Page 1 of Wicked Ends (Hellions of Hade Harbor #4)

Arianna

I woke with a start, cold air cutting through the dream I’d been lost in.

Sweat slicked my skin, and I shivered at the drop in temperature.

I blinked blearily across the room at the window.

Damn it . Maine wasn’t the kind of place I wanted to keep the window wide open at night. My Californian blood couldn’t take it.

I slid out of the bed and padded across the floor to the window. The motel parking lot was nearly empty. The local conference that had filled the place up was long over, and the Night Owl was back to its usual state of sleepy quarter occupancy.

I pulled the window shut and shivered again.

Wait, didn’t I close it before bed?

A creeping awareness worked over me, and suddenly I knew.

I wasn’t alone.

I whirled around just as he moved.

One second, I was standing in front of the window, gripping the ledge, and the next, I was being thrown onto the bed, fear choking me. A heavy body landed on top of mine, straddling my hips, and when my hands flew up in defense, they were effortlessly captured and pinned ruthlessly to the bed.

“Got you, birthday girl. Looks like I win this one.”

My attacker’s gaze traced over my face and down my neck to my body, held prisoner beneath his.

“You know, I’ve thought a lot about what to do with you, the woman who crossed me. People don’t cross me and get away with it. It doesn’t happen… I don’t allow it to happen. So, the real question is: What am I going to do with you now? And will anyone miss you when you’re gone?”

Fuck. I had no doubt that he was telling the truth. He held my future in his hands, and we both knew it.

“Mr. Bailey—” I tried to keep the fear and excitement coiled deep in my belly at bay.

“Call me Marcus, Professor… like you did the night we met, or better still…” He leaned in and ran his nose up the side of my cheek, breathing in the smell of my skin. “Scream it.”