Wicked Burn(76)

He grabbed the steering wheel tightly, as if he needed something to squeeze besides what he really wanted between his hands—her throat.

“Why aren’t you with your husband?” he countered, his gray eyes flashing.

“My ex-husband is in the Evergreen Park Mental Hospital, where he has been for nearly three and half years!” she shouted.

His head flew back several inches, as though she’d just slapped him. “Your ex-husband?” he repeated.

Niall swiped at her soaking cheeks in rising agitation. “Yeah, that’s right.”

“Why’d your mom say he was your husband back in December, then?”

Niall stared at him as she exhaled slowly. “Because Stephen still was my husband back in December, Vic. Technically speaking, that is.”

His eyes narrowed as though he were trying to focus on some place in her spirit to see if she was lying or not. He must have decided her depths were too dark to even attempt to read, because he abruptly put the truck into Drive and pulled onto the road.

“Obviously the technicalities don’t mean anything to you. But they mean a hell of a lot to me,” he said coldly as he stared straight ahead and drove.

“You have no right to judge me,” Niall stated through a throat choked with emotion.

She gasped when he braked so hard that her seat belt locked and her head flung forward, spilling her hair in her face. He turned toward her, muscles coiled like a big cat about to pounce.

“I have every right to judge you. You lied to me. Don’t you think most guys would want to know that the woman they were in a relationship with just happened to be married?” he thundered.

“Is that what you thought, Vic? That we were in a relationship?”

For several tense seconds neither of them took a breath. Niall could tell by the expression on his face that Vic hadn’t liked her question at all. She took advantage of his temporary discomposure.

Her eyes scoured his face, entreating him to respond from some place other than anger. Surely if he was this furious at her, it meant that he wasn’t completely immune to her. Didn’t it?

“Because the thing of it is,” she continued shakily, “neither one of us really ever spoke of it last year. I thought maybe for you it was just about the sex.”

“Who said it wasn’t?” he asked, his lips curling contemptuously.

“I thought you were,” Niall said quietly, refusing to let him escape her gaze. “Just now. Why else would you feel so hurt that I’d betrayed your trust?”

Her words seemed to reverberate around the cab, causing the already potent tension between them to increase exponentially. Vic’s face looked rigid with anger. Niall made a startled sound of surprise when he abruptly flipped the car back into Drive and stomped on the accelerator. She wasn’t sure what to make of his almost frightening intensity as they sped down the road in silence.

Gravel popped loudly beneath the wheels of the truck when he made a tight turn into the long drive to the farm. It continued to fly frenziedly as they raced up to the spot right in front of Vic’s cottage. He switched off the ignition and got out of the truck so fast that Niall was stunned.

She just stared at him wide-eyed when he flung open the passenger door a second later.

“Come on,” he ordered tersely. “If you need reminding of what was between us for a brief, nearly forgettable relationship of convenience last year, I’ll be happy to remind you. I’ve got nothing better to do tonight since you ruined my date. Why are you looking at me like that?” he queried viciously as he leaned over her and unsnapped her belt. He grabbed her hand and pulled until Niall practically fell out of the cab. She hit the hard, ungiving weight of his body with a gentle thud. “This is what you showed up uninvited on my farm for this summer, isn’t it, Niall?”

She winced at the impact of his words. Maybe Vic thought the flash of pain related to the fact that he’d just pulled her onto the gravel when she wasn’t wearing shoes. He glanced down at her bare feet before he cursed under his breath. In one rapid, sinuous movement he swept her into his arms and slammed the truck door.

Vic charged into the cottage like a bull on the rampage. He never remembered being so worked up in his life. Even the time when he’d caught Jenny f*cking Max Blake didn’t compare to this. He felt like the cap on the geyser of his emotion was about to pop off and the resulting gush was going to be explosive.

Fuck if he cared, he thought as he threaded Niall’s body through the narrow entrance of his front door before he shut it with a bang. Let it explode. He was sick of holding it in. Sick of watching from a distance while Niall pranced around his home wreaking havoc on his peace of mind, being forced to observe the way sunlight reflected on the golden waves of her hair when she returned from her morning walk, or being held captive at the dinner table while her big eyes ran over him hungrily with the same effect as a flickering tongue. Did she think he was superhuman, that he actually could endure the torture of walking away when her long legs were spread as wide as they could go, the way they had been that one damnable evening in the living room, maddening him with the memory of what it had been like to be between those thighs with his cock buried in her while Niall made those sexy whimpers in her throat—

That excruciating ordeal was over, Vic thought as he set Niall’s ass down on his kitchen counter and spun her until she faced him. He ignored her stunned expression as he roughly raised her dress and parted her slender legs, wedging his hips between them. One hand spread on the outside of her thigh, refamiliarizing itself with the exquisite sensation of her silky skin. He pushed forward on her lower back until her opened * perched just off the counter. His mouth found her neck, where he lightly licked her pearls and then scraped his teeth against her tender skin.