Page 21 of Hostile Cravings (Wicked Cravings #3)

Tyson’s thumb brushed across it, and I looked back up at him.

“And then the freckles. Each time I covered more, my father relaxed when I entered a room. My brother’s eyes no longer seemed so sad.

The clothes came next, as I cleaned out everything that reflected what she’d taught me about fashion, replacing it with more skin, less material.

And by the time I was sixteen, my glasses were gone, and my hair was lightened.

There was nothing left to remind me of her, nothing left but the emptiness in my chest, which I filled with my pettiness, my demands, and my attitude.

All things that went against everything she was. ”

I looked back down, the guilt I’d hidden away with everything else surfacing. He tipped my chin up, forcing my eyes to his.

“So you’re telling me you’re not a natural blonde?” His question brought only relief that he didn’t judge me for dishonoring my mother’s memory, for burying my emotions, and for being the brat he’d always known me to be.

“Guess you had no way of knowing,” I replied playfully.

His other hand rubbed down my smooth body. “That’s just downright deceitful. What color is your hair, baby?”

Unable to stop my smile, I said, “Strawberry blonde.”

“You’re a red-head and you hide it? Shit, that’s even hotter. You’re growing that out. No more dye jobs for you.” He yanked me off him and flipped me, hovering over me in a protective position. “No more hiding from me,” he said.

“But Tyson…” I didn’t want to say it, to ruin the moment with the truth.

He wrapped his hand around my waist and pulled me against him, my back rising from the mattress. “What, Anj?”

“You can’t expect me to make those changes when we…we… ”

“When we what? Hate each other?”

“Yes.”

“Of course I can because I own your bratty little ass, no matter how much you annoy the shit out of me.”

My smile threatened to escape. “You don’t own me. It’s temporary until this shit with Joey calms down. Then you have to give me up.” Saying it burned my throat, and I saw the flinch he tried to hide from me.

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes.” He rolled from me and rose, walking across the room and grabbing his phone. I propped myself on my elbows, watching his ass and loving how the muscles in it and his thighs moved.

“Stop licking your lips like that, Anj, or I’ll put them to use again.”

He brought the phone up to his ear, and I wondered what he was doing until he turned and I took in the sight of him from the other angle again. There was no stopping how wet it made me and, as if he knew, he threw me a lopsided grin.

“Get us some dinner,” he said into the phone. “I don’t care if you already brought her dinner. It’s cold.”

There was a moment of silence, one I took to peruse his body again.

“Whatever you brought last time is fine.”

He hung up, and walked to the bar, pouring himself a glass of liquor before walking to the balcony and grabbing the bottle of wine and my glass. He didn’t seem to care that anyone could see him out there, and I shook my head as he walked back to the bed.

“What?” he asked, setting his glass down, then filling my wine glass and handing it to me.

“Don’t walk on the balcony like that.”

His brow shot up.

“Hey, if you can scold me for wearing what I wear, I can scold you for walking out there naked. I already have that trampy manager trying to get in your pants. I don’t need to fight the rest of the women in this resort for your attention.”

He laughed as he crawled back into bed, taking the wine glass away from me and pinning my arms to the side of my head. “You don’t have to fight for my attention. I think I want an appetizer before our dinner gets here.”

My stomach flipped, my legs twisting with excitement as he kissed me with an intensity that stirred the flames in me.

He continued to ravage me until our dinner came and he ordered them to leave it at the door because he hadn’t finished fucking me.

I should have scolded him for talking about me like that, but that was Tyson, and it was the comfortable way we were with each other.

One that continued to morph with every touch, every moan, and every climax that filled the rest of our night.

By the time we’d completely exhausted ourselves, our dinner was cold again and both of us were too tired to get up.

I snuggled into his chest, wondering why it felt so comfortable.

I never spent the night with men. There was a line there I didn’t want to cross.

I took them in back rooms and cars, in the shadowed hallways of clubs, my father’s men always blocking entry or standing guard.

But I never let one close enough to hold me.

Until now. With Tyson it was different and even though our hatred for each other had overshadowed our relationship for years, being in his arms felt right.

“Don’t get comfortable, Anj,” Tyson grumbled as if he read my thoughts. I adjusted my head to peek up at him. “This is the second time we’ve shared this bed. I don’t like sharing, so don’t make it a habit.”

I bit his chest, and he grabbed my face, his other hand sinking into my hair and twisting strands into his grip.

“Don’t be an asshole,” I retorted, wincing as he tugged hard.

“Don’t be a cunt,” he growled.

“You like that word, Tyson? It comes out of your mouth an awful lot.” The aggressive banter had returned, and I relaxed into the ease of it.

“I normally don’t like that word unless I’m using it for you. You bring it out in me.”

“Huh, you bring out a stomach-turning bile kind of feeling in me.” I tried not to smile and saw the slight twitch of his lip. He was enjoying this as much as I was. Whatever this was that we had, neither of us knew what to do with it.

“Go to sleep, bitch, or I’ll make you sleep on the floor,” he groused, pushing me off his chest.

“But then you wouldn’t have such easy access to my body.” I rolled over, turning my back on him and pulling the sheets up higher.

Within seconds, he turned his body into mine, spooning me, his hand coming around to cup my breast. “I can fuck you just as easily on the floor as I can in the bed, Anj. Bend you over and tear you up so much I leave rug burns on those knees.”

“Mmm, is that a promise?”

His dick jumped, which was surprising with how many times we’d had sex. The man had a stamina that rivaled any man I’d met, and the thought sent a tingle of currents flooding my body.

“We can try that tomorrow,” he said, nibbling my shoulder. “Go to sleep before I toss you out of this bed.”

I pushed into him, his hand pulling me even further against his chest, and relaxed into his hold.

I listened to his calming breaths as his body spooned mine, thinking of how natural this felt when it shouldn’t have.

We’d shifted from enemies to lovers quickly and as much as it excited me, worry nagged at the back of my mind.

This wasn’t us. Two people who cuddled in bed together after sex or even had sex.

I chewed the inside of my cheek and covered his hand with mine, unsure of where this was heading and with a nagging suspicion that it was all too good to be true.