He took a step forward and I braced my hand against his chest. The memory of his mouth on me still vivid and fresh. I needed to think clearly right now. Who knew what I would have agreed to if he made it to aching parts of me.
He didn’t press forward though. “You want freedom. You want to rewind the last few weeks so you have your old life back.” He didn’t ask questions.
I didn’t contradict or correct him.
He stepped forward, not touching any part of me except his thighs in the confines of mine. “You want your life back.”
This little speech must have a point, so I waited. When I didn’t speak his ghost of a grin returned.
“What if we made a deal? Another one, but a truce so to speak.”
I shoved him back and he retreated. I closed my legs, my body still aching to finish what he started. But I never negotiated with my thighs spread.
“What are your terms?” I even crossed my legs to add another layer of protection against him. As if it would help. In my head it did, and I clung to that.
He tucked his hands under opposite arm pits. “Help me in my goals. Let me trust you, and you do the same for me. Let’s work together. Stop fucking fighting with me, and when this is all done I’ll give you back your territory. With the minimal amount of oversight from me.”
I stared at him open-mouthed, not even trying to stick to my usual tactics of negotiation. To reverse the last couple of weeks. Get my power back, my damn life. But something else flitted at the edge of my mind. “You spent a lot of time and effort to take what’s mine. Why give it up so easily?”
“Because I’m starting to realize you have more fight that I originally gave you credit for.”
“What part of your research told you I’d roll over and let you take everything?”
He shrugged, and I knew his ease