Her teeth catch her lower lip again, biting down.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy it.” Under the sheet, I nudge her with my knee. “You came twice with me inside you.”
Her face flushes, and she looks away. “Yeah. Scary.” Burrowing her toes into the covers, she shivers. “If I get too close to you, when you cut me out of your life, it could derail me.”
WhenI cut her out? That’s a certainty?
“What do you want me to promise, Avery? That we’ll always be friends?’
“No.” Her brows pinch together skeptically. “Look, I went to the guest room,myroom. Why am I back here?”
“I wanted you in my bed. All night.”
“So unfair.”
Rubbing my eyes, I draw in a breath. “Come on. It’s no accident you sought me out and gave in so easily to a bullshit proposal like sucking my dick for a place to stay. You want this, too. You’re here to play out some Beauty and the Beast fantasy with me. And I’m here for it.”
Her brows rise. “Beauty and the Beast?”
“Sure. She’s innocent. He’s angry. She enters his house voluntarily, gets trapped. Has to submit to his rule. That’s us right now.” My hand reaches out and fingers a silky strand of her hair.
“This isn’t a fairy tale. I’m not your captive, Shane.”
“No? Try to go.” My hand catches her wrist and tightens around it.
She slaps my arm. “Don’t play.”
I’m not playing, but I don’t say so. Instead, I continue to grip her wrist as I ask, “You don’t like the analogy?”
“No.”
“Liar.” I smile. “Ask yourself this, baby. Who does the beast belong to?”
Deep blue eyes bore into me. “Beauty?”
I watch her for a moment and nod.
A small smile threatens to emerge, but she manages to suppress it.
“You’re not going to tame me, Avery. But don’t assume you’re going to lose me either. For better or for worse, right now, we own each other.”
“Own,” she repeats with a grimace.
“I call it as I see it.”
Sighing, she runs her fingers over my throat. I feel every fucking touch from her down to my bones, like pain and its cure at once.
I stroke her hair and pull until she’s lying next to me. When we’re curled up together under the covers, I start to drift off. She whispers something I don’t catch, causing me to mumble we’ll talk in the morning.
A loud alert sounds on my phone.
For fuck’s sake.
Storm warning? At the second blast, I roll toward the nightstand and lift my cell.
Two words flash. Perimeter alarm.
I tap the camera feed. Sometimes a raccoon climbs up the house and sets it off.
