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Not. Ever. Again.
So I let him get close. Real close. I lift my hands over my head on the cold grass and wait. He smirks, and I want to knock the self-satisfied expression off his face, but let my eyes half-close instead, hiding my thoughts. My feelings.
“Can’t wait for me to fuck you, huh?” He braces on one hand and looks down at me, the excited gleam in his eyes at odds with the awful words spilling from his mouth. “You spread your legs for everyone, don’t you? Fucking slut.”
I keep my voice locked inside. I keep still, keep quiet. Let him insult me, and brag, and preen. He really does believe I sleep with everyone. He doesn’t know there hasn’t been anyone for me since Dylan. The only one who touched me in all this time was Sean, and what he did to me…
Through the tears that keep leaking from my eyes, I know the moment he leans down to take my mouth again.
I twist and hit his shin with the hard toe of my shoe, then reach down, grab his balls and twist.
He cries out in agony. I put my hands on his shoulders and shove him off, turning and throwing him off balance—a move I learned at self-defense. He hits the ground hard and I scramble to my feet, kick off my shoes and get the hell out of Dodge—running, slipping in the grass, staggering.
“Help!” I shout, but my voice is faint and scratchy. “Help.”
I make it through the door into the building and run down an empty hall, my bare feet slapping the floor. Where is everyone? I push another set of doors open and skid down a corridor. This isn’t the way we came, but who cares now.
I think I hear steps pounding behind me, and I run like never before in my life. Sean is pissed off. If he catches me, it will be bad. Real bad.
Sweat trickles down my back as I skid around a corner and see another set of double doors. Hurrying over to them, I try the handle, but can’t turn it.
Locked.
Oh God. “Help me!” I yell, terror an icy fist around my heart. I bang on the closed door. My hands shake. “Anyone!”
The handle suddenly turns, the door opens, and I spill out, crashing on someone. Someone tall and broad who grabs me in his arms. I clutch at him, burying my face in a muscled chest, inhaling his scent of leather and pine that’s somehow familiar.
“Help me,” I mumble. “Please, help me.”
Why is his scent so familiar?
“Is everything…?” He falls silent, and then says, his voice rising in shock, “Tessa?”
I look up and barely have the time to register it’s Dylan holding me, Dylan talking to me—what the hell is Dylan doing here?—when the doors swing open once again.
“Tessa, come back here,” Sean shouts, his voice jolting me like electric current. “Bitch.”
“Who are you?” Dylan’s voice is calm. My whole body shudders. His arms tighten around me, holding me close. Safe. “Is everything all right?”
How can he even ask that? I can’t move, he’s holding me so tightly—and I don’t want to, either. I don’t want to turn and see Sean ever again.
“Everything’s just fine,” Sean mutters. “Except that’s my girlfriend you’re hugging, asshole. Let her go.”
Dylan stills. He lets out a breath. “It doesn’t look to me like she wants me to. Tessa, do you want me to let go?”
Laughter rises in my throat like gorge. If I let it out, it’ll be hysterical. “No,” I say and force myself to repeat it, louder. “No. Don’t let go.”
“She’s my girlfriend,” Sean repeats.
“No, I’m not,” I whisper, and I’m still struggling for breath. The adrenaline rush is fading, and it leaves my body a trembling mess. “Never was.”
“Who do you think you are?” Sean grinds out the words. “You’ll do as I say.”
“Step back, sir,” Dylan says quietly, “or I’ll radio the security inside the building to come take you away.”
“Take me away? You have no fucking idea who I am, do you? Well, let me tell you. I’m Sean Anholt, and you’ll soon wish you never touched my girlfriend or gotten in my damn way.”
“She says she’s not your girlfriend, Mr. Anholt.” If Dylan has realized whose son Sean is, his voice doesn’t betray any fear. It’s flat and cold.
