“You think so? What will all your friends think if you get involved with the Red Bitch Queen?”
“That you’re getting what you deserve, because when I get finished with you, lady, there won’t be anything recognizable left.” Conviction melted the words against her mouth as he sealed them with a light kiss. “Don’t leave.”
“Don’t worry.”
Jared walked back with the bubbly blond. The girl practically made love to him while she washed his hair. Her breasts pressed against him one too many times. Madlyn didn’t like the way the blonde worked the suds into Jared’s hair. He was thoroughly enjoying her attention. His eyes were closed when he said something that made the girl laugh and Madlyn's blood boil.
Madlyn was standing next to them before she knew she’d moved. “Finished?” she asked.
Jared grinned at her, his eyes still closed. “Hardly. Carrie’s excellent at this.”
Carrie took one look at Madlyn and quickly rinsed the suds out of his hair. Madlyn watched Jared sit at Carrie’s station. Carrie shook out a smock and fastened it around his neck. The girl’s fingers were shaking. Madlyn couldn’t help the pleased smile that curved her mouth. A smile that went wider when she caught Jared watching her in the mirror. She raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to concede. He just crossed his arms under the smock and stared back at her.
“Are you sure?” Carrie asked one more time as she combed all the slick black hair straight. It almost touched his shoulders.
“Last chance.”
Madlyn waited.
Jared smirked. She thought she was getting to him. The only reason his hair was so long was because he hadn’t had time to get it cut. Most of the time, he kept it pulled back or wrapped in a bandana while he worked in the kitchen. It was hair. It would grow back.
He grinned at her in the mirror. Was she holding her breath?
“Cut it,” he told Carrie, and settled back to enjoy watching Madlyn’s war with her emotions. He’d been right. This was fun. “Pull it back in a ponytail before you do.”
“You’re keeping it?” Madlyn asked.
He grinned. “No, I’m donating it.”
She blinked at him while Carrie combed it back and fastened it with two hair bands before chopping off the long length of black hair.
“Donating it?” Madlyn whispered, taking the ponytail that Carrie handed her.
“Locks of Love. They make wigs for kids with cancer.”
Her absolute astonishment was so delicious he almost couldn’t stand it.
“I started doing that when Grant’s wife had her first chemo treatment and started losing her hair.” His grin faded as the hard edges of her expression softened right in front of him.
Their staring match turned into something different, and Jared couldn’t have looked away if he wanted to. He didn’t notice the rest of his hair hitting the floor around them. He lost track of time and forgot where he was. Why had he never noticed how drop dead gorgeous she was before? Standing in front of him with her hip against the counter, she tried hard to recover her snarky attitude. But there was a darkness in her eyes that didn’t quite make it.
“Jeanne was a good person.” She sighed and pushed away from the counter so she could move out of his line of vision.
So he watched her in the mirror, trying not to notice the way the way those jeans skimmed her lean hips. She was so much smaller than he remembered. The black shirt she wore had a scooped neck, and the sleeves stopped just below her elbows. She wasn’t wearing a scrap of red.
His imagination went wild. Maybe she wore red underneath it. What color was the bra he could see the faint outline of? Better yet, what color were the nipples pressing against the soft cotton?
He groaned, hoping she and Carrie didn’t notice him squirming in the salon chair.
He was losing his damned mind.
How could he be attracted to her? She had to be one of the worst people he’d ever run across. She was cold, vicious, and manipulative. She had signed over her child within hours of his birth and gone back to college like nothing had happened. She was ruthless. She knew just how far to push a law to get what she wanted. Grant said she never lost and was rarely wrong.
And none of that mattered. All he wanted to do was throw her against the nearest wall and get inside her as fast as possible. It was all Jared could do to stay in the seat with his hair raining around him. He couldn’t think past plastering those lean, feminine curves against his body. It wouldn't be hard. There wasn’t much of her. He could lift her easily.
The buzz of an electric razor pulled his mind back from crazy land, and he glanced up at the mirror. Oh hell, now he looked like a grown-up.
