Chapter Twenty-Six

Catriona

"I do not want to make out with you," I say to the undergraduate standing in front of me, the one who has cornered me outside the door to my office. A moment ago, he asked if I wanted to "do the bump and grind" with him. I said no, so he suggested making out would be a good start to "warm me up" to the idea of shagging him.

"Come on," he says, "I know you're a dirty girl. You screwed Alex Thorne in the lecture hall. Everybody knows about that."

Everyone knows? I have no idea whether to believe his claim, but the thought of it doesn't disturb me as much as it might have a few months ago. I'd loved it when Alex backed me into the dark alcove and ravished me.

"How many times do I have to say no?" I tell the scunner. With exaggerated lip movements and deliberate overemphasis, I add, "I will never, never, never have sex with you."

The lad moves closer, forcing me to press my back against the doorjamb. He sets a hand on the jamb, bending his arm to bring his face closer to mine.

"Stop playing games," he says in a low voice. "I know you want me. I have a sixth sense about things like that. I mean, if you'll bang Alex Thorne, you'll bang anybody. Right?"

"Move away."

"Playing hard to get can be hot, but I'm getting tired of it."

"Back away or I will ram my knee into your miserable wee balls."

He lunges his head down, aiming for my mouth.

Before I can knee him in the groin, he's yanked away from me.

Alex is gripping the back of the scunner's shirt in his fist. Everything about him conveys menace and a darkness I've never witnessed in him before, from his slitted gaze to his flaring nostrils, and from the way his lips have compressed into a slash to the tension in his every muscle.

His voice conveys the same dark tension when he hisses, "Get your ruddy hands off her. When a woman says no, it means no."

"Jeez, man, back off. This is a private conversation." The scunner manages to look snotty and self-satisfied while he's virtually dangling from Alex's fist. "A perv like you shouldn't talk about how to treat women. You did this chick in the lecture hall."

Alex tows the laddie away from me and shoves him against the wall. With his teeth gritted, he peels his lips back and says, "Stay away from Catriona MacTaggart."

"What if I don't?"

"You have no idea what I'm capable of. This won't be the first time I've left a tosser lying in a pool of his own blood and spitting out his own teeth."

A shiver rattles through me. Is Alex lying to convince the lad to behave? I get the impression he isn't. He means what he says, and I believe he might have beaten someone bloody.

But I can't believe he would do something like that without severe provocation.

The cacan seems to have realized Alex is not bluffing. He wilts, like a dying flower, and swallows hard enough that his Adam's apple jumps. "Okay, okay, don't go postal or anything. I'll leave, but um…you kind of have to let go of me first."

Alex's nostrils flare again, and he gives the cacan a ferocious shake. "Never harass another woman ever again."

The boy raises his hands in surrender. "I won't, I swear it."

I settle a hand on Alex's arm. "Let him go. It's all right."

Alex keeps his searing gaze locked on the boy, but he releases the bod ceann.

The boy scurries away.

I move closer to Alex. "Everything is all right. You can relax."

He turns his face to me, his chest still heaving—from the adrenaline spike brought on by his confrontation with the student, no doubt. He stays silent, though his gaze drills into me.

"Calm down, Alex," I say, giving his arm a light squeeze. "It's over."

"I hate bastards who take advantage of people they think are weaker."

Anger transforms the tone of his voice into something dark and rough but tinged with pain. Did someone treat him the way he described? Is that why he reacted so fiercely to the student's aggression? I want to ask him that, but I can see he's still teetering on a knife's edge. Questions can wait until later.

"Alex, please," I say, "take a deep breath and get hold of yourself. No one hurt me, and no one is going to hurt you."

He stares at me, not blinking, not moving.

I cradle his face in my hands. "Everything is all right."

The starkness in his gaze makes my heart and soul ache for him. Whatever he experienced in the past, it must have been awful.

He shuts his eyes, pulls in a deep breath, and exhales it little by little. His shoulders sag. His hands unclench. Every muscle in his body slackens, and his expression softens too, though he keeps his eyes closed for several more seconds before he looks at me.

"I apologize," he says in a hushed tone. "That was uncalled for."

He'd told me that all his parents ever taught him was how to lie and how to protect himself. When I asked why they would do that, he said it was because of "the lifestyle." I still don't know what that means, but I remember his response when I asked why he wouldn't confide in me about his past. "I'm protecting you," he told me.

"Don't apologize," I say. "You were protecting me, weren't you?"

He's watching me again, like he worries he might blurt out the truth without meaning to do it.

"Thank you, Alex, for protecting me."

"But I… You can't be happy that I'm a rampaging beast."

"You don't rampage." I place a gentle kiss on his lips. "You have pain deep inside you. I can see that now. If you'll let me, maybe I can help you deal with the past and move on from it. I want to be here for you, in any way you need me."

I fold my arms around his neck and hold him close, nestling my face against his throat, breathing in the scent of him. He tenses up again, but only for a moment. Then he slips his arms around me and splays his palms over my lower back, dipping his head to bury his face in my hair.

"Catriona," he murmurs. "Sweet, barmy Catriona."

Though his words seem like sarcasm, his voice conveys nothing like it. He speaks in a soft, tender voice. Maybe he thinks I am barmy, but he must like that about me. I might be crazy for staying with Alex, for wanting to dive into the darkness with him in the hopes of pulling him out the other side and into the sunshine.

He nuzzles my ear and my cheek. "You should have left me already."

"I will never leave you."

"That's your worst mistake." He lifts his head and backs away from me. "I will ruin you. Maybe I already have."

"What are you talking about?"

"I've been sacked, Catriona." His lips warp into a nasty smirk. "And thanks to a vengeful bastard, I'm a walking ethics violation. That means I will never get another position at any university in this country, perhaps not anywhere on this planet."

"Things cannae be that bad."

"You are so charmingly blind."

He pivots on his heels and stalks away from me.

Mercurial doesn't even begin to describe Alex Thorne.