Joanne bolted from her stupor, the explosive roar of Alfonso’s voice shattering the fog of shock that had paralyzed her mind.
Her heart leaped into her throat as her nursing instincts rilled into her subconscious, finally overrode her terror.
Desperate to escape his suffocating closeness and the lethal fury radiating from his eyes, she scrambled forward, shifting her weight on the leather seat to reach for the hidden compartment beneath the bench where he had indicated.
But the car was swerving sharply as Griffin navigated the dark highway at high speed, and in her frantic, clumsy haste, Joanne had to hoist her body up, inadvertently rubbing her aching backside directly against Alfonso’s firm, muscled thigh.
Alfonso didn’t hesitate for a fraction of a second.
His hand shot out like a striking predator, his long fingers wrapping tightly around her behind, catching the soft flesh in a brutal, possessive vice.
He squeezed them hard, his palm pressing relentlessly against the fresh, dark bruises he had left on her skin just minutes ago in the hospital bed.
“Ah!” Joanne winced sharply, a soft, pained cry slipping past her lips as a wave agony flared through her lower body.
She tried to pull away, but his grip was an absolute anchor.
Alfonso leaned forward, his eyes flashing with a wicked, arrogant amusement as he looked down at her struggling form.
“Why the hell are you reacting that way, sweet doctor, when you were the one who clearly wanted me to touch you? If you didn’t want my hands on you, you shouldn’t have been rubbing your delicious backside all over me.”
Shaking with a mixture of pain and deep mortification, Joanne ignored his mocking words, using every ounce of her remaining strength to wrench herself free from his hold.
She shifted across the leather seat, sliding until her back was pressed flat against the opposite door, completely out of his immediate physical reach.
She turned to face him, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.
But in her haste and the chaotic movement, the top buttons of her inner uniform shirt—which had been frantically fastened earlier—had loosened slightly.
The fabric gaped open, exposing the deep, voluptuous curve of her cleavage and the faint, red friction marks he had left on her chest.
Alfonso’s gaze dropped instantly, his eyes darkening as they raked over the exposed skin with an insatiable hunger.
“Are you offering me an alternative, Joanne?” he murmured, his voice dropping into a low, gravelly register that vibrated through the quiet cabin.
“Because if you prefer that I touch your front instead of your back, I assure you, I wouldn’t mind in the slightest.”
Joanne’s face burned a furious crimson.
She instantly grabbed the lapels of her nursing coat with both hands, pulling the stiff fabric tightly over her chest and hiding her cleavage completely from his predatory sight. Read this novel at NovelPing for the best experience.
She glared at him, her knuckles white as she held her clothes shut, her mind screaming at the unadulterated arrogance of the man.
Alfonso let out an impatient hiss, his jaw clenching tightly as the blood from his scratched ear began to trail down the side of his neck, staining the pristine white collar of his designer shirt.
“Get the goddamn kit already,” he snapped, his tone turning dangerously cold.
“Unless you are deliberately planning on letting your new employer die of excessive bleeding right here on the seat.”
I wish you would, Joanne thought bitterly to herself, her eyes narrowing as she looked at the blood on his neck.
Inwardly, a dark, vengeful voice spoke to her, whispering that his sudden death right now would have lessened her work of vengeance significantly.
It would save her the months of planning, the danger, and the absolute humiliation of being bound to his side.
But she couldn’t let him die yet—not before he freed her parents from the twenty-year concrete hell he had locked them in.
Forcing her anger down, she reached beneath the seat and finally pulled out the emergency first aid kit.
Sitting as far away from him as possible on the edge of the leather bench, she popped the plastic latches open.
Her hands were still slightly trembling, the adrenaline from the shootout making her fingers clumsy as she pulled out a bottle of sterile antiseptic solution, a pack of gauze pads, and a pair of medical tweezers.
She leaned forward slightly, trying to reach his ear from across the gap, her breath catching as she prepared to tend to the wound.
Before the gauze could even touch his skin, Alfonso’s hand shot out again.
He grabbed her wrist with terrifying speed, his fingers locking around her bone like a steel handcuff, and yanked her entire body toward him.
Joanne gasped as she lost her balance completely, flying across the small space between them until she landed heavily right on his lap, her thighs straddling his knees.
“What are you doing?!” she cried out, her voice husky and entirely ruined from the hours of screaming beneath him in the VIP room.
She tried to push herself up, but his hand clamped around her slender waist, pinning her lower body directly against his hard torso.
“Why the hell are you so afraid of me, Joanne?” Alfonso whispered, his face inches from hers.
“Is this how they taught you to behave in medical school? Tell me, do they teach doctors to treat their high-paying patients from across the room like they’re dealing with a rabid dog?”
“Let me go… I can’t work like this,” she pleaded, her hands trembling as she held the gauze and antiseptic close to his face.
“You will work exactly how I tell you to work,” Alfonso commanded, his voice dripping with an absolute, unyielding dominance that brooked zero refusal.
He tightened his grip on her waist, pulling her so close that her breasts were practically brushing against his chest.
“Treat me. Right now. In this position.”
Trapped and completely overwhelmed by the sheer masculinity and dangerous aura radiating off him, Joanne had no choice but to comply.
She lifted her shaking hands, pouring a small amount of the antiseptic onto the gauze pad.
She began tending to his wound, her fingers gently dabbing at the torn, bloody flesh of his right ear.
But she couldn’t clearly concentrate; her medical focus was completely shattered because she could feel him breathing right on her face, his dark, piercing eyes locked onto her features, studying every single micro-expression of fear and resentment crossing her face.
The proximity was intoxicating, dangerous, and entirely suffocating.
She picked up a small pair of medical forceps to clear away a tiny piece of debris near the scratch, her eyes completely locked on the injury.
Suddenly, without a single word of warning, Alfonso’s free hand slid upward.
He drove his warm fingers inside her clothes, plunging past the loosened buttons of her shirt and deep into her cleavage, his palm pressing directly against the hypersensitive, bare skin of her breast.
The unexpected, invasive touch sent a violent, electric jolt through Joanne’s entire nervous system.
Her body reacted completely on its own, a primal instinct of self-defense taking over.
She jerked backward in pure panic, her hand flying out wildly—and the metal forceps in her grip struck Alfonso’s freshly cleaned, raw wound with a hard, accidental force.
Alfonso let out a loud, furious growl, his face contorting in sudden pain as fresh blood spurred from the re-opened scratch.
He grabbed her wrist, twisting it until she dropped the equipment, and barked at her with a terrifying, booming rage that filled the entire car.
“Why the fuck are you so jumpy, Joanne?!” he roared, his voice trembling with a lethal, unbridled fury as he pulled his hand out of her shirt, revealing a small, stray piece of glass that he had just plucked from her uniform collar.
“I was only removing a shard of glass from your skin so it wouldn’t cut you, you stupid bitch! If you continue behaving in this erratic, unstable way around me, I swear to God, I will fucking kill you!”