“For now. I’m going to be finishing my doctorate this week. And Conridge mentioned an assistant professor position.”

“That would mean we’d be working together. Not bad. And Conridge is tough.” Boy, was she. Professor Conridge was notorious throughout the university. People feared her. When Miki decided to finally finish up her thesis, her old advisor had gone to another university and Conridge volunteered to take her on. To this day, she had no idea why. She thought the woman hated her. Of course, she seemed to hate everybody.

“So that’ll be great for you, huh?”

She should have noticed the look of fear on Craig’s face and the look of lust on Amy’s. She should have noticed the fact that the most enormous shadow had just fallen over her. But all she’d noticed was Troy and her lame attempt to get him to notice her. “Well, you know, it’s definitely time for a change.” She stopped talking because Troy had obviously stopped listening. Moments from turning to see what horror stood behind her since that seemed to have everybody’s interest, Miki instead froze as big long arms suddenly wrapped around her and she wasn’t going anywhere.

“Hey, baby.” Warm lips pressed against her ear, sending a delicious and treacherous tingle down her spine and straight to her clit. “I thought you were going to see your professor. You’re going to be late.”

She looked up to see Conall holding on to her. He smiled. An evil wolf smile. The kind they gave just before they took down a deer.

Sonofabitch!

“What the hell—”

He squeezed her tight and Miki fought just to breathe. “You always have to make sure Miki’s doing what she needs to do otherwise she gets totally lost.”

Miki looked at Craig and Amy but she could already see they were enjoying this way too much to do anything about it.

Conall nuzzled her neck and she thought about digging his eyes out of their sockets. “So, you going to introduce me to your friends, baby?”

Baby?

She tried to pull away, but he wasn’t letting her go anywhere. And Troy looked way too freaked out by Conall to say anything. Instead he kept staring.

She would so make him pay for this later.

“No. I’m not.”

Amy jumped in before Miki could start slamming her boot into Conall’s instep. “I’m Amy. This is Craig. And this is Troy.”

Miki stared at his neck. It was a big neck. Might spurt a lot of blood if she cut it.

“Hey, Craig. We met this morning in our hotel room.”

Our?

“But it’s nice to meet the other friends of my honey-bear.”

Amy almost spit out her gum while Craig suddenly became interested in what was halfway across campus. Troy looked a little disappointed as he stared at Miki. She could see her future slipping away.

“Troy—” she began. But one of Conall’s big hands slid under her T-shirt and suddenly she felt claws. His claws, running lightly across her stomach.

I am going to kill him.

“Baby, we better get you to your professor’s office or you’re going to be late. Nice meeting you, Amy. Craig. Trey.”

“It’s Troy.”

“Whatever.” Conall’s hand gripped Miki’s and dragged her away. She barely had a chance to grab her backpack before she was stumbling behind him.

“Which building?” he bit out.

“Fuck you!”

He suddenly pulled her into his arms. To anyone else it probably seemed affectionate, but she knew better. And, as it was, she was way too pissed to feel anything but homicidal rage anyway. He leaned in close, his hot breath in her ear. “Keep it up and I’ll make you wish they’d finished you in that alley.”

“That one. Over there.”

Conall again started moving, pulling Miki behind him. He walked into the building, found a stairwell, and dragged her inside it. As soon as he released her hand, she slugged him in the chest. Then cursed up a blue streak when she felt the pain all the way up her arm. Of course, he didn’t even flinch.

“Are you done?” he snarled.

“Sonofabitch! What the fuck was that shit!” She shook her hand out, worried she broke a knuckle. Conall suddenly caught it and rubbed the knuckles between his two hands while he glared at her. She was almost positive he didn’t even realize he was doing it.

“Who the hell was that guy anyway?”

“Who? Troy?” Was he jealous? Well, then, she shouldn’t disappoint. “That was the future Mr. Miki Kendrick.”

Wrong! He was the future Mr. Miki Kendrick. Not some lame, tiny man with tiny little hands. He took one look at the guy and knew he was an asshole. No way would Conall let Miki anywhere near that guy. True, she was a vindictive bitch. But she was his vindictive bitch. He knew that now. No more bullshitting around. No more debating about what he really wanted. Miki Kendrick was his.

Clearly, though, he needed new tactics. The usual wasn’t working with her. Mostly because she was nuts. But he was flexible. And mean enough to go after what he wanted.

“I think you need to stay out of my life, Viking.” She tried to yank her hand out of his grasp, but he wasn’t letting go.

“And I think you fail to realize that I now have the upper hand here.”

“What? For drugging you? You expect me to believe for a second you’d hurt me or turn me in to the cops?”

“No. But who knows what I would do to him.”

Miki froze. Those big, beautiful brown eyes staring up at him. “You. Wouldn’t. Dare.”