Heavy footsteps sounded on the steps above them. Blowing out his breath, Marc uncurled his grip from the man's shirt, shoving him away. "You get this walk," he warned him. "But don't keep pushing your luck."

He didn't bother to watch as Tim disappeared, just focused on Chaili's eyes, those amazing eyes. "I won't keep letting him mouth off like that. He'll go too far."

"Yeah. Probably. But not here." She leaned in, pressed her lips to his. "Come on, didn't we have a date on the top floor?"

It was 7:38 when they got to the room.

It was 7:39 when Marc had her pressed back against the door.

It was 7:40 when he had her cuffed, the cuffs hooked over a convenient little hook fastened into the door.

It was 7:41 when he had her knees hooked over his elbows as he pushed inside her. "I told you I'd be doing this soon," he said, his voice a low, throaty purr in the stunning silence of the room.

It was one of the private rooms, Chaili had noticed that, but unlike any of the rooms she'd seen before.

Dazed, stunned, she stared into his eyes as he continued to burrow deeper inside her. Next to no warning. Just in the room, and...bam. Arms stretched over her head, her legs hooked over his forearms as he f.u.c.ked her...she sucked in a desperate breath and whimpered his name.

"Say it like that again," he said, his voice calm, easy. Like he was ordering a pizza or something. "I like it when you say my name all broken like that."

Groaning, she bucked in his arms and tried to ride the ridge of his c.o.c.k. But he held back, watching her. Waiting.

"I want to hear you whimpering," he whispered. He started to shaft her with slow, teasing little strokes that did nothing to a.s.suage the fire inside her. "You're so f.u.c.king beautiful, Chaili. Let me hear it. Give it to me..."

She cried out, squeezing her eyes closed as his name fell from her lips.

"That's it..." He slid deeper. Withdrew. Pushed in. Harder this time, so that the flared head of his c.o.c.k rasped over the sensitive bundle of nerves buried in her p.u.s.s.y. "Come on...do it again. I want to see you break for me."

She jerked against the cuffs, clamped down around him and tried to keep him inside her.

He surged deeper. Harder. "Break for me, baby girl," he growled. "Break..."

Chaili shuddered, feeling it rise inside, taking her deeper, deeper. Harder. Harder. As he moved...harder, harder...deeper, deeper.

Her heart couldn't take it. Couldn't handle it. Couldn't handle it. Like it was going to explode, shatter...and she thought maybe she was...oh, oh!

He growled, slamming inside her. "Come for me," he rasped, his mouth crushing into hers, tongue thrusting past her lips to take her mouth the same way he took her body.

She shuddered. Quaked.

And as he drove into her once more, she climaxed.

Chaili stared at the silvery strands in the box.

"Marc...I...I can't..."

He pulled them out of the box. "Why?" He held one of them up to her ears, smiling a little. "They'll look good on you."

"I...just. Well."

"We've been going out for over two weeks. I think that means I'm allowed to buy you a present."

"Is that in the dating handbook?"

He tugged on her hair. "Well, for it to be official, I think I have to ask you to go steady..." He leaned and brushed her hair back. "So, tell me something, Chaili, you wanna go steady with me?" he teased.

He might have been teasing, but it still managed to settle a lump in her throat. Swallowing around it, she looked down, staring at the box so she wouldn't give herself away. "I think we're a little past the high school drama stuff, aren't we?"

Marc shrugged. "h.e.l.l, out of high school, maybe. But the drama stuff, does that ever end? And I'm not entirely joking..." He laid a hand on her cheek. "There's something real here. You know it. I feel it. We don't need to put a name to it, but I'm not planning on walking away from this."

Something real.

h.e.l.l. She didn't need to put a name to it, because she already knew what it was.

Shaken, she focused on the earrings again. Easier that way. "I'm just not really comfortable accepting gifts, Marc," she said quietly.

"It's just one," he pointed out.

Rising from the couch, she tucked the earrings inside the box. Something told her she needed to be careful here. Maybe not do anything. Yet. This was a scary conversation to have.

"Just one gift," she blurted out. "Yeah. But..." Her mind spun around, desperate to seize onto something.

Something real...something real. She wanted to believe that so bad. Wanted to believe they'd still be spending so much time together after the website was done. But what about when he went back to the studio? Back on tour...

The website- "The website!" She turned around and glared at him.

A wary look entered his eyes. "What about the website?"

"You all but handed me the easiest job in the world and you're overpaying me!" Okay, that was stretching it. It wasn't easy and she was d.a.m.n well busting her a.s.s. Maybe he was overpaying her...

"Hey, we've already agreed the d.a.m.n website I've got is a joke," he said, his voice edgy. "I needed the d.a.m.n thing redone, right?"

"Well, you didn't need to pay me double what it's worth," she babbled. Okay, I'm being silly here...

"How in the h.e.l.l do I know what they're worth?" he asked. "I named a figure and we agreed on it and it's not like it's a handout if you're doing the d.a.m.ned work!"

A handout- Fury flickered, flared to life inside her. Okay. She'd been reaching when she threw the website out there, but... "A handout?" she said quietly.

Marc's face went rigid.

"That implies like you think I might need a handout," she said coldly. She was broke, yeah, but d.a.m.n it, he didn't need to know that.

"I'm not giving you a d.a.m.ned handout. I needed a d.a.m.n job done and I asked the one person I knew who could do it to get it done," he said.

"Huh. And oddly enough, you managed to toss out a figure that all but wiped out a few of my medical bills." Narrowing her eyes, she asked, "When did you see my medical bills, Marc?"

