Bad Romance (12 page)

“No you don’t, baby.”

Before anyone could protest, he had his big arms around my waist and literally lifted me up and was stalking towards the entrance of The Haunted Mansion. The line was considerable since it’d just been converted to the Haunted Mansion/Nightmare Before Christmas attraction. Once he got to the end, he slowly, achingly slowly, slipped me down his body. I didn’t want to look up at him. I fought with all my natural instincts before I gave in and peeked at him.

“If I knew all it would take to get you vulnerable was take you to Disneyland, I would’ve done that instead of that shitty video.”

The mention of the video was like ice water on my warmed mood. I backed away when his back turned and was ready to make a make a dash for the exit when our friends came up to us in the line. I was trapped. I heard the tisking behind me. “Always trying to run away
from me. Do I scare you, baby?”

“Yes,” I whispered. I didn’t look at him but I saw all those glorious muscles in his body flex and get tense with that single word.

“Clara—I—” he was interrupted by Shannon’s booming voice.

“What the hell, Dax? This isn’t the Stone Age and you can’t carry a woman off at your whim. She wants to go home!” She had her hands on her hips and to argue meant certain doom.

Dax just winked, the smug grin back on his full lips. He grabbed my hand and pulled me in front of him. It successfully cut me off from the rest of my friends. His arms rested on either side of the metal bars that made up the line.

Always trapped.

“Please, Dax—”

I was hoping that begging and pleading would get through to him.

His lips brushed over my neck and I pressed my lips together to hold back a whimper. A little sound rumbled through my throat and of course he heard. He chuckled. No. Chuckle wasn’t a strong enough word for what vibrated through him and against my back. It sent thrills all the way to my clit. Which in turn made my nipples hard and my breasts started to ache and swell with arousal. He was like a wizard of sexual prowess.

“Begging me will get you one thing.” He nipped at my neck.

“What?” I asked. Not totally sure why.

“Fucked.”

Gulp.

The whole time in line he found a way to keep his body pressed against mine. Little nips and kisses kept me bound in this submissive state that I could’ve normally escaped from, had I been outside his influence and his element. Finally, we were piled into the room that would soon load us all into that dark elevator that would lock me into darkness with the devil himself. The fuller the room became, the more the hardness of him was pressed against me. I struggled to find a way to make distance. But each time I fled, he would pursue, eating up the very air in the room. I was panting, fighting for control and he stole it with ease.

I knew I should hate him. What he’d done to me—or rather—what I still didn’t know he did to me on the night of that party should seal his fate with me. Yet, I couldn’t resist his pull. I was becoming a damned statistic against my better judgment.

Todd made quite a few attempts at coming between us and helping me escape. In the end, it only made it all worse for me. Dax got more arrogant with each win. And I was left with his hands roaming my body.

The vile betrayer.

The cast member gave his silly mournful spiel and we were all rounded up into the elevator that would take us to the level the actual attraction was housed on. Dax wasted no time and shoved us both back quickly. The round room filled up, which took our friends out of the equation.

Damn.

Double damn.

He pinned me against the wall and caged me in, his powerful arms locking me in along with his hard form. I felt so soft and feminine in that moment. I sucked in a breath when he reached down between us and cupped my mound through my pants.

“You’re wet.”

“No.”

“Liar.”

“So.”

He did that vibrating chuckle thing again that had my body singing for him.

Son. Of. A. Bitch.

My legs turned to mush and I leaned against him.

“I got you, baby. Just let it go. Fly for me.”

He pressed the heel of his palm against the seam of my shorts and I unabashedly ground against him.

“Good girl.”

I whimpered. My voice was masked by the loud narrative that thundered through the small space, telling the story of Sandy Claws and Jack Skellington. My mind tried to block him out, but I was absorbed in his touch. I rolled into him and just as the room dropped into pitch back, his hot breath coated my cheek an
d ear and he commanded, “Come.”

And I did.

My whole body jerked and his mouth covered mine in a smoldering kiss that sent my mind going dark. Little stars danced across my closed lids as his tongue commanded my mouth. He nudged at my tongue, brushed against the roof of my mouth, and owned me.

And the bad part. The real shitty part of this whole situation was not that he got me to come. It was that he did own me, and I wanted to be owned by him. I just hoped he didn’t shatter me into a million tiny pieces when he was done with me.

I felt the wall move behind me and the moist heat of his mouth was gone. I let out a breath and allowed my eyes to slide open. He was smiling down at me and that gaze he gave me wasn’t a look of triumph like I feared I would see. Oh, no. It was a look of contentment. As if he had weathered the storm and all for this moment.

I was in awe.

A sea of people parted around us as I just stared up at him like a dumb fool. I was knocked from my swooning by Todd, who had locked on my arm as he passed me and finally got himself between me and Dax. I was spun around and lost my balance. I fell back into Todd’s chest and he righted me. He mumbled a sorry before I was roughly pulled to the side by Dax. This little game of tug o’war went on until we got to the moving floor portion of the line. I was waiting. Todd had me at this point. But not for long. Just as I stepped forward like a dazed zombie onto the moving floor, my feet left the ground and I was swept in against Dax, who got me into a doombuggy and onto his lap. I heard Todd curse and Dax released a real laugh. It boomed through the little dark buggy and settled into me. The whole last series of minutes were a daze.

“
Did you al
l just play tug o’war with me?”

Dax had that lopsided grin that made me want to get naked and spread for him. It was a special talent to be able to do something like that with just an off-centered tilt of the lips.

