Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)(70)

Kitty cat? Really?

Katherine had no patience for Rip today – or any day, really. And if she were being perfectly honest, the moniker he’d just bestowed upon her was a little too close to the nickname her deceased dad had often used – Kit.

“Can’t you take a hint, you thick-headed prick?” she spat. “I don’t want anything to do with you! Why can’t you just leave me alone and pay attention to your actual girlfriend for once? Maybe then she’d get off my back too!”

“Aw, don’t be like that,” Rip cooed, even having the nerve to move forward into Katherine’s space.

Refusing to be intimidated, the small brunette stood her ground. “Does Priscilla know you like to spend your free time harassing other girls?”

A muscle along the meat head’s jaw twitched. Finally, a reaction!

“Hey man,” Rip’s friend injected, rubbing the back of his neck in a seemingly nervous gesture, “maybe we should go. Priscilla would be pretty mad.”

Rip snorted. “Right. It’s Priscilla you’re concerned about.”

Tom – she was pretty sure it was Tom – shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever, man. I don’t want to be caught bugging her and get the snot kicked out of me by her alpha. His scent is all over her.”

Huh. So that whole Bastian peeing on her thing was finally coming in handy.

“Yeah, why don’t you listen to your little friend and run along now, Rip?” Katherine jabbed. “And get it through your head, would you? Not even if the survival of the human race depended on it, would I ever even consider, and I quote,” she whipped out quotation fingers, “getting down and dirty with you.”

Rip narrowed his eyes at her and refused to drop his glare as he addressed his friend out of the corner of his mouth. “What are you, Tom? An omega? If you’re so worried about being caught, make yourself useful and guard the gym door.”

Rip’s friend still looked uneasy, but did as he was told.

Katherine felt a nervous flutter in her stomach. “Why do you need someone to guard-”

Before she could finish her sentence, Rip had his strong fingers wrapped securely around one of her wrists and was dragging her back into the girls’ locker room.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing? Let go of me!”

He did let go of her – practically throwing her into a row of metal lockers. Katherine carefully rubbed her tender wrist with her uninjured hand. “What’s your problem?” she demanded.

“Funny you should ask,” Rip jeered. “You. You are my problem, Katherine.”

She was dumbfounded. “I haven’t even done anything to you.”

Rip laughed, but it was a mocking sort of sound. “Maybe not,” he conceded, “but I’m getting awfully tired of you turning me down, sweetheart. You’re starting to make me look bad.”

“You make yourself look bad,” Katherine scoffed.

Rip shook his head. “You actually think you could do better than me?” he asked, the disbelieving expression on his face matching his incredulous tone.

“Even Priscilla could do better than you,” Katherine insisted – though of that, she wasn’t completely certain.

“Priscilla knows her place. You, however,” Rip took two steps forward, forcing Katherine to back up against the lockers he’d thrown her into, “apparently still need to learn yours.”

Katherine put two hands up, pushing against the boy’s bulging pectorals in an attempt to shove him away from her. “Back off. Right now.”

Rip didn’t budge. Instead, he grabbed Katherine’s shoulders, holding her still. “Lesson number one,” he whispered, his foul breath hitting her face and causing her nose to crinkle, “no one says no to Rip Briggs.”

Without further ado, he crashed his lips onto hers.

Shocked at his audacity, Katherine gasped against Rip’s lips – which he apparently took as an invitation to thrust his tongue into her mouth.

The invasion forced her to quickly regain her bearings and she bit down on Rip’s slimy tongue. Hard.

She may or may not have tasted blood in her mouth.

Regardless, digging her sharp teeth into his tongue had its intended effect and Rip pulled away with a snarl. He spat on the ground and Katherine couldn’t say she was sorry to see that his saliva was tinged red.

Rip wiped some of the excess spittle from his mouth, and she could have sworn his hazel eyes darkened to near black as he sneered at her. “You asked for it now, you stupid girl.”

It was when the prick began advancing towards her that Katherine finally realized she was in serious trouble. She immediately tried to sidestep him and get to the door. With a rough yank of her ponytail, however, Rip manage to simultaneously thwart her attempt at escape and slam the side of her head into the corner of a metal locker.

Pain exploded from where her temple hit the hard edge and the sensation of blood trickling down her face absolutely incensed Katherine. She tried to kick the jerk where she knew it would hurt him the most, but missed. She only managed to connect a few hits to his shins before he was able to restrain her. He easily encircled both her wrists with just one hand and pinned them behind her back. He pressed his chest flush against hers.

“Let go of me!”

Then Rip’s mouth was on hers again, muffling her protests. “Don’t worry, kitty cat,” he sighed against her lips, “by the time I’m through with you, you’ll be begging for more.”