“Hey, be nice! You try parking against a brick wall with zero forgiveness if you’re too close. I didn’t want to scratch up my nice paint job.”

I laughed, because the car looked older than me . . . and not in the cool classic car kind of way. My mind flashed back to my earlier impression of G, and I wondered if perhaps he was living out of the ratty car. When we reached it, my suspicion was all but confirmed when I glanced in the back window and saw a tattered pillow and blanket draped across the back seat. Suddenly this didn’t feel right.

He pulled out a set of keys from his pocket and led me to the passenger-side door. “Allow me.” He poured the words into my ear as if this was a typical date. “See? I told you I was a gentleman.”

“I don’t know, Geoffrey,” I said lamely. “Maybe this isn’t such a great idea after all. I should be studying—”

His gaze tripped down my body with greedy hunger. I shuffled back a step, but not quickly enough. He threw me up against the wall and pinned me, awakening a legion of goose bumps that crawled over my skin. “Don’t hand me that shit, you cockteaser.”

His breath was thick in my ear. His tongue shot out and flicked the lobe leaving wet residue.

“What the hell are you doing?” I tried to push him away but he was too strong. “Please don’t,” I begged, but my words were a mere puff of smoke in the cold air.

One hand covered my mouth as the other jabbed his car key against my throat. I scraped at him with my fingernails, but the pressure of his heavy chest against mine limited my reach. I screamed into his hand uselessly, then tried to bite it as my breaths grew shallow. He jabbed the key harder.

“Try that again and I’ll puncture your goddamn throat!” he warned. Hot spittle sprayed my face. “You wanna breathe? I’ll let ya. Don’t want you to pass out. I want you to be awake when I’m fucking you.”

He adjusted his hand on my mouth, giving me a tiny gasp of air, the other ripping the button of my jeans loose. He tugged my pants roughly to the ground and his hand groped between my legs while snowflakes carelessly danced around us. I struggled, but the key returned to my throat.

“If you just let me finish, it will go a lot better for you.” He drizzled the words across me. “But if you fight, well, I can’t promise I won’t fucking kill you. Got it? Nod if you understand.”

I didn’t want to nod, didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

“I said nod or die, bitch!” he hissed.