Thief: A Bad Boy Romance (27 page)

I make it another twenty feet down the hall with her before I can’t stand it anymore. Hearing Madison Adams say the word “pussy” is literally my breaking point, and with a growl, I’m grabbing her arm and yanking her into the next office.

“Hey!” She hisses, but I ignore her as I march us across the empty room to the bookcase.

This bookcase, I happen to know from being in the Service, camouflages the entrance to the hidden escape hallway.

“What the-” Maddie gasps as I pull the copy of “Tom Sawyer” off it’s perch and twist the little brass bust of Teddy Roosevelt, swinging the bookshelf inward to reveal the long, dimly lit tunnel.

“What in the
world-
” Her eyes go wide and her mouth hangs open as she marvels at the doorway. But I don’t give her much time to admire it before I’m pulling us through and shoving the door shut behind us.

“Why would they build this?” She whispers, biting her lip as I slowly push her back against the wall behind her. Her eyes glint something teasing and something needy at me in the low light.

“In case you’re in trouble,” I growl, moving closer to her, my eyes locked on those perfectly pouty pink lips.

“But…I’m not in trouble,” she whispers, her chest rising and falling as I move against her. She smells like honey and vanilla, and something vaguely floral, and I want to bury my face in that scent and drink it in. I want to peel away the layers of her clothes until it’s just her skin I’m smelling; just
her
that I’m touching, inhaling, and tasting.

“Not yet maybe,” I say, moving my hand up to push her hair back over her ear.

She swallows heavily, and I can feel my cock about ready to tear a hole through my pants as I feel her hips
just
barely arch up to press against me.

Fuck the job, fuck the duty, fuck the situation with our parents; all I want to do is
fuck
this girl again. All I want to do is wrap those legs around me, and slide every inch of my cock inside that utterly
perfect
, tight, wet pussy of hers.

“That night was a one time thing, you
know,” she says, utterly unconvincing.She looks like she’s one second away from
moaning
out loud.

“Oh, of course,” I growl, leaning my face closer to hers.

“I’m serious.” Her voice is barely a whisper, and I can
feel
the words breathe across my lips.

“
Definitely.
”

And I’m about four millimeters away from bruising my lips to hers, when my
fucking earpiece
squawks.

The moment
shatters
like glass as she suddenly gasps and shoves me away, wriggling out from between me and the wall as I groan and knock the wall with palm of my hand.

“
What?
” I growl irritably into my mouthpiece.

A routine check-in. Wonderful.

I’m still okaying everything with the radio op when I glance up to see her glaring at me as she pushed the secret door back open to the office. “Maddie-”

“I’m
serious
, Hunter,” she spits out. “A
one time
thing.”

And this time she is serious.

“Get it out of your head, I
mean it
.” Her eyes flash at me, but not in the way they did moments ago. This time it’s angry and resolute. Then she’s marching out of the hidden hallway and away from me.

Fuck
.

T
hree days later
, and we haven’t spoken much. Under normal circumstances of course, that would be easier, but I think we can establish that living in the White House, as the daughter of the President, with a twenty-four hour security detail, is anything
but
normal circumstances.

And of course, that’s not to say we haven’t talked
at all
, because that would be impossible seeing as he’s
always
there. He’s
always
around, even off the clock, so to speak. He’s there at the breakfast table, smirking at me with that confident, cocky grin, or burning holes in me with those piercingly blue eyes at the dinner table with his dad, my mom, and Dexter.

So when I find myself
alone
in one of the side libraries off in the West Wing, it’s like taking a timeout from the whirlwind that my mind has been ever since that day behind the secret bookshelf.

Because I haven’t stopped thinking about it for three days. I
can’t
stop thinking about it, or
him
, or how he
felt
that day.

The door creaks open, and I look up sharply from my book with a scowl on my face. Except it’s not the older Ryan boy who pokes his head in; it’s his brother.

“Oh,” Dexter says, frowning. “Are you like, hiding out or something?”

“I-” I shrug and smile. “No, come on in.”

He grins, a look not totally unlike that of his older brother. “You just looking to escape Captain America?”

I raise an eyebrow. “Captain America?”

