Unlawful Temptations (The Star-Crossed Series Book 1)

Mondays are said to be the worst day of the week.

So far today, I’d have to agree.

I barely got any sleep last night because it took me so goddamn long to figure out how to fix the lock on our front door. Then, I got word from Dominic that, by some backwards miracle, my mother passed her drug test taken on Friday. To top it all off, I also started my period that morning.

Fuck you too, Mondays.

As I settled down Maya for her nap, I was already daydreaming about racing through the laundry and bed-making so I could lie down for a power nap of my own.

Then, Monday struck again.

The doorbell chimed obnoxiously right after I shut the door to Maya’s bedroom. A deep groan strangled in my throat. Whoever that was better not have just woken her back up. That child was not a fan of nap time.

Padding down the stairs, whatever delivery person, solicitor, or Mormon boy that had chosen this house to interrupt mid-day was about to be seriously sorry.

Tearing open the front door, my perfectly prepped face of annoyance stumbled as I saw who was standing on the other side.

“Daren?”

“Hey, babe.”

His endearment was sweet. His tone was not.

I cocked my hip out to rest on the doorframe, cutting his view into the house. “Uh, what the fuck are you doing here?”

He squished his mouth to the side, evidently not pleased. “I wanted to talk.”

“About what? That’s sort of the point of breaking up with someone. You don’t have to talk to them anymore.”

“That. That’s what I want to talk about.”

Joy.

After yesterday at the park, I actually did something Dominic told me to for once.

I broke up with Daren.

We were barely even a couple to begin with, just two people who hung out and fucked a couple times a week, so it wasn’t a big deal to break it off. Or at least, I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, but Daren sure as shit tried to make it one.

He got all pissy and tried calling me a good ten times after I hung up on him during the initial call. Yeah, I did it over the phone. At least it wasn’t over text.

Still didn’t give him any reason to be here—especially here.

“How did you even find out where I worked?” I asked.

“Easy.” He put an arm up on the doorframe, leaning in closer. “I had a buddy help me out.”

“That’s… creepy.”

Daren’s face fell slowly, upset pushing his gaze away from me. “I was hoping you’d think it was romantic.”

I parted my lips, sucking back an awkward breath and shaking my head. “Nope.”

An audible sigh lifted and dropped his shoulders, and I thought he was getting ready to turn around and leave. Wave that little white flag, shake hands, and call it quits.

That’s why I was so fucking surprised when he pushed his way past me into the house instead.

“Hey!” I hissed, snapping around to grab him. “You can’t be in here.”

He shook me off, shaking my temper awake in the same move. He moved through the house like he was searching for something, pacing in determined steps with me running up behind him.

“This is a nice house, Kitty Kat.”

He tilted his head to the vaulted ceiling as he spoke, terror clenching my gut as his voice echoed, drifting upstairs towards Maya’s bedroom.

“I’ll be sure to let the owners know.” I rounded on him, feet planting right in front of his path. Daren stopped walking, peering down at me and my cocked hip. “Now leave.”

He stood there for a bit, jaw hard-locked and suspicion edging around his eyes.

“Are you fucking him?”

The shock of his words jerked my head back. “Excuse me?”

He folded his arms over his chest, setting a wide stance. “Your boss. The cop. Are you fucking him?”

This time, my jaw actually popped open before my entire face screwed up tight. “What? No. No, I’m not fucking my boss, Daren. Why would you—”

“Because you two looked close yesterday,” he cut in. “I wanna know if that’s why you ended things with me.”

“There was barely anything to end,” I argued, trying to keep my voice down.

A look of frustration passed across his face before he squared his shoulders back. He pinched his mouth to the side again, and it looked like he was chewing on the inside of his cheeks. He was going through an array of multi-colored emotions I’d never seen in him before. He was like a rubix cube that had always been perfectly color coordinated and was now twisted all out of whack.

Daren was always laid back and happy. Or horny. Sometimes mad when he was drunk, but that was the extent of it. He never seemed to really care about anything before today.

