. Just perfectly.

An instantaneous, ferocious look crossed his features while his jaw clenched at her actions.

She held every bit of his attention and she used it to her advantage. Dropping her gaze to his mouth, she held it there for the count of two seconds before letting it slide down to the bulge in his pants. Not expecting that and yet refusing to blush, she lifted her face and let her eyes clash with his before dropping her bombshell in a falsely soothing voice that was barely more than a whisper. “I promise, Mr. Rule, I wouldn’t dare fuck with you. And if I ever did, I assure you, you’d know it.”

Her words seemed to hit him full force, holding him momentarily transfixed, and taking the opportunity it gained her, Maria ignored the whirling in her head and brushed past him, walking into his office.

Taking a quick look around, she spied the missing file folder under a slew of documents not far from where she’d originally left it. Not knowing who’d moved it and at the moment not caring, she dug it out from the bottom of the pile and slipped it under the paperweight.

Without deigning to look at her boss again, who’d evidently shaken off his stupor and had followed her into his domain, she walked past him and out of his office, shutting the door with a snap.











The back of Garrett’s head hit the closed door.

His blood was pumping furiously, his goddamn cock was as hard as a rock.

That had been Too. Fucking. Close.

He’d touched her and she’d retaliated, using her feminine wiles on him for the first time since he’d actually met her. And fuck, she’d hit her mark. That look in her eyes. The softness of her voice. Son-of-a-bitch. It had been bad before, but now . . . shit, this was going to come back to haunt him. Every. Fucking. Night.

How could he have been such a dumbfuck? He couldn’t believe he’d actually touched her.