go lean somewhere else?” I ask with irritation. This motherfuck is ruining my quiet time.
“I was leaning here first,” he replies, a smirk tilting up his lips as his dark eyes watch me and smoke seeps up around his head before carrying off in the breeze.
I thought maybe I’d exaggerated how hot this dude is, but I didn’t. That’s fucking irritating, too.
“Besides,” he goes on. “I’m on perimeter duty.”
My eyes sweep over him, taking in his enforcer uniform. Even in this lighting, I can see how strong he looks, and the fighter in me respects that. But I’m not going to show it. Instead, I’m going to do what I do best, and that’s to act like he’s an idiot.
I give him a sardonic look. “You’re really doing a bang up job checking the perimeter.”
“Thank you,” he says like a smart ass.
With a sigh, I turn to leave. I’ll go find an empty part of the fence instead since this guy isn’t going to leave anytime soon.
“You didn’t answer my question,” he says, stopping me.
“What question?”
He lifts the cigarette from his lips and points at me. “Your collar. I heard Alpha was gonna try something else to get it off. I see it didn’t work.”
“How observant of you,” I drawl.
Instead of getting put off by my attitude, he seems to enjoy it. His mouth tilts up even more before I watch him take another puff. “Name’s Jericho.”
“Library Dude has been working just fine for me,” I reply.
He snorts. “Is that why you’re so cranky? I interrupted your nap time at the library?”
A scowl takes over my face like it’s claiming territory. “I’m not cranky. “
He shakes his head side to side. “Ehh, you’re pretty fucking cranky, Jet.”
“It’s Jetta. And fuck off.” I toss him my finger as I start walking away.
“Running off? You scared of me or something?”
His words stop me in my tracks, and I turn around, crossing my arms in front of me. “I’m not running away. And I’m not scared of anyone.” Except for Kaazu.
He takes another lazy pull from his cigarette, blowing the smoke up into the air. My mouth waters, not from the temptation of nicotine, but because I have the sudden urge to take those smirking lips against mine and push my tongue into his mouth to make him shut up. I want to thread my fingers through his black hair and tug hard enough to make him growl, because he just seems like the type. And it would be sexy as a motherfuck.
“Sure looks like you are.”
I know he’s goading me. I know this, but I can’t resist proving him wrong. So instead of leaving, I stomp up to him and grab the cigarette right out of his mouth.
He doesn’t try to stop me. He doesn’t even get irked like I thought he would. My intention was to piss him off, but instead, his eyes drop down to my mouth, and he watches with fascination as my lips pucker around it. And just like that, I know he’s imagining that it’s his cock my lips are wrapping around instead.
My stomach tightens, and I grow entirely too warm in the chilled night air. It’s like I’ve set something aflame all of a sudden, and now that it’s burning, I find I like the heat.
The two of us are stuck in this sexually charged moment that I didn’t intend, but I don’t want to break it just yet. For some damn reason, I like him looking at me like this. I like where I’ve taken his mind...and I want to push it even more.
I have no idea where the fuck this is coming from. It’s not like me at all. And he’s hot, but so are all the males in the troupe, and I always blew them off—apart from Cliff, of course. Other males never interested me. So why the hell am I interested in this guy?
Like some kind of seductress, I take a slow, purposeful drag, watching him steadily as I hold in the smoke for a moment. I’m very aware of how close I am to him, but I don’t move away. I look at him, almost in challenge, because I want to see what he’ll do. Shit, I want to see what I’ll do.
After letting another second pass, I remove the cigarette and blow the smoke out in a steady curl that rises between us. I lick my lips, and his eyes bank on it, fuming with heated hunger.