Spider

But something tells me that’s what he wants.

My hands shake as I slowly inch backward toward the door. On my insistence to Anne, I’ve had a year of self-defense training in Krav Maga, but in this moment, I can’t recall one defensive maneuver.

I swallow, running through the basics.

Don’t show fear.

Keep it simple.

Be the bear.

Go for soft tissue.

My eyes dart behind me to the front door. There’s a buzzer there to hit in case of trouble. If I could just reach it before he—

He jumps at me, clamps a hand around my wrists, and jerks me toward him until my chest is pressed against his. My purse falls to the sidewalk, the contents flying, including my Mace. The scent of his sweat wafts into my face. I wiggle to get away but he tugs on my scalp until my head is bent back, forcing me to look up at him. The odd angle stretches out my vocal chords, preventing me from doing anything more than wheeze as I try to scream.

My feet kick at him, searching for purchase in his groin area even as my heart races and my eyes careen around, looking for help. My breathing quickens, becoming shallow and rapid.

Shit.

At this rate, I’m going to pass out.

He clenches his teeth together. “Don’t ever toss baseball in my face again. You don’t know shit about what you mouthed off about—”

One of my wrists wrangles free from his grip and I throat-punch him.

He staggers back and goes straight to his knees, holding his neck.

Anger and fear mingle together, making my fists curl. My chest expands as I suck in air.

Beady eyes narrow as he wheezes, getting to his feet. Before I can get my breath to run, he’s already coming at me.

I widen my stance, preparing for him to tackle me—but Garrett lurches to the side as a shadow collides with him, sending him flying to the ground.

Spider is a blur as he takes him down.

Where did he come from?

His fist slams into Garrett’s face, whipping it to the side. Twisting around, Garrett manages to get to his feet. Spider punches him again, this time in the stomach, causing an oomph to erupt from Garrett.

“Don’t you ever come near her again!” Spider yells, hitting Garrett in the jaw.

Garrett curses and shakes it off, a wild look in his eyes as he rushes at Spider, knocking him down and pinning him to the ground. He gets in two good shots before Spider wriggles out from under him.

Spider lunges and jerks the beanie off, using it to wrap around Garrett’s neck, whose eyes bulge. It’s obvious he can breathe, but barely.

“If I ever see you within a hundred yards of her again, I’ll kill you, motherfucker. You understand?” Spider bites out as he releases him, pushing him away from us with a kick to his backside. “Now get out of here, you fucking bloody arsehole, before I change my mind and beat you senseless!”

Garrett takes off across the grass, his long legs flying as he heads for the quad and the athletic dorm.

My chest heaves as Spider turns to face me. I run up to him to check him out, using my phone to get him in more light. There’s a cut under his right eye and blood on his cheek.

“We need to get that looked at,” I say, my heart still flying from the adrenaline.

“I’m bloody well fine.” His gaze brushes over me to check me out and I can tell he’s still hyped up, his eyes bouncing from my face to my arms. His chest heaves. “Did he leave bruises? Are you okay?”

I don’t even know if he did. I don’t care. All that matters is that I’m okay and Spider is too. I nod. “Thank you for that.” I push out a laugh, adrenaline still pumping as I say, “I was doing pretty good on my own, right?” I swallow. “It felt good to throat-punch him.”

“I wanted to kill him,” he mumbles as he clenches his fists.

He paces around me, looking distracted and anxious. “We should call campus security.”

I shake my head. “Won’t work. He’ll deny it and put it all on me. His family has too much money and too much influence around here. He’s a superstar athlete and people will blame me somehow. Trust me, I’ve seen it happen time and time again. Plus, he’s seventeen, and you’re not.”

“Fuck.” He scrubs his face, his eyes uncertain. “Are you sure?”

I nod. I don’t want to put him in a weird situation where he looks like the aggressor when he clearly wasn’t, and part of me doesn’t want this incident getting back to Robert and Anne. I know they’ll judge him for it, and my protective instincts are at their highest when it comes to Spider.

I don’t even know why.

I exhale, rubbing my arms. “The truth is, it’s not the first time I’ve had to defend myself. I lived in foster care for two years before Anne came along.”

“What if he tries again and I’m not here?”

“Forget him. I think you scared the shit out of him.” I grab his hand, noticing that it’s swelling. “Does it hurt?”

“No.” He stares down at his hand as I cradle it in mine. His eyes come up to capture mine. He swallows.

I study him, recalling his earlier comment about not being able to meet me after work. “What happened to going to a club tonight?”

He takes his hand back, almost reluctantly, and lets out a breath, wiping at the blood on his face with the hem of his shirt. I get the perfect view of his hard abs and the deep V that leads down to his jeans. He’s rock solid, lean, and perfect. “My plans changed . . . obviously. I followed you home from work. I would have been here sooner, but Father called me just as I parked.”

Oh.

“Why did you follow me?”

He gets this cautionary look on his face. “I can’t help myself when it comes to you.”

Oh.

I push out a smile, still feeling off from Garrett. “Come to my room so we can get you cleaned up.”

He chews on his bottom lip, the indentation of his teeth mesmerizing. “I should go.”

“Maybe that would be the smart choice.”

“Definitely,” he says, his eyes on mine.

“But you’ll come anyway,” I say. “You want to.”

A few seconds pass as he stares down at me, his eyes at half-mast, those lashes so thick it should be illegal. “Is my stepsister inviting me up with an ulterior motive?”

Hell yes.

Spider is a bright, hot sun and I’m Icarus, flying way too close.

“What if I said yes?”

A small smile plays around his lips. “Then I’d say show me the way.”

How can one human man be so hot?

Spider sits on my toilet, shirtless, while I dab at his swollen eye. I’m doing my best to keep my eyes averted from the ink on his body, the way his tattoos swirl underneath his jeans, the way his chest is carved from stone.

Of course, I’m the stupid person who suggested he remove his shirt so I could see if he has any bruising on his chest. A cracked or broken rib can cause a lot of pain, and I want to be thorough, that’s all—I swear to baby Jesus.

He grinned at my request and whipped it off—which is the reason I’m now a mess.

There’s hardly any room to breathe with him in my small bathroom.

I wipe at the spot of blood on his cheek as he watches me stoically, never taking his eyes off me, tracking my every movement.

“This will look worse tomorrow,” I murmur, just to ease the tension. I stand between his spread legs, acutely aware of his fresh scent, his pure magnetism. My hands shake and I have to focus to push an image of me straddling him, both of us naked, out of my head. I want to run my tongue over the tattoo on his neck. I want to bite him like an animal while he slides into me—