Slow Burn(91)

    “No,” I said. “Because I love you. Are you stealing this car?”

    “I’ve already stolen this car. Days ago.” The engine roared to life. He put it in reverse. The tires squealed as he pulled out of his parking spot.

    I buckled my seatbelt, cringing.

    Griffin drove one handed and way too fast. “Let me know if you want out.”

    “You’re just doing it to scare me,” I said.

    “Maybe it’s like this,” he said, settling back in his seat. He grinned at me. “I’ll play armchair psychologist.”

    “Watch the road,” I said.

    We soared through a yellow light just as it changed to red. “Obviously, you have daddy issues. He never loved you, so you sought the attention of all kinds of boys, but you were so much of a slut that none of them wanted you.”

    “Griffin, please don’t call me names.”

    He screeched to a stop at the next light. “Funny how you fell for the one guy on earth who can’t screw you. What do you think that’s about?” He turned to me, eyebrows raised.

    I swallowed. “Just because you haven’t doesn’t mean that you can’t.”

    The light turned green. We rushed forward, pushing me back in my seat. I clutched the arm rest.

“Anyway, at this point, you’re so messed up in the head over guys that you can’t tell who’s good for you and who isn’t. You’d take anyone, as long as he made you feel important, the way daddy never did. And that’s why you’re staying with me now, when it’s painfully obvious that I’m falling apart here.”

    “I thought I was falling apart,” I said.

    Abruptly, he turned the car into the parking lot of a hotel and careened into the parking lot. He squealed to a stop in one of the spaces and put the car in park. “Guess we’re both falling apart.”

    “Because you’re drinking and going to strip clubs?”

    He chuckled. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg, doll.” He leaned over me and unbuckled my seatbelt. “I’ve got a hotel room, and Knox is inside.”

    “You didn’t kill him?”

    He unzipped the hoodie, baring my skin. “I’m torturing him.” His hand closed over my breast. “I’m doing it for you.” His thumb ran over my nipple.

    A little jolt ran through me. I had to admit, I felt afraid.

    “He’s going to tell me everyone who knows that you got the serum. Once he does, then I can go find those people and kill them.” He looked into my eyes. “And then you’ll be safe. Like I promised.”

    He squeezed my breast. It hurt.

    “Griffin—”

    “What?” he said. “I thought you loved me. I thought you’d stay with me no matter what.”

    I bit my lip.

    He lowered his mouth to my nipple, and he was gentle. I closed my eyes, warmth and arousal washing over me.

    “If you stay,” he whispered into my flesh, “your body is for my eyes only.”

    “I wouldn’t—”

    But he was out of the car, slamming the door.

    I zipped up the hoodie and hurried after him. “Griffin, you can’t torture people. Not for me, not for anyone.”

    He laughed, swinging open the door to the hotel.

    I barely caught it before it closed. He was walking too fast, and my damned heels made it hard to keep up. I would have lost him, but he stopped at the elevator. I made it there just in time for the doors to open.

    We went inside, the doors closed. Griffin pressed a button for the third floor.

“Besides,” I said, “even if you killed every person that knows I have the serum, then Op Wraith would still know about you. I’d be safe, but you wouldn’t. We couldn’t be together.”

    He leaned up against the wall. I’d forgotten how good he was at leaning. “You sure you want to be anywhere near me?”

    I hesitated.

    “That’s what I thought.” The elevator doors opened. Griffin ambled out. He walked down the hallway, stopped in front of a door with a do-not-disturb sign, and went inside.