The look on his face seemed to say that he wanted nothing more than to shake her, but he didn’t. His fingers bit into the flesh of her upper arms, and his brows came down in a thunderous scowl of rage that was not scaring her. Hell no, the dude did not scare her. If she could just remember to breathe, then maybe she could convince herself of that truth.
He looked down at her, his height and breadth dominating her where she stood, as a small buzzing in the back of her brain told her that it probably wasn’t wise to take on a guy who was at least a foot taller and probably outweighed her by a hundred pounds of pure muscle. And that was without considering the pissed off river of testosterone that seemed to be flowing through his bloodstream at the moment.
Her eyes stayed glued to his, and as he moved several inches closer, her chin lifted and her neck arched at an uncomfortable angle so she could keep him in her sights as he loomed closer. All the while her heart was beating so rapidly that her head was spinning, and she was sucking in oxygen so quickly that she was beginning to hyperventilate.
“The goddamn stairwell, Maria?” he questioned in a yell, biting the words out.
“What . . . what?” she asked, confusion setting in.
Lines of ice-cold fury bracketed his mouth. “Do you not have a clue? Do you not have a single working brain cell in that head of yours?”
She jerked her head back, not caring for that question one damn bit. She felt her blood pressure rise as her eyes narrowed, a returning anger filling her bloodstream. Fuck him. Fuck his arrogance. “Watch it, Mr. Rule. You’re beginning to piss me off.”
He leaned into her another intimidating inch. “Piss. You. Off?”
“I promise, you don’t want to piss me off,” she challenged, ignoring the warning bells in her head.
A yellow spiral of heat began blending with the brown of his irises, surrounding the growing black circle of his pupils, telling of his anger. “Yeah? We’ll get back to that shit in a minute,” he stated, as if her own anger was no more irritating than a fly buzzing around. “Why the fuck would you take the stairway?”
“Why . . . why shouldn’t I?”
He rolled his eyes heavenward and then looked back down. “Do you not give a shit about your own safety?”
“You think I’m going to trip and fall?” she asked sarcastically, beginning to get a glimmer as to where he was really going with this.
“Smart-ass,” he hissed through gritted teeth. “You’re going to get assaulted, that’s what I think.”
“You think it’s dangerous in here?” she snapped, seeing no threat except for the one standing in front of her.
One brawny hand released her arm and moved unerringly, forcibly, to the hem of her dress. “I don’t know, what do you think?”
Chapter Five
Without so much as a pause, Garrett pushed the skirt of her dress up, out of his way, the palm of his hand seizing her mound, covered only by a triangle of silk fabric. She sucked in a startled breath as an arrow of heat shot through her, immobilizing her. He squeezed threateningly as he stared down at her, the lines of his face showing both scalding anger and a growing, imposing arousal.
Lights and whistles began going off in her head. Shit, shit, shit. This wasn’t good. Even now, she could feel her body begin to release a wet heat. Damn, he’d feel it through her panties any second now. Four, three, two, one—
The expression on his face transformed as fire exploded in his eyes. “Son-of-a-bitch, Maria.” Lightning fast, he pushed the crotch of her panties aside and his finger landed on her clit. He began rubbing, massaging her, and shock at the sudden situation held her momentarily in place. Although aroused, his anger was still there. “What if it had been someone else? Someone who wanted to hurt you?”
Despite her growing arousal, because of her growing arousal, Maria made a grab for his wrist to try to stop him as she struggled for words. “It’s completely safe. Only employees and guests—”
He didn’t release her. “Bullshit, it’s not safe. I get that you trust the employees here. But goddammit, you’d have no fucking clue if a psycho checked in. Anybody could follow you in here, overpower you, hurt you. You’re going to quit taking the stairs, understand me? You want to take the fucking stairs, you take the open staircase in the lobby, not this back stairwell, you got me?”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” she spat out, meeting his gaze straight on.
“I’m sorry, what?” The impatient words ripped from his throat. “What the fuck just came out of your mouth?”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do!” she plunged on defiantly.