“Hunter,” he says with a roll of his eyes. He moves to the window and slumps down on the wide sill. “I’ve been calling him that ever since he went full commando and joined the Marines like a complete spazz.”

I grin; the name sort of fits, honestly.

“I mean talk about a buzz-kill. Don’t get me wrong, he’s my brother, but that guy used to so much
fun
before he got deployed.”

Something about the way Dexter says it makes me think that “fun” maybe means more “reckless and wild” than just knowing how to have a good time.

“Well, he came
back
, which is always a good thing.”

Dexter shrugs. “Yeah.” He reaches into the pocket of his hoodie and draws out a pack of cigarettes, making me raise my eyebrows.

“Um, I don’t think you can actually smoke in here.”

“I’ll crack the window.”

I frown. “I
definitely
don’t think you can do that either.”

He winks before he pulls something that looks like a paperclip out of his pocket and starts to twist it around some of the security wires leading away from the window. I watch with my mouth open as he slowly cracks the window open, and no alarm goes off.

He turns as I raise my eyebrows at him, and he grins. “Yeah, take a wild guess who taught me how to pull that off.”

Hunter, of course.

He brings a cigarette to his lips and flicks the lighter in his other hand, bringing it to the end as he inhales.

“You know, as your soon to be stepsister, I have to tell you that's a gross habit.”

He rolls his eyes. “Yeah, thanks.”

“And dangerous.”

“Hey, my brother joined the Marines, I smoke. I’d say the life expectancy of my escape is leagues beyond his.” I raise an eyebrow at his shitty choice in wording, but he stops me with a shrug and a raised hand. “And yes, I’m always this difficult, before you ask.”

I grin. “So why
did
he join the Marines? Your dad?”

Dexter snorts. “
Hell no
. No, no way. If anything, he’d have
not
joined just to throw it in the Major’s face.” He slumps back against the window frame, blowing smoke outside into the chilly January afternoon. “Probably my mom. I dunno, I was young when she died, but I know Hunt took it bad.” He takes another pull of his cigarette. “She was pretty awesome though, I remember that.

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, shit happens, right?” Dexter shrugs. “How about your dad, you ever see him?”

“Only in the papers, occasionally.”

He grins at me. “He seems like a tool, no offense.”

“None taken, he is.”

Mom and I don’t actually really ever talk about my dad, because we don’t need to. We don’t need to remember someone who left us like that when I was so young, and especially someone who’s never really made the effort to be a part of
either
of our lives.

My dad is basically a trust-fund kid run amok. A young hot-head my mom met when she was in law school and fell for. He pretty quickly fell for someone else, or rather
many
someone elses and left her with law school debt and a four year old. Basically all I know about him is that he spends most of his time in Europe, dates the occasional far-past-her-prime socialite, and sometimes makes appearances in shitty tabloids.

Beyond that, I don’t really need to think about him.

“I can’t believe your mom won not only as a woman but as a divorcée. I mean,
I
voted for her, but this country is full of douchebags.”

I shrug. “Pretty sure it’s
why
she won.”

And it is. Single mom? Divorcée? A take-no-shit attitude? Yeah, you better believe that rang true with her core demographic. And really, I get it, and I get why me leaving school the way I did grates on her gears. I also get why even if she wants to marry him, she’s loathe to make the whole thing with Alec Ryan public. Because she’s strong on her own, and she knows it.

I immediately want to change the subject.

“So that’s why Hunter joined the Marines? Escape?”

Dex snorts. “Dude, he and dad
both
needed to not be around each other; big time.”

“Do either of them know you’re smoking?” I say, nodding with my chin at the smoke curling up from the cigarette between his fingers.

He eyes me, like he’s trying to read me. “Not unless you squeal.”

“What if I do?”

“I think that’d make you a pretty shitty stepsister.”

I laugh. “Agreed. Look, just — I don’t know — cut back or something, okay?”

“Deal.” He grins at me. “You know, you’re not so bad.”

“Oh, gee, thanks,” I say sarcastically.

He laughs again. “No, dude, I mean — I don’t know, you’re not as stuck up as I thought you’d be.” He grins. “Plus it's
awesome
to have another college reject around to take some the heat off me.”

