For stealing her chocolate, hanging her upside down, tormenting her, turning her life upside down, treating her like crap and giving her the best sex of her life only to turn around and turn back into Super Jerk she stuffed his sock in his mouth, and not a clean one.

Although she hadn’t understood his mumbling at the time she was pretty sure he threatened her ass with anything but tender loving care. After that she’d hauled ass out of there even though she knew she should do something more to the big jerk for everything else that he’d done to her she couldn’t.

Anyone else probably would have taken the time to get back at him, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Not that it wouldn’t have served him right if she’d shoved a bucket of ice down his pants or something equally as mean, but she’d unable to bring herself to do it. As much as it pissed her off to be treated the way she had she understood that he was protecting his family, even if in her opinion he’d been a little insensitive and a big jerk while doing it.

Of course she’d be lying if she said the only reason she didn’t want to take a little sweet revenge on him was just because of his family. It wasn’t. From the second that he came barreling into that dining room she’d felt an odd connection with him, a connection that became almost smothering after they’d had sex.

When she’d handcuffed him to the bed she immediately felt as though she was betraying him and when she walked out the hotel room she felt like her heart was breaking. She couldn’t believe she could feel this way about any man, especially someone who’d aided in her kidnapping and fully planned on sending her to live the rest of her life on an island away from everything she’d ever known. She should hate him, but she couldn’t.

She might not be able to hate his guts the way she should, but that didn’t mean she was going to let him push her around. She’d escaped him once and she could damn well do it again.

“Well?” Chris demanded when she didn’t answer him.

“Well, what?” she asked, standing up and slowly turning around and somehow stopping herself from wincing when she spotted that damn muscle tick beneath his eye. This was going to be so bad for her ass if she couldn’t get away from him.

“Don’t you think you owe me an apology?” he asked quietly, looking more gorgeous than any man with mussed hair, a day’s worth of beard, and a wrinkled grey tee shirt should look as he absently toyed with a pair of handcuffs, which at that moment frightened her probably more than the clearing full of werewolves.

“Yes, yes of course I do,” she said as she stepped out from behind the door.

Chris sighed heavily. “You’re going to try and make a run for it, aren’t you?”

“No, of course not. Running at this point would just be silly,” she said as she tried to look innocent. Judging by that tick doing double time and the glare he was sending her it wasn’t working.

Time for plan B.

“Oh my god, behind you!” she cried out, not bothering to make sure that he looked away before she took off running. She didn’t make it five feet before he had his arms tightly around her.

“Not so fast, Munchkin,” he whispered harshly in her ear. “You and I have some unfinished business to settle.”

“No, we don’t!” she snapped as she tried to struggle out of his arms.

“We sure as hell do, Munchkin,” he said, pulling her tightly against his body.

She sucked in a surprised breath as she felt his erection press against her lower back. “Oh god…..,” she choked out as her body reacted to the touch, instantly going hot and wet for him. This was insane. She didn’t even like the big jerk, but she wanted him so much that she hurt for him.

“I believe there’s a conversation that we really need to finish, don’t you?”

Chapter 28

“You son of a bitch! You said we were going to talk!”

“We are,” Chris said in a bored tone as he tossed her into the back of the black SUV he decided to steal.

“How is this talking?” she demanded as she tried to squirm into a sitting position, but she was having a hell of a time doing it with her hands cuffed behind her back and her feet tied together with the small rope he’d made out of the motel’s top sheet.

“Well, this isn’t talking. This is more along the lines of kidnapping I guess you could say,” he said as he reached over the back seat and tossed their bags in the back.

“Could say? What the hell else would you call tying my up and throwing me in the back of a car?”

“Foreplay?” he suggested, immediately regretting his choice of words. Not because of the cute little murderous glare that promised all kinds of violence to his balls, but because just the thought of foreplay or just touching her in general had his poor dick twitching.

He still couldn’t believe she’d tricked him by teasing him. He’d been so f**king hard for her and ready to f**k her until neither one of them could move and all she’d cared about was getting him to do what she wanted so that she could ditch his ass. It was a nice little reminder of who he was dealing with and only confirmed his earlier suspicions that she’d f**ked those men before him because she needed something. It disgusted and appalled him that he’d so readily fell for her bullshit.

Well, he’d learned his lesson where she was concerned.

Not only was she weak, but she couldn’t be trusted and trust was a big f**king deal to him. There was only a handful of people that he trusted completely and she was not one of them and never would be. He needed to end this bullshit assignment and get back to protecting his family. The shit was hitting the fan and he didn’t want to leave them vulnerable.

“You’re an ass**le,” she bit out.

He simply shrugged and shut the door. If she wanted to think he was the bad guy then that was more than fine with him. It would help the two of them keep their distance and make it easier for her to part from him in a couple of hours. Then he’d go back to his life and his family and everything would be great.

Fucking perfect, he thought bitterly. Just what he wanted. After all these f**king years and he had a f**king depressing future to look forward to. He was going to be alone forever, but this time it was by his choice.

There were two futures he could choose from. A life with his family, the people he loved and who had taken him in when he was at the lowest point in his life or with a woman he didn’t trust, didn’t particularly like at the moment and brought all of this bullshit down on them.

It wasn’t exactly a hard decision to make.

At least he shouldn’t be. Every time he thought about leaving her at the Boston compound he had to fight back the panic that threatened to take over. He didn’t want to care or need her, but he did and he was afraid if he didn’t get the hell away from her soon he never would be able to. She needed to live a safe life and the only way that was going to happen was under strict protection, protection he couldn’t give her.

“Where are we going?” she demanded as he slid in the driver’s side seat.

“Don’t worry about it,” he murmured as he ripped the plastic cover beneath the steering wheel aside and proceeded to hotwire the car.

“Did you seriously just tell me not to worry about it?”