Not wanting to give herself time to think about what she was doing, she quickly turned and put her hands on Mike’s chest, pushing them up and over his broad shoulders, then around the back of his neck as she tried to pull him down to her.

Mike tensed against her. “What the hell are you doing, Lily?”

“Please, don’t tell me no,” she said in a rush, going up on her tiptoes. He was even taller than Ryder, which made reaching his mouth anything but easy. “I need this. I can’t lose it in front of him. I need this to ground me.”

“Shit, he’s going to fucking kill me,” he growled. But he didn’t push her away. He was already pulling her closer.

“Help me,” she whispered, knowing he probably couldn’t hear the soft plea over the music. But he was staring at her mouth so intently, she was sure he could read the words on her lips. “Please.”

He groaned deep in his chest, leaning down and giving her exactly what she wanted. And he was good, too. Better than good. If her heart didn’t already belong to someone else, Lily knew Mike Hudson could have rocked her world. But she’d met him too damn late.

Needing to push the pain to a place where she couldn’t feel it, she kissed Mike harder, thrilled with his response when he grabbed her ass and jerked her up against him, lifting her off the floor. She felt bad for using him—and knew damn well that it was wrong. But she couldn’t make herself stop. She wanted Ryder to see this and know that he hadn’t broken her. That she could take his childish shit and throw it right back in his face.

Only . . . she was acting like a child, too.

Hating herself for being such an idiot, Lily pulled back, knowing she needed to apologize to Mike. But she didn’t get the chance. All of a sudden Ryder’s strong, masculine arm was wrapping around her waist, yanking her away from Mike and plastering her against the front of his body. Then he lowered his head, and his voice was a furious hiss in her ear. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Struggling against his hold, she yelled, “Why should you care?”

His arm tightened. “Damn it, Lily.”

“Let go of me!” she screamed, prompting him to drag her through the growing crowd of customers and out the back door of the club. She had no idea where his date had run off to, but Mike followed after them with a grim look on his handsome face.

“I wouldn’t play with him if I were you.” Ryder’s voice was like cold steel, completely devoid of emotion. But he was vibrating behind her, his arm wrapped so tightly around her middle she could barely draw a breath, his other arm now banding across her chest to hold her arms in place so she couldn’t hit him. “Mike’s idea of fun is way out of your comfort zone.”

“I don’t have a comfort zone anymore, thanks to you,” she snapped, her voice cracking at the end.

“He’ll hurt you.”

“Not as badly as you have!” she flung back at him.

He sucked in a sharp breath, and she renewed her struggles, finally managing to break away from him. It was galling to know she’d only succeeded because he’d let her. They were standing in the far corner of the club’s back parking lot, close to his Jeep, the night illuminated with the flickering orange glow of a tall light post. The pain in her chest was raw and burning, but she forced it down, determined to see this through and salvage what shreds of her pride she still could.

Looking at Mike, who had stopped a few yards away from them, she said, “I want to go home now.”

• • •

RYDER GROWLED WITH impatience, thinking it would be a cold day in hell before he let her leave with Mike. “You’re not going anywhere until we’ve talked.”

She turned her head and glared at him. “I have nothing to say to you. And I don’t want to hear anything that might come out of your lying mouth.”

“I haven’t lied to you. Not once,” he argued, forcing the frustrated words through his clenched teeth. “And you are going to listen to me.”

She curled her lip at him, trembling with fury. “I don’t have to do anything where you’re concerned. You didn’t even have the balls to talk to me before hooking up with another woman. Do you know how juvenile that is? You are such a jackass!”

“Damn it, Lily. It’s not what you think!”

“I don’t care what it is. I just want you to leave me alone!”

“That’s not gonna happen,” he muttered, wiping his hand over his mouth as he struggled to get a hold of his temper and figure out what the fuck he should do. A cold, slick sweat slipped down his spine as he realized just how screwed up things had gotten. From the moment he’d left Lily at the safe house, he hadn’t been able to shake the feeling that he should have talked to her before heading off, instead of sneaking out while she’d napped. But he’d been reeling, spinning, feeling like he’d been hit upside the head with a two-by-four. That morning, when he’d opened his eyes, the words she’d said to him the night before had come at him like a fucking wrecking ball, flattening his chest, making it impossible to breathe.

On top of that, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the danger she was in. He knew Rado was up to something—he just didn’t know what. Not a single one of the asshole’s thugs had checked out Ryder’s house. The bastard was lying low, like a snake in the grass just waiting to strike. He was frustrated by the lack of progress he and the others had made in their search for him, and so he’d reacted like a fucking idiot and gone ahead with what had obviously been a stupid plan. One that had backfired so badly he wanted to beat the living shit out of something. That “something” being the man who was standing off to the side watching them. The man who’d had his tongue down Lily’s throat and her sweet little ass in his hands.

“What the hell are you even doing here?” he demanded, taking a step toward her.

“What’s the big deal? You left me at the safe—”

“With protection,” he growled, cutting her off. “What are you doing here with Mike?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. “Same thing you were from the looks of it.”

“I told him to watch you,” he bit out, suddenly gripping her shoulders. “Not fuck you!”

“Well, thanks to your little stunt, who I sleep with is no longer any of your business,” she shouted up at him. “If I want to go to bed with him, then I’ll damn well go to bed with him!”