I flip him off as he laughs in the window. “Hey, I’m just taking some time off. I had a pretty shitty semester last year, you know,” I add, suddenly frowning as I think about Harry. “You should go back and finish your undergrad, you know.”

“Yeah, she says the same thing.”

“Huh?”

Dexter quickly frowns as shakes his head. “Nothing.”

“No,
who?
”

“Just this girl,” he says with a shrug.

I smirk as I raise my eyebrows;
how the heck is Dexter sneaking around?

He snuffs out his cigarette on the windowsill outside and flicks it away before he closes the window and reconnects whatever he undid with the wiring. “Anyways, sorry you’re stuck with Hunter twenty-four-seven.”

“Eh, it’s not so bad.”

“Nah, he’s not bad at all.” He shrugs and flashes that Ryan-brother grin again. “I mean, a huge tool after the military, but he’s a good guy.”

* * *

“
W
ere
you fucking smoking in here?”

I have no idea how much time has passed when I look up
again
from my book, this time to see Hunter scowling at me from the doorway. “And hello to you too,” I say with  a roll of my eyes. “And no, of course I wasn’t.”

“It smells like it.”

“Well, it wasn’t me.”

“Dex?”

I say nothing, and his stern looking face suddenly breaks into a grin. “I see you got the ‘be cool and you can be on my team’ shit from him.”

I keep my mouth shut and he rolls his eyes. He steps into the room and shoots a glance at the window where his brother was sitting before and smirks. “You know, I taught him that.”

How the fuck did he see that?

He saunters over and slumps into the arm chair across from me, steepling his hands and grinning wickedly at me like he’s holding something back. I frown and lower the book in my hand. “Oh
what
.”

The grin spreads across his face. “You know, you’re pretty bad at this.”

I frown. “At
what
?”

“Avoiding me.”

I roll my eyes. “
Please
, get over yourself. I’m not avoiding you, dick.”

“Clearly,” he says with a grin, spreading his arms wide.

“There’s no way you’re seriously
always
this full of yourself.”

“You’d be surprised, princess.”

I grin in spite of myself, feeling my face go a little pink as his eyes flash at me, as if latching on to that one little grin.

He eyes the pile of books and magazines strewn around my chair. “Nice hiding place, by the way.”

I make a face. “Cute. I told you, I’m not
hiding
.”

“Fine, sulking, or whatever.”

I sigh, shaking my head. “You’re impossible, you know.”

“I try. Let’s go back to you sulking around though.”

“I’m not
sulking
, I’m just-” I rub the bridge of my nose with my fingers. “Look, I’m going kind of insane being cooped up in here, okay?”

“Yeah you’re looking a little hermit-ish,” he says, nodding a chin at my pajama pants. “You going to cut back on bathing to really pull off the look?”

“I can bathe just fine, thank you.”

He leans forward in his chair. “You sure? I’m happy to help if you need, it’s all part of the Service.”

I can feel myself blush as I roll my eyes and shake my head. “I bet. Look, I just need to get the fuck out of here at some point.”

“The library? I agree.”

I roll my eyes. “Out of
here
like this ‘this house’. I’m
in
this place day after day and I’m starting to go fucking crazy.”

Hunter cracks his knuckles. “Well, we’ve got another press thing tomorrow, and then you’re going to meet with some foundations your mom set up for you to get involved with on
Wednes-”

I groan loudly and drop the book on the ground at my feet. “No,
now
. And I don’t mean to go pose in front of cameras. Look, I need to do
people
things. I need to see culture or whatever. Can I just go exploring or something?”

He grins, raising an eyebrow at me. “
Exploring?
”

“Yes, exploring, or fucking
something
. I don’t want to spent the next however long I’m here lounging around like a damn hermit. I feel cooped up here.”

“The word is ‘safe’, Mad-”

“
You
know
what I mean.” I stand and slump my shoulders as I look at him pleading. “Please.”

He makes a face. “What exactly did you have in mind?”

“A museum?”

He snorts. “Are you kidding me? No way, they’re huge public spaces. It’s a security nightmare.”

“Dude, there are
priceless
world-renowned museums in this city, and I live like a block away from all of them and I can’t go see them?”