He sighed and put his hands on his waist, giving me a pointed look.

“Kat, I like you.”

“No, you like having sex with me.”

Agitation burned red across his cheeks, but then his brows rose a bit. His eyes widened a touch, and he started nodding. “I like more than that, but yeah, the sex is great. I’d like to keep doing that.”

Annnd boom goes the dynamite.

“And I’m flattered, but the answer is no. Now, get out.”

“Why?” I flinched as he snapped, the whites of his eyes smearing red. “We were fine one second, and then you broke up with me out of the blue. What changed?”

“You got on my nerves like you are right now. You can’t be here. I could lose my job if my boss walked in right now and saw you.”

The lips that I’d kissed plenty of times pulled back over his teeth. “And you care so much about what he thinks.”

“I care about my job, Daren.”

And with every second he was still here, my stomach knotted tighter with the fear that someone was going to walk in. Dominic, Heather, Maya; it didn’t matter. Any one of them could walk in right now, and I’d be royally fucked for letting a strange man into their house.

Daren wasn’t planning on leaving from the looks of it, angry muscles flexing in his neck as he cut an inflamed glare my way. “I guess I just don’t understand why, if all I ever was to you was someone to fuck, why we can’t keep doing that unless you’re already sleeping with someone else.”

“Oh my god, this has literally nothing to do with sex.” I dropped my face into my hands, rubbing my fingers over my eyes. Then a thought occurred, and I whipped my hands down and pinned him with a hard stare. “Also, you went into this with the same understanding that I did. We were casual. Nothing more.”

Daren stood taller. Took a step closer. “Well, it became more to me.”

“And that’s not my fault,” I shot back, dead serious.

Even if it was true and he wasn’t lying just to get in my pants a few more times, I didn’t ask him to like me. In fact, I told him flat out at the beginning of this that I wasn’t very likable and to not try. He laughed. Maybe he thought I was joking.

Guess he knew now I wasn’t.

His head was down, but I could see his mouth still thinned together. He was thinking, foot tapping, my pulse following along the anxious beat.

Finally, he pulled his stare back up. “Fine.”

I let out a tiny exhale of relief.

“But if all it was was sex, why don’t we at least give ourselves a proper goodbye?” Gone was the animosity as he sauntered my way, and my eyebrows about shot off my forehead.

“Are you asking for break up sex while I’m at work?”

“Oh, come on.” He lingered nearer, hands slipping around my waist. “Where’s your fun side?”

I put my palms to his chest, leaning away from his efforts with a breathy laugh. “Daren, no.”

He made a whining noise, intensifying my snickering as he nuzzled into my neck. His fingers around my waist tightened. “I’ll be quick, I promise.”

A bark of laughter popped through my throat, and my head fell back.

“Oh boy, what every girl wants to hear.”

Daren ran his hands up my back, locking me into his chest as he pushed out a vexed sigh. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, and I said no.”

I pushed my hands against his shoulders this time with more bite behind my words. He didn’t budge, just kept walking backwards, making me trip over my own damn feet twice trying to keep up.

Hot blood filled my head, sloshing as I stumbled back into a wall. Daren quickly sealed his body over mine, every curve and dip of him pressing against me even as I struggled. The feel of him curled my skin into itself, my heart pounding faster.

The touch of fingers pushing my shirt up spiked my pulse like my heart gasped.

“Babe, please?”

“Don’t beg. You’re not a fucking dog,” I snarled, tearing my shirt back down. Then, like he was trying to prove me wrong, he growled like a goddamn animal and wrestled the hem of my shirt back in his grip.

Rage breathed life inside of me, and I bucked my shoulders against him. He only advanced harder, trapping me like prey he was hunting and prepping for slaughter. I was that prey, eyes wide, claws out, struggling for life beneath the hands like razored snares, biting in my waist deeper with every move I thrashed.

A cry sliced my throat as a hand thrust my shoulder back into the wall, the blade connecting painfully. The ache throbbed, spotting my vision with blurry dots.

