“I don’t know how not to.”
Chapter
Five
DAX
Fuck, she’s trouble dressed as sin, and I have never wanted anything more than I want her right now, but I can’t have her. I can’t fucking have her.
I tell myself these pretty little lies, and I almost convince myself I believe them until I look into her wide, innocent ocean-blue eyes and I fucking melt. Me. Melting over a fucking girl I just met.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
Her blindfold is gone, tossed somewhere on the chaise like it wasn’t the only thing she let me strip away. She’s still sitting there, back straight, fingers curled into her lap like she doesn’t trust her own body anymore.
She shouldn’t.
Not with the way I’m looking at her.
Not with the way I’m thinking about all the ways I could ruin her.
“You always look at women like that?” she asks, voice barely above a whisper, small enough to tremble in the air between us, like even the question is nervous to exist.
I cock my head, slow, controlled. “Only the ones who ask to be destroyed.”
Her throat bobs, and I catch it—just the smallest flinch of something behind her eyes. Not fear. Not quite.
Recognition.
She’s been close to that edge before.
I can see it, the same way I can smell adrenaline or hear the break in a man’s resolve. She looks away first. I let her. Because if I don’t, I’ll fucking touch her.
And I don’t touch what I can’t keep.
She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, still not meeting my gaze. “Why’d you really bring me in here?”
I arch a brow. “You asked me to.”
“Yeah… but I think you were already going to.”
She’s sharper than I gave her credit for.
Fuck.
I take a slow breath; my hands curl into fists at my sides. I want to grip her thighs and spread her open just to see if she makes that same face when she comes that she makes when she lies.
Instead, I step closer—close enough to smell her again.
Not perfume. Her.
Sweet. Curious.
Like something that wandered into a trap and forgot to be scared.
“You want the truth, butterfly?” I murmur, the low, rumbling kind of murmur that belongs in the dark. She nods, eyes still locked on mine, like she’s not sure whether to run or lean in.
I tilt my head. “You walked in here with that lip between your teeth and that look in your eyes like you didn’t know what you were doing. But you did.”