“I believe we did, sweetness. And it looks like I win.” He leaned forward and I braced myself for another one of his kisses.

“No lap sitting!”

I yelped and turned to look at an annoyed cast member glaring at me. I carefully slid off Dax’s lap and onto the bench next to him. I swallowed hard and tried to focus on the ride around us.

“We have a lot to talk about, Clara. It would seem that you have been deceiving me this whole time.” His deep voice was against my ear. It was the only way he was going to be heard over the loud soundtrack of the ride.

His warm hand was on my thigh and I tried to get some space. God, I needed space from this man so bad or I was going to end up falling victim to him again.

“I don’t know what you mean.” I looked up at him. I fought to steel my features and it must’ve worked because he smirked at me.

“I underestimated you, honey.”

I turned away from him and that was a bad idea. He snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me against his side. With my back against his side, I was vulnerable as he toyed with my neck, his tongue and teeth working my body into a frenzy. I was too hot, too confused, too everything in that moment. He was mumbling naughty things against my ear. Telling me all the things he would do to me once he got me home and finally alone.

“After all this time. I was a fucking idiot to think you wouldn’t figure it out.”

“I didn’t at first,” I confessed.

I sealed my lips after that.

“Keep going, Clara. Tell me how you have been naughty this whole time,” he purred against my ear.

I was breathing hard. He was working one nipple into a painfully sharp point that seemed to shoot right to my cunt. Fuck, no man had ever made me feel this way. We coasted through the graveyard and curved around the corner. The mirrors signaled that I needed to make my escape now or I wasn’t making an escape at all. I started to get distance when our doombuggies swung towards the mirrors and he righted us to look straight ahead. I saw Todd next to us—glaring. Shannon was with Cat, Cat looking confused and Shannon had this look of pure worry on her face when her gaze met mine. The moment the safety bar went up Dax moved to exit. In his moment of distraction that had his back turned to me I used it. I ran and didn’t stop until I made it past the turnstyle and out of the stifling confines of the attraction.

I could hear Dax shouting my name. He wasn’t far behind. But I didn’t look back. I had the keys to the car in the tiny shoulder bag. I was the one that offered to take it to hold money and the keys. I would make it to the car and call Shannon. I was just to the exit to Frontierland when arms wrapped around my waist and I was snapped off my feet. I squealed but people around me laughed like they were watching a boy and girl play with one another in Disneyland. I tried to squeal again, making my point that this was no game when I was shoved into the deep corne
r behind the pin trading store.

“Dax, let me—” I didn’t get far with my protest. His mouth was over mine again and he was kissing the protest right out of me.

My fingers clawed at the front of his shirt and pulled him closer. I found my inner wild child and kissed him back hard and fierce, the way I’d seen girls in movies do. How I’d always wished I’d done before Dax had disappeared from my life.

Dax was the first to pull away. “Fuck, Clara baby.” He pressed his forehead against mine. We were both panting and fighting for control.

“We need to talk,” he demanded. Suddenly that panting was gone and he was all firm control.

“I’m not ready, Dax. I need to think. Please, let me think.”

“Why? So you can think up another escape plan? Fat fucking chance of me letting that happen.”

I wanted to cry and laugh all at once.

But I didn’t get a chance when Shannon finally caught up to us. She was wedged between Dax and me and glaring at us both.

“This is fucking enough, Dax. I’m taking my girl home. If you want you can follow. But not here!”

Shannon grabbed my hand and pulled me away from him. He didn’t follow. Something in my chest tightened at that. I watched him get swallowed up by the crowd as Todd came up to his side to watch me being dragged away by my well meaning best friend.

I couldn’t stop the breathless pain in my chest the further I got from him.

I was so totally screwed.

Chapter Twelve

Todd

Fuck.

She’s hiding from me again.

I sat in the Starbuck’s in downtown Claremont and glared out the window. I watched the cars driving slowly through the streets and took slow sips of my black cup of coffee. I could’ve made this fucking drink in my house, but I was so fucking sick of watching the house next door waiting for Clara to come out. She was watching me too; I could feel it. She planned her days out perfectly. She didn’t cross my path, I didn’t glimpse her leaving and I knew she had to be leaving the house goddamned early because I woke up at six in the fucking morning without fail.

Goddamn her to hell.

I scared her.

And I liked it.

I threw her whole life off balance.

But it was only fair because she did the same thing to me.

I was ready to tell her all of it. The whole fucked-up story that was my life from the moment I left her. Why my heart was black. Why I couldn’t love her the way she deserved but that I didn’t care. She was mine. I would be damned if I let another guy make her fly like that.

My cock got so hard I moaned and tried to muffle it with another gulp from my rapidly cooling coffee.

“Lookie who we have here.”

I didn’t muffle my groan this time. I didn’t even turn around. I waited for the tsunami that was Tamara to fill up my vision. I just took another gulp of my coffee and grimaced. Cold coffee was fucking disgusting.

“You been missing in action. It’s the Clara girl, isn’t it?”

I still didn’t answer. I was hoping if I ignored her she would disappear.

“Whatever. I was going to tell you, she’s over at A Shop Called Quest.”

That got my fucking attention.

“What?” I barked at her.

She smirked, lifted a finger and wiggled it in the direction of the comic book store down the street. I couldn’t see it from here but I knew which she was talking about. I turned bleary eyes on her. “How the fuck do you know she’s there?”

With a very dramatic sigh, she sat at the table next to me. “Because I just came from I Like Pie and saw her go in. Actually, I’ve seen her go in every day for the last week. She
’s hiding from you, isn’t she?”