“More?” Carrie asked Madlyn.
Jared’s heartbeat ratcheted up a notch as she straightened and walked over to him. She moved like a predator. Jared had never considered himself prey, but Carrie did as she stepped back. Madlyn’s ability to scare off the competition lit him up like a roman candle.
He shifted in his seat as she stepped up behind him, meeting his eyes in the mirror. He felt like he was on the stand and she was about to drag the truth out of him. It made the rock-hard erection threatening to crash through his fly even harder. Damn.
He was going to kill his brother.
Her smile was slow and anything but friendly. “Much better. Almost a grown-up.” She ran her fingers through the short hair on the back of his head, then through the long strands on top. She messed it up even more. “Leave some of this.”
Then her fingers ran across the back of his neck, and his eyelids grew too heavy as he fought back a moan. Her nails scraped him almost affectionately. Fuck. She was dangerous.
Carrie nodded and starting using the scissors again. A few minutes later, Jared was running his fingers through much shorter hair with chaotic layers that just hinted at spikes on top. He loved it.
“Perfect,” Madlyn announced, and headed to the front door.
Jared ripped the smock off and went after her before Carrie could brush the hair off his neck. He caught her by the arm. “Not so fast, darlin’.”
He walked her the rest of the way with his arm clamped around her waist. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight. He paid for the haircut, left Carrie a huge tip, then led Madlyn outside.
He pushed her against the passenger side of the SUV, then gave in to the urge to kiss her again. He couldn’t get enough of her. How could a block of ice be so damned hot? He didn’t actually care. He wanted more. She let him kiss her, her lips parted, and he pressed closer. At least he wasn’t the only one going crazy. The hands that ran through his short hair were trembling, and that satisfied him in a way nothing else could.
“You want my help with your case?”
He nodded.
“Then I think I’m calling the shots here.”
Jared forced his eyes to stay open. He couldn’t let his guard down again. He jerked her car door open. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. You think you do, but you don’t.”
He brushed his mouth across hers, catching her bottom lip with his teeth and nipping slightly. She jerked in shock and tried to push him off. Jared laughed and pushed her back against the seat. She wasn’t getting the upper hand again.
He whispered against her ear. “I will break you in half, Madlyn. Don’t think I won’t.”
He could feel the heat radiating off her. Her pupils were dilated. She wanted him. As much as he wanted her. Maybe worse. Nah, she couldn’t possibly want him worse than he wanted her, because he was about to die.
“You can try,” she managed to bite out at him.
He kissed her again, trying to punish her, but damn it if he could keep that up. She melted like chocolate and tasted so good he couldn’t help deepening the kiss.
When he lifted his head, he didn’t like the flare of satisfaction that hit him in the chest as he ran his index finger across her bruised bottom lip. “Keep fighting me for control. It will keep it interesting,” he promis
ed.
She sucked his finger into her mouth, and Jared’s lungs seized and his knees nearly buckled. “Little boy, you have no idea who you are dealing with.”
He stared at her, all deer in the headlights for the first time in his life. He pulled away and shut the door. What the hell had he gotten himself into? And how long could he stay in it?
Madlyn sat back against the seat while he walked around to the driver’s side. So the silent treatment hadn’t worked. Now Operation Scare the Hippie Off wasn’t only failing but backfiring. She couldn’t believe he cut his hair. She couldn’t believe how amazing he looked with short hair. She couldn’t believe how amazing it was that he planned to donate it to a children’s charity and how her chest ached even worse from knowing that. Maybe she was getting in over her head.
What had she been thinking taunting him like this?
She wasn’t thinking. She was panicking and trying to come up with any way to distract him. She needed to get away so she could think. She could get the files he wanted, but there were boxes she needed to remove first. He’d want to see the contents, and she couldn’t show him. She couldn’t show anyone. She was afraid to look in those boxes herself.
He slid behind the steering wheel, sucking up all the space and oxygen in the car. “Next, I believe it was grown-up clothes.”
