James barely managed to hide his shock as the men disappeared from sight. They stared at one another across the expanse of green until the sound of vehicles pulling away could be heard in the distance.
“I’m going for a walk.” Lita took off the gardening gloves covering her hands and tossed them onto the ground before reaching up to loosen her hair where it had been kept in a ponytail since they’d started working. It fell in messy waves around her shoulders and she pushed impatient fingers through the strands to tame it, but the movement had the opposite effect on his body. Her jean shorts slipped down onto slender hips, leaving a thin gap between her stomach and the denim. A place for his tongue. His hands. All the while, she glared at him. “Don’t follow me.”
James felt his blood go from simmer to boil, felt the weight of lust settle low in his abdomen, spreading down to his loins. His hands shook at his sides until he fisted them. Oblivious to the change taking place inside him, Lita turned on a booted heel and stomped toward the wooden area, those little strands of frayed denim taunting him as her ass worked side to side. His dick grew thick and ready for the spot between her legs. He fucking craved her. There was no reason among the chaos. Just knowledge that others had wanted Lita, regardless if she’d turned them down. They’d still looked and coveted. Now she was angry and he wanted that anger beneath him. Wanted to harness it, tame it, mate it with his own.
When she turned at the forest edge to flash her middle finger at him, James put his head down and moved. His strides covered ground quickly, but Lita clearly had other ideas. James was about ten feet away when she turned and ran full speed in the opposite direction.
His vision flickered.
Being pissed off and horny at the same time was a deadly combination.
Oh, Lita was fuming as she ran along the shaded dirt path. James thought she was so predictable, did he? Thought she was some walking cliché who needed to resort to jealousy to score points? Well, screw the hell out of that. They were way beyond petty jealousy at this point.
The way he’d looked at her like some wayward teenager, even after she’d come here to make things right burned. And it had come right on the heels of him so casually reminding her Old News would be continuing on without him. God, maybe this whole trip had been a waste of her time. He’d made up his decision and the longer she spent here, attempting to change his steel-trap mind, she became more of a fool.
“Lita.”
She ran faster, her footsteps falling in time with her scattered breathing. Her jagged heartbeat. Plans had gone out the window and now instinct ruled the day. He’d made her feel like the weakest version of herself and now she wanted to return the favor. Or…God, maybe this was a last-ditch effort to break through to him. She didn’t know anymore. Could only run away from the idea of living without him. Run away from the girl that had driven him away, the girl James believed her to be.
Tears obscured her vision but she pushed on, ducking off the path and sprinting across a forest floor of soft, brown earth and green, fallen leaves—
Lita’s progress came to an abrupt halt as her feet left the ground. An unyielding arm banded around her waist, yanking her backward into a chest that left no doubt her captor was James. She could smell his singular musk, she could…feel his excitement against her bottom. The evidence that her impulsive run had yielded that effect somehow incited her rage, while still managing to swamp her in arousal.
“Stop.” James rasped the agonized word into her neck but negated the command by thrusting his erection against her backside.
A part of Lita wanted to turn and soothe him, take away the misery she could hear in his voice. But she wouldn’t. If he was determined to send her home a failure, she’d prove a point first. This thing that had kept them apart so long, this facet of him that he didn’t think she could handle? She’d been game for it since day one.
“Stop what?” She tried to pull away, but James hauled her back. “I’m not running anymore. You won’t let me.”
His groan lifted goose bumps on every inch of her skin. “Lita, I’m in trouble here. Say the words.”
“Which ones? Fuck you?” She pulled her elbow forward and rammed it back into his stomach, satisfied when his vile curse burned her ear. It loosened his hold long enough for her to pull free and start running—only to be brought down to the forest floor, flat onto her stomach, James’s grip circling her right ankle.
Yes. Yes. Oh my God, yes. Hot, pulsing anticipation began to trip and skitter through Lita’s veins, racing below her belly button, bursting like fireworks. She clawed at the dirt in an attempt to get away, but being prevented, being pulled backward through the damp dirt to the space beneath James’s hungry body almost blinded her with hunger. She wanted to be forced down and taken. Wanted her body used without apology. Hard.