My voice slipped away, hiding inside of me as I blinked my vision back to normal. What the fuck is he doing? My blood was boiling with each second, a searing combination of dread and anger fighting for top spot.

Suddenly, the unmistakable sound of material shredding ripped through the air. My heavy head drooped forward, staring down at the god awful tear at the top of my shirt, exposing my blue bra.

My heart was on fire, setting the rest of me ablaze as I tore my head up. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I yelled in a whisper.

He fucking shrugged with an audacious wink. “Easier access?”

Panic flared my eyes as I realized in that moment he thought this was okay. He thought we were playing and he was winning. With a horrified breath squeezing my throat, I picked my foot up and tried to bolt around him.

He grabbed me, shoving me against the wall with a vile smirk stretching across his lips when another cry knocked from me as my head hit the wall. Prickling white poked holes in my vision, my voice making a shaky appearance.

“Daren, stop.”

A hot breath fanned over my neck. “I thought you always liked it rough, babe?”

His words coiled around my body, a violent shiver struggling through the restraint of them. Dread had won out in the battle over anger, pumping fast through my veins as fingers fumbled with the button on my shorts. It struck a match inside of me, firing up my fight or flight so fast, even I didn’t register as I started hitting him.

“Kat—Kat stop!”

My fists were everywhere, pounding into his chest, his back, his stomach—anything I could reach. When he latched onto both hands and captured them back against the wall, I used my head and snapped it forward.

Pain erupted in bright flashes, groans following right after from both of us. The room spun in circles of red and black and hazel green, twisting my stomach in on itself. One of my hands slouched free as Daren dropped it to cover his reddening forehead.

Opportunity sparked, and before he could right his focus on me again, my knee was in his crotch.

A grunt writhing in agony split Daren’s lips and down to the floor he went. Relief stabbed between my ribs, sharp and alarming. I sucked down a huge breath and dashed to the other side of the room, shielding myself behind the sofa.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Daren wheezed, rolling around on the floor.

Weighted breaths pushed and pulled my chest, terror still riding high in my head. “What the fuck’s wrong with me? No, what the fuck’s wrong with you, Daren? I said no!”

I couldn’t catch my breath, couldn’t stop the room teetering in and out of blurry focus.

“You’re overreacting. You could have stopped me if you wanted to without kneeing me in the balls!”

“I tried, Daren. I said stop. I said no. I told you to get off, and you didn’t listen.”

Landing a hand on the red lounge chair, Daren wobbled as he pulled himself up. “But we’ve had sex tons of times, Kat.”

“What the fuck does that matter?” My shriek bounced off the walls all the way back to me, slapping me in face. I was loud—too loud—but I couldn’t contain it. My veins were live wires again, fritzing and zapping my rationale to burnt crisps. “I said no now. Even if I said yes in the past, that doesn’t give you a pass to fuck me whenever you feel like it. No means fucking no, Daren.”

His long face was vacant of understanding. He stood there like a goddamn idiot, mouth open but no words or apology spilling out, because he didn’t get it. Or maybe he just didn’t want to get it.

He took one step towards me. I stopped him with a finger, hate holding every one of my muscle so tight.

“Get the fuck out of this house before I call my boss and he arrests you for trespassing in his home.”

Daren went rigid, except his eyes that softened. “Babe, you don’t mean that—”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

We had a standoff in the Reed’s living room, the wreckage of anything good left between us souring in the air. I could taste his guilt like I could feel my nails lacerating into my palms. Even if he didn’t know why he was guilty, his experience of it was tangible.

Daren left in slow, sorry steps, casting a hopeless glance back at me before he left. I didn’t go near him as he walked to the door or when he walked out of it. As soon as it clicked shut, I sprinted and collapsed against it, jamming the lock in place.

I fell back against the wood, getting myself as close to it as possible to soak up the chill on my heated skin. I was still running hot. Too many emotions were zipping around in a relentless loop through every cell, atom, and molecule I had. They were going, spinning, and running so fast, my skin could have been humming with their ferocity.