About an hour later, he stepped out of a dressing room in a charcoal English-cut suit with a two-button jacket, white striped shirt, and silver on gray silk striped tie. When she could get enough oxygen into her lungs to speak again, she said, “If we stack a jury with women, you’ll win every case.”
He grinned at her. “You like?” He straightened his tie.
Yeah, she did. Too much.
She needed to end this crazy game. Her plan to run him off had failed. All she had done was torture herself.
Madlyn’s eye swept over all six feet of him and stopped dead at the I-dare-you grin. Déjà vu burned through her, and the world tilted away under her until she almost staggered.
“Yes, it’s fine. Get that one and the gray Gucci,” she rushed, turning away and feigning interest in silk ties.
It was her imagination. He was nothing like Robert.
The sales associate that helped them had also joined the Jared Marshall Church of Worship. The wonderment on the younger man’s face annoyed her much the same way Carrie’s excessive friendliness had. Everyone wanted him. Or at least wanted to worship him. They were probably starstruck. He was in a band, after all.
Stefan Sellers was the only person she knew who didn’t adore Jared. He’d bitched about the tattooed musician enough that Madlyn knew more about Jared Marshall than she should. She’d been amused and fascinated by Stefan’s uncharacteristic jealousy.
Sadness started creeping through her at the loss of that friendship. She and Stefan had been friends so long, she still wasn’t sure what to do sometimes now that they weren’t speaking.
Panic followed the melancholy, but she forced it back with a deep steadying breath. Shirts. He needed more shirts. And a few ties. She dumped a small stack of items on the sales associate, who blinked and stepped back when Jared returned from the dressing area. He was back in faded blue jeans she’d bet he’d had since high school and the faded denim shirt with too many buttons undone.
He closed the distance between them, a smile lurking around his eyes. “Anything else?” he asked her.
“No.”
“Give us about two weeks for alterations,” the salesman said.
Madlyn still hadn’t decided her next move, so she didn’t stop him when he curved an arm around her waist. He brushed his mouth across her ear and said, “Haircut, metal gone, grown-up clothes. I believe you owe me a blowjob.”
Heat seared through her again, but this time most it was fueled by hatred. She was going to send a clear signal back to his brother. They wanted to come at her. Fine. She’d been playing this game longer than they had. They were only just joining the festivities, and while she hadn’t expected such a cruel guerilla-type attack, she was fully prepared to answer it.
“Not here.” Anger squeezed her throat.
“And you’re coming to work with us.”
“Partnership,” she reminded him, knowing what he would say.
“Hell no.” Jared waited for her to step into the parking garage ahead of him.
“Then no deal. I can get a taxi back.”
Dumbstruck, he watched her brush past him. Walking away? Oh, hell no. He stashed his bags in the SUV, then went after her. He caught up with her right before she stepped out onto Canal Street. “Not so fast.”
His sense of humor vanished when she didn’t slow down. He caught her by the arm and jerked her hard up against him. It was impossible to say who was more surprised. Jared had never manhandled a woman before. But the real shock was the fireworks that ignited when their bodies made contact. It was like the Fourth of July sizzling down his nerve endings, frying his brain and making him forget they were surrounded by the city.
She stared up at him, caught off guard, lips parted, and mask gone. And he saw her for the second time that day, and more of his reality rewrote itself. The world wasn’t the way he thought it was. Those black eyes were smoldering with storm clouds that threatened to blow him away. Pale and beautiful and a tiny bit lost, there was no way to resist kissing her. And when her arms went around his neck, he did just that.
This kiss was different. It was raw and sweet and he’d never felt anything like it. Women did back flips to impress him. Half the time he didn’t even have to kiss them, they were on their knees so fast he never had time. He’d never get this woman on her knees, which was probably a good thing because she would own him with the first touch of her mouth.
