Forbidden (Blood Ties #7)

I bucked, trying to control the instinct to fight.

“You fucking choked me?” He sounded surprised.

I’d done worse…a lot worse.

His hand muffled my roar as he dragged me backwards, slamming me against his body, leaving him to tower over me. I hadn’t realized how tall he was…and how strong. He grabbed my hands and wrenched them behind me.

“I’ll just make sure you don’t get to do it again,” he grunted, wrapping the same cord I’d choked him with around my wrists.

“Get thefuck off me!”I howled as he let my mouth go.

“I don’t fucking think so.”

He jerked the cord hard, securing the knot, then bent, grabbed me around my knees, and hauled me over his shoulder.

“No!”I bucked and kicked, driving my head toward his.

He snapped his gaze to mine. Those dangerous eyes held a warning.

Still, I defied him, thrashing as he carried me from that house and out into the night once more. I didn’t stop, even as he growled, swinging me left and right, searching for a way back to the car he’d crashed.

He swore under his breath, then I caught his mumbled words.“What the fuck am I doing?”

I smiled. “Fucking up your entire life,” I answered.

Slap!

I bucked as the blow landed on my ass and the searing sting followed, tearing through the soft flesh.

“One more word,” he warned, turning right on the street in the dead of the night, carrying a barely clothed woman over his shoulder. “One more fucking word and I’m going to use that mouth for more than giving lip, got it?”

I swallowed, falling silent.

“That’s what I fucking thought.”

A twitch came at the corner of my eye. If any other man had spoken to me like that, I would’ve laid him clean out. So why the fuck wasn’t I fighting? I knew why.

Hale…right?

I stared at the road under his feet as I bounced. Yeah, Hale.

He carried me down some tiny lane, coming out on the street where we’d crashed. I stared at the darkened houses, bouncing with every step. Cold moved in, the night air reaching under the bottom of his shirt.

My damn teeth wouldn’t stay still, chattering together. He adjusted his hold, wrapping his arm further around me to give me more of his warmth.

I clenched my fists, not liking the way he responded. Maybe he just wanted a better hold? Yeah, that was it. Because the reality was far more disturbing. I’d rather he hurt me. At least that I understood.

But this?

This…kindness.

I didn’t like it.

Not. One. Bit.

He walked for what felt like ages until the crunch of glass sounded under his feet. I turned my head, glimpsing the front of his Audi against the streetlight pole and thrashed, desperate to be out of his hold. “Let me the fuck down.”

“No.”