“I can be mad if I want to. Train and I are none of your business!”

“What business?”

Jackal’s sarcastic laugh had Penni’s temper rising to a boiling point. She had never lost control of her rage to the degree where all she wanted to do was strike out at him.

Instead of trying to break his hold, she leaned back against his chest, turning her head so she could bite his shoulder.

Sickened by what she had just done, she tried to jump up, but Jackal used her movement to bend her over his knee.

“You did that, knowing I wouldn’t bite you back.”

“I’m sorry.” Penni’s temper’s cooled, ashamed of herself.

“The next time you bite me, bitch, I’m going to give you a bite you’ll never forget.”

“Don’t call me a bitch!” Her demand ended with a yowl of pain as Jackal’s hand came down on her bottom. She was wearing a pair of workout shorts and a thin T-shirt, but he didn’t care that the material was thin and flimsy or that she could feel the scalding heat of his palm on her butt.

“Calling you a bitch doesn’t give it justice. That was for flicking me off.”

Penni had known that incident when they had first seen each other had irritated him.

Another smack landed on her bottom. “That was for you telling Ice to tell me to go fuck myself.”

She had known that one had stung.

Penni quickly smothered her chuckle when Jackal’s hand returned to continue her punishment. He recounted her other offenses, which she lost count of due to the pain that was radiating from her sore butt.

“That was for leaving Casey’s lingerie party before I could show up.”

“What? Have you lost your mind?” How was she supposed to know he had wanted to give her a ride home? Thank God she had left before he had arrived. She had been drunk off her ass and had eaten too many of her own brownies. To say that he would have been laid that night would have been an understatement.

Penni’s thoughts came back to the present with another whack of his hand.

“Then you stood me up and almost killed me with those bees and the dogs …”

The son of a bitch had already spanked her for that one. Clearly, he hadn’t gotten over it.

“Okay, okay. I’m a terrible person.” She tensed her buttocks, waiting for his spanking to continue. When it didn’t, she looked over her shoulder to see Jackal staring down at his hand on her bottom. He was now massaging her buttocks.

“Does it hurt?”

“If I don’t answer, are you going to start spanking me again?”

“No.”

“No, it doesn’t hurt.” Penni slipped out of his grasp, sliding to the floor between his thighs. “My butt has hardened to spankings.”

“Who in the hell spanked you?”

Unconsciously, she placed her hands on his thighs. “My mama. I stayed in trouble when I was a little girl. She told me it’s a miracle she had any hair left. I got out of the house five times before I was four. The last time, I was at a dangerous intersection when she found me. I would climb anything I could. One time, I went so high up a tree she had to call the fire department. I set the house on fire when I was three.”

“She should have watched you better.”

Penni shook her head. “I was terrible. I admit it. I was a little hyper. That was probably why Shade brought his friends over whenever he came to visit. They could help keep an eye on me. My mother would spend most of the time trying to catch up on her sleep.”

“Your father didn’t help watch you?”

“Oh, yes, but when I tried to show him I was old enough to dry my own hair, Mama didn’t trust him anymore.”

“What was wrong with that?”

“I was standing in the bathtub and had grabbed the blow-dryer when he had reached for a towel. I nearly electrocuted my dad and myself, but he managed to jerk it out from the plug.”

Jackal leaned back on the couch, laughing.

Desire flooded through her body, and Penni clenched her thighs together as she knelt on the floor.

Penni giggled, and Jackal leaned forward, covering her mouth with his. Her mind was screaming at her to jerk away, run up the steps, but the urge to respond defeated her common sense.

Pressing into him, she felt her breasts tauten under her thin T-shirt.

Reality became just the two of them as Penni felt the passion she had hoped to find in the men she had dated in the past. They had all been different walks of life, but Jackal walked his own road. He didn’t cater to her, yet he had made no effort to hide he was attracted to her. Every time he was near, his eyes would appraise her from head to toe, showing he liked what he saw.

She liked what she saw, too. His body would make any woman drool. If he hadn’t been such an asshole, she would have found it difficult not to take him on a twirl and find out where their chemistry led. The only thing that had stopped her was, again, he was an asshole, and the gleam in his eyes had warned her he might be too much to handle.

Her parents had told her that she had never felt fear the way other children did, and it was the truth. She still had that. But where Jackal was concerned, her self-preservation had kicked in.

He circled his hand behind her neck, pulling her more securely against him as he leaned back against the couch until she was across him. Penni circled his shoulders, moaning as he fucked her mouth with his tongue. Her pussy ground down on his dick as she felt it harden beneath her.

Jackal raised his hips up, bringing his hands to her hips and pushing her down on him harder. Then, straightening, Jackal moved his mouth down her skin as he tugged her shirt down. The delicate bra she had on was brushed away, leaving her nipple exposed.

“Fuck me.”

Penni couldn’t tell if it was an expression or a demand. It took her everything not to echo his feelings.

Jackal licked the tip of her breast until she clenched the hair that brushed against her breast. When he touched her, it made her feel invincible, drowning out all the warnings she had never had trouble following before.

“Don’t tease me.” His tormenting lips were torturing her nipple, grazing the tip without taking it in his mouth.

“I’m trying to make it good for you.”

Penni could feel his back shake. He was laughing at her when she was on fire? When she was done with him, laughing would be the last thing on his mind.

She had parts of his body she wanted to explore. The fleeting glimpses had spurred her on.

Penni went to his chest, sucking his nipple into her mouth.

“What did I tell you about biting me?” Jackal’s husky growl had her licking the hard nub before moving down to his waist. His abs had been driving Penni to investigate his ridges and dents until she was forced to stop by the top his jeans. “Don’t stop.”

“I wasn’t going to.” Penni lifted up only long enough to unsnap his jeans.

Jackal rubbed his thumb over her nipple as she peeled down his jeans and tugged down his underwear. She was gifted with sight of his cock.

Another woman would have hesitated at the amount of piercings on his cock, but Penni had never been afraid of the unknown.

Her lips brushed the head of his cock, feeling the metal hit her teeth.

“If you bite me—”

“A man with that many piercings isn’t afraid of a little pain.”