Some of those emotions tried to worm their way up to my brain to help form intelligent thoughts over what had just happened, but I cut them off. I didn’t want any thoughts about it at all, smart, dumb, or otherwise.

I just wanted to forget it happened.

My head knocked back into the door, and I winced as pain spidered up my skull. Great. After all that, a splitting headache was just what I needed. Holding my sore head in my hands, I shuffled off the door and went to check on Maya.

She was still sleeping—thank fuck—so I dragged myself into the bathroom down the hall to see what the damage was.

Now, I’d looked like shit before, but this was next level. My face was both flushed and pale at the same time, making me look patchy and gross. I had a bright red bump forming where I’d head-butted Daren, and my shirt—one of my favorite shirts—was toast.

Ripped straight down past my cleavage, and no amount of fashionable knots I tied made it look any better.

After a few minutes, I gave up trying and threw open the bathroom door, focus pointed down at the shitty knot holding the top of my shirt together. I only got a few steps out of the bathroom when a giant figure caught my eye climbing up the stairs.

“Ms. Sanders.”

Dominic’s greeting was a leveled rumble in his chest, and the sight of him shocked blood back into my cheeks. I froze, a play-thru of Daren in this home, groping me, hurting me, scaring me while Maya slept, flying behind my eyes. If Dominic had walked in just five minutes earlier, he’d have seen it all, and I would be on my knees begging for my job right about now.

I made the decision to lie to him so fast, I left no time at all to prepare for it.

“Hey, boss man! Home already?”

Internally, I cringed at my overcompensated enthusiasm. It didn’t play nearly as nonchalant as I hoped, and Dominic was immediately suspicious.

“I stopped by for lunch.” Between his swarthy brows formed a wrinkled frown. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah. Definitely.”

Sharp eyes slid lower and narrowed.

“What happened to your shirt?” Dammit.

“Oh, I ripped it when Maya and I were playing outside earlier.”

That was believable, right? Totally. Dominic didn’t verbally question it, but his inspection of me didn’t stop at my shirt. He did a full sweep of me, pulling my gut inside out as he checked every inch for any further abnormalities in my appearance.

I sucked a breath through my teeth as his scrutinizing came to a pause on my forehead.

“Why is your head red?” Double dammit.

“Same thing. I just ate dirt and, ya know—” I gestured a hand over my face and body. “Fucked everything up.”

A forceful chuckle pushed past my lips, hoping Dominic would start laughing with me and forget all about my wrecked face. Call me clumsy and move on. Like, now. Cue the laugh track and let me tap dance off stage.

He wasn’t though, and my nerves were turning to jitterbugs the longer we stood there, me not speaking and him doing a full-on C.S.I of my appearance. How did he always know when I was lying? Was it a sixth sense he had as a detective or was it just me?

Was I this human version of Pinocchio and didn’t know it? Maybe my nose was a foot long right now, and I was too focused on getting away with my lie to see it.

It was going on way too long. The dissecting. The suspicion. The silence during both.

“I actually have to pee, so—”

“You just came out of the bathroom.”

I blinked at his reminder. My lips parted, and the first thing I could think of spilled out.

“I forgot to go.”

The first dumbest thing I could think of.

Well, that settled it. He might have been the world’s greatest detective, but it didn’t matter because I was the world’s shittiest liar. I made his job a friggin’ picnic.

With Dominic still staring at me, I filled my lungs like there was more to say, another excuse ready to march off my tongue and fix this most glorious fuck up. Except, nothing came out, and my chest deflated with an awkward, “Excuse me.”

I spun on my heel right back into the bathroom and shut the door.

Oh God. The cringe. The cringe was unbelievable. Every inch of me was tense with it as I shuffled across the tile. I held my middle fingers up to the ceiling, shaking them and silently cursing this day and all Mondays that would ever exist.

The saying was true after all.

Mondays could suck a dick.