Page 68 of Ruled By Wizard

“What I don’t get is why you came here to get your problem taken care of rather than doing it yourself.” Instead of loosening his hold on her, Wizard lay down next to her, propping his cheek on his folded arm. “You’re savvier about social media than I am. Your business is constantly posting. Why didn’t you use whoever does it for you?”

“I do it myself.” Lowering her eyelids, she turned her face away from his penetrating stare. When the mattress started shaking with his laughter, she turned back.

“What are you laughing about?”

“You couldn’t take the nasty comments, could you?”

She started fighting his hold on her again. “Shut up!”

Wizard laughed harder. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

“Go to hell!”

“You might be a ballbuster, but when the shoe is on the other foot, you get your feelings hurt.”

“I just don’t want to make it worse!”

“Okay. Tell yourself what you need to, but don’t think I believe that horseshit.”

His laughter stopped, and from the perceptive way he was looking at her, she wished he would go back to laughing at her.

Feeling her nipples tighten beneath the thin silk blouse she was wearing, she bit down on her bottom lip to distract herself from the intense longing to press him harder against her until she felt every inch of him.

“Doesn’t what they’re saying about The Last Riders bother you?”

“No. I don’t have any feelings.”

That, she could believe. She didn’t think Wizard was capable of caring about anyone but himself.

“I have families who depend on me for their livelihood. If my business fails, I won’t be the only one who has to bear the consequences.”

For the first time, she openly admitted the heavy burden she carried every day. Wearily, she stopped moving. In every aspect of her life, she remained aware of her responsibility to those families. Picking the wrong man could endanger her business if she let love blind her to his faults. Careful as she had been, two of her previous boyfriends had nearly slipped past her guard.

“What a boring way to live.” Wizard raised his hand, smoothing a rough thumb down her cheek. “You work seventy-hour weeks, date lame-ass men, and spend what little free time you give yourself trying to fix your workers’ problems. Don’t you ever do anything for fun?”

Natalia tried to remember the last time she had done something just for fun. The only memory she could bring to mind was when she had gone with him to the drive-in.

“I have fun all the time,” she lied.

“Really? What did you do?”

“I went on vacation for a week. Spent the whole week on a beach.” There was no way she was going to tell him the truth.

“When was that?”

Her eyes shied away from his. “It’s been a while.”

“Two years and three months ago,” he supplied.

Her eyes widened in dismay. “How do you know?”

Wizard’s hand slid down her cheek to curl around the back of her neck. “There isn’t anything I don’t know about you. I even know the last time you had sex.”

“There isn’t any possible way you could know—”

Bending his head, he started nuzzling her neck. Intermittently, he opened his mouth to take small nibbles of her skin.

Goose bumps spread across her skin. When the hand holding hers released them to press her closer to him, the last thought in her head was to pull herself out from under him.