She broke the kiss, but he didn’t release her. Instead, his forehead rested on hers, and he searched her expression for some hint of what was going on in her mind. There was so much vulnerability in the way she tasted and the way her mouth felt. Nothing showed on her face or her expression. He was probably just imagining things. But her confusion was real. No, she wasn’t confused. She was conflicted.
“Walk away,” she whispered, something desperate in her voice as her hands tightened on the back of his neck.
He loved the pressure of her hands there. Loved the way her nails rested lightly against his skin, ready to sink in at any moment.
“Now. Go. You’re a good guy, but get close to me and you won’t be for long. I’ll break you.”
“Is that a threat or a promise?”
“It’s a fact. You’ll bleed out while I walk away.” There was no malice in her voice. Just resignation and regret. And Jared had no idea where any of that was coming from.
“I’ll take my chances.” He slid his mouth along the smooth line of her jaw, then nipped at her ear. “Maybe I’ll break you first.”
She closed her eyes, her weight leaning heavily against his, and he had the bizarre urge to wrap his arms around her and keep her safe. Madlyn didn’t add up. None of it was making sense. Something was missing. And that earlier desire to destroy her was quickly being replaced with something way more dangerous.
Madlyn indulged herself for one more heartbeat, then shoved him hard. “Partnership or no deal.”
He let her go. “No.”
“Then we’re done here.”
His hands weren’t steady when he shoved his fingers through his too short hair. Guilt stabbed through her. She shouldn’t have made him cut it. But then he grinned that sexy, silly grin and she almost forgot what they were talking about.
“We’re not done.” His grin turned into a smirk. “You owe me.”
Now she remembered. “You want it right here?” She started to reach for his jeans.
His grin faltered, and he jumped back. She just laughed and started for the SUV. She wasn’t surprised when he trapped her against the passenger door. Her mouth ached for one more kiss. But he stopped before his mouth touched hers, and brown eyes laughed at her when she moved her head
to close the distance. His smirk turned to mock regret as he lifted his head. She almost stumbled forward, expecting the kiss that didn’t come.
She had to steady herself against him.
“I’m not a nice guy.” His words sliced through her as he stepped back and jerked her car door open.
She wanted to laugh at that declaration followed by his old-fashioned manners. Opening her car door? Who would've ever guessed that? But he did, every time, and she hated to admit it, but it made her knees weak. Which ratcheted up her anger at herself for letting this charade go this far. That anger made her sound calmer than she felt. “If you want to play, little boy, fine. But when you get hurt, I won’t kiss it better.”
There was nothing sexy or silly about the grin she got this time. It was pure smoldering menace, and it burned through her so good she forgot how to breathe.
“You won’t get a chance. I’ll be down your throat so hard, you’ll have to take what I give you.” He kissed her again, harder than he’d ever kissed anyone before. But the harder he kissed, the hotter she got.
She shuddered in his arms, and then she couldn’t get close enough. She was kissing him back and he was burning up right along with her.
Some pathetic spark of sanity fired up Jared’s conscience. He couldn’t do this. No matter how much he wanted to or how right it felt to have her in his arms, it was still wrong. She’d done horrible things to people he cared about. He forced himself to remember the threats against Jen, the way she’d tried to drive a wedge between Jen and Stefan, but it did no good. He still couldn’t get enough of her.
How could he want her like this, knowing what she’d done? What was she doing to him?
Because this wasn’t him. This angry, biting instinct to crush her and hurt her but still consume her wasn’t who he was, and he refused to let her turn him into that. He was not some sex-starved barbarian who couldn’t control his baser instincts.
But damn, she tasted so good. She fit against him perfectly.
No. He refused to be that guy.
He broke away, shoving her back into the passenger seat and slamming the door before he could think too hard. His body burned and ached as he put distance between them. He’d never felt like this before and he hated it. He hated her for turning him inside out until he couldn’t think straight. He hated her a little more with each step he took around the car until he jerked the driver door open, prepared to make some cutting comment that proved he was in control of this situation.
The Fall of the Red Queen (Self Made Men...Southern Style Book 3) Page 3