“The fuck you will!” he bellowed, turning and slamming his fist into the side of his Jeep. He silently cursed himself as pain radiated up his arm. When he turned toward her again she was blinking at him in astonishment. He knew his face was a rigid mask of anger, his lips parted for the hard breaths rushing from his chest. He wasn’t just mad, he was furious. But she wasn’t afraid of him. She looked more than ready to keep on giving him hell, knowing damn well that he’d never do anything to physically hurt her.

Lifting her chin, she said, “You can’t tell me what to do, Scott. You lost that right.”

“It’s not gonna happen, Lily.” He felt a muscle pulsing in the hard line of his jaw. “He never gets to lay a fucking finger on you.”

Unable to believe his freaking audacity, Lily fought the urge to stomp her foot and scream. “Hello? Are you listening? You don’t get to make those decisions for me.”

From the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of Mike’s dark expression as Ryder came even closer. So close that she had to tilt her head back to hold his blistering glare. “Let me make this clear for you, Lily. You let him touch you, he dies.”

“You can’t kill every man who touches me!”

“I’ll be the only man touching you!”

“Why?” she shot back, jabbing her finger into his rock-solid chest. “You don’t even want me!”

“Not want you?” he grunted. He gave his head a hard shake, looking as if he was having trouble believing what she’d said. “Christ, woman. I want you so fucking bad it’s driving me out of my goddamn mind. I want you so much I can’t fucking think straight half the time!” he roared, and then his mouth was on hers, his hands on her body, and Lily suddenly found herself on her back on the hood of the black Porsche that was parked beside his Jeep. The skirt she was wearing made it easy for him as he shoved her legs apart and pushed between them, kissing her even harder as she tried to resist. But it was impossible. She loved his mouth and his taste too much. Damn it, even hurt and pissed off at him, she still loved him, contrary, confusing son of a bitch that he was.

“We can’t do this,” she hissed, breaking away from the kiss to gasp for air. “We’re not alone out here. Mike is with us.”

He locked his sharp gaze with hers, breathing in rough, uneven bursts. “Did you know he’s into threesomes? And I’m not talking girl-on-girl action. I’m talking two men pounding into a woman at the same time.”

“Yeah? Sounds interesting,” she drawled, knowing it would only make him angrier.

He leaned down and put his lips against her ear. “Keep pushing me and I’ll fuck you right here, Lily. I’ll bare that beautiful little pussy between your legs and let him watch it swallow every inch of my cock until he gets the picture,” he threatened in a guttural rasp. “No other man touches you!”

She was so outraged she could barely speak. “So you can screw around but I can’t?”

“I wasn’t screwing around!”

“You’re such a liar!” she seethed, putting her hands between them so that she could shove at his chest. But she only succeeded in getting him to lift his head.

His eyes were narrowed to hot, glittering slits. “I didn’t fuck her. I didn’t even kiss her on the lips. Just her neck. Which is more than you can say.”

“I kissed him because I was pissed off! I’ve never been angrier with anyone than I am with you right now!”

“You didn’t look like you were hating it!” he shouted, straightening his arms. “You looked ready to screw him on the fucking dance floor!”

Seeing red, Lily slapped him with as much force as she could while lying beneath him, struggling like crazy as he caught her wrists and slammed them down on the hood of the Porsche. “You don’t get to judge me,” she yelled, glaring into his hard-set face when he looked back down at her. “If I want to kiss another man, I’ll kiss another man. I’ll do whatever I want with him!”

“The hell you will!”

“You can’t stop me!”

“You wanna bet, Lil? Because this is mine,” he growled, letting go of her wrists so that he could rear back and shove her skirt up to her waist. She gasped, too shocked to try to stop him when he ripped her panties off, no doubt giving Mike an embarrassing shot of her intimate bits before Ryder suddenly shoved his face against her. He went at her slick flesh like a man who’d been starved for years, using his lips and tongue and teeth. He thrust his tongue into her snug opening, fucking her with it, and she dug her nails into his broad shoulders, screaming from the onslaught of sensation. Hot, wet, melting her down into a molten glow. Her skin misted with sweat, mouth open, lungs gasping for air as she shivered and cried out. She knew she should shove him away and tell him to fuck off, but she couldn’t. Instead, she braced her feet on the Porsche’s hood and shoved herself against his mouth, trapped by her own desperate desire. By her need and want and all the unforgivably stupid shit that was going to land her in a world of heartbreak. He was meant to be her treat. She wasn’t supposed to get hung up and serious about him. Just mutual sexual gratification to finally scratch her itch and get him out of her system, before she either died or he walked away. Instead, she’d gone and admitted she was in love with the arrogant, know-everything, have-it-his-way jackass. And now look at her. God, she was so easy when it came to Scott Ryder it was embarrassing!

When she’d finally stopped sobbing and screaming from the violent force of her release, he pressed his forehead to her stomach, his hands keeping a firm grip on her waist. She blinked up at the stars in the nighttime sky, then glanced a little off to her left, and her eyes connected with Mike’s burning gaze before he quickly looked away, scanning the parking lot with a strained expression. Ohmygod. She was so embarrassed she thought she might pass out.

“Scott, let me go,” she whispered, surprised by the ravaged sound of her voice.

He lifted his head, his expression as hard as the gritty “No” that left his lips.

“I’m so pissed at you,” she snapped, bracing herself on her elbows. “I’m even more pissed at you for making me come!”

“Yeah, I know.” He ran his tongue over his lower lip, licking the glistening juices she’d left there. “Be pissed, Lil. But it isn’t going to change anything. I’m just going to shove my tongue up your cunt again and make you come until you’re ready to give me what I want.”