He didn't say anything.

"You son of a b.i.t.c.h."

Chapter Fifteen.

Things could go from heaven to h.e.l.l in the blink of an eye and Marc had no idea just how this had happened.

He'd just wanted to give her something.

That was all.

But as she stormed around the private room at Blue's, gathering up the clothes he'd stripped off her, he realized he'd managed to p.i.s.s her off but good.

And he didn't know how.

She was leaving. Why?

She's running, a small voice in the back of his head whispered not even a second later.

Running?

He remembered the panicked fear he'd glimpsed in her eyes just moments ago, before it had faded. Faded? Or had she hidden it? He'd thought they were done hiding things, but was she still...

Okay. She was either hiding still, or he'd f.u.c.ked things up.

Either way, he wasn't letting her walk away like this.

As she pulled her dress on, he snagged his trousers and tugged them up. Checked his pocket. Yep. It was there.

She started for the door, but he beat her, just barely. As she tried to jerk it open, he slammed it shut over her head. "Running away?" he asked softly.

"No. I'm leaving. I can't believe you f.u.c.king did that, Marc," she snarled.

"What? Have you take over a job you should have been doing all along?" He shrugged. "Shoot me. The way I see it, the bonus doesn't even cover the money you would have made if you had been doing the site all this time, like you should have been doing. It's fair enough, in my mind."

She whirled around and glared at him. "Why didn't you just ask me?"

"Ask you what?" he said bluntly. "Ask you to take the job? I did that, remember?"

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Oh, wait, now let me guess. You'd rather I point it out like this... Chaili, I know you're tight on money. And I really do need you back on my website. Can you come back? s.h.i.t, you'd never think one had nothing to do with the other."

"Are you're telling me they didn't?"

"I never knew you weren't doing it!" he shouted. "And if you had been doing it, the way you should have been, you wouldn't be so f.u.c.king tight on money! And if I didn't have my head up my a.s.s, I would have realized what was going on! And it still doesn't change the fact that you did the best job on the d.a.m.ned site and I needed you back."

"So. You just overpaid me on accident."

He glared at her. "You're running away because you're scared."

"I am not," she snapped. "I'm leaving because I can't stand a man who thinks he can control me like that."

"If I'd wanted to control you, I would have just paid off every last one of the f.u.c.king medical bills," he said. "And it d.a.m.n well killed me not to do it. It's making me sick thinking about how hard you've had it, d.a.m.n it. But I didn't do that. I gave you a job that I needed you to do."

She just curled her lip at him. "I don't need the pity work, Marc. Or the pity f.u.c.k. So if you'd just move..." She turned back to the door expectantly.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the picture. Slammed it against the door. "No," he rasped. Pressing his lips to the back of her head, he whispered again, "You're not doing this, Chaili. I'm not letting you run away over whatever in the h.e.l.l has just scared you. I just found you, d.a.m.n it."

Chaili jumped as his hand slammed against the door. One arm came around her, hauled her back against him. She jerked against his hold, but he continued to hold her. "You've got my head all screwed up. You've got me twisted up in knots and there are things I want to say to you, but I know I'm going to f.u.c.k up what I'm saying."

As he scooped her up in his arms, she went rigid. I'm not doing this. I'm not. d.a.m.n it. How could he have gone through my stuff, found out about the bills... Her belly was hot and tight with shame, just thinking about it.

"I didn't mean to see the bills," he said as he sat on the couch. "I was working on a song, the day we were at your place, with the scarves. I accidentally knocked the bills over. That's how I saw them."

Staring at anything but him, Chaili told herself it didn't matter. He'd seen private stuff. He shouldn't have looked- s.h.i.t, what was he supposed to do? Leave it on the floor? I could have put it away...

s.h.i.t. She was being a coward. Closing her eyes, she said quietly, "Let me go, Marc. I need to think."

"You mean run away," he muttered.

"No. I mean think."

As his arms fell away, she scooted off his lap, but she didn't get up, just curled up on the couch, her head pressed against her knees. Okay. He'd seen the medical bills. Nothing she could do about that. And she was being stupid here. Stupid, and she knew it. She...

h.e.l.l, she was terrified.

She wanted to believe he felt something real, because that meant it could be something that lasted but...

"Marc," she said, glancing up at him. But he wasn't looking at her.

He was looking at something he held in his hand.

Slowly, he held it up, flipped it around so she could see it. Startled, she hissed out a breath, shooting a look between him and the picture. It was one of the ones she'd stripped out of her house. One of the dozens. This one, one of her...and him. Down at the pier. He'd been laughing, playfully leering at her and she'd been pushing him away. She'd given the pictures to Shera, though. "Ah...did Shera give you that?"

"No." He stroked the edge of the picture with his finger. "I found it...with a box of everything else that was us. Or me. You decided to cut me out of your life. Right after I realized just how important you were to mine."

Right after I realized...

Licking her lips, she whispered, "When did you find it?"

"The day I came looking for you at that idiot's party."

Tears blurred her eyes. She blinked them away. That had been more than two weeks ago. Her heart skipped a beat. Okay. This conversation was taking a turn she wasn't prepared for. She needed a drink. Yeah. Some coffee. Something to clear her brain. She was slightly tipsy from the wine they'd had at dinner. Drunk on s.e.x. Emotions kiting way too high. "I need some coffee," she said, shoving to her feet and heading for the small kitchenette the private VIP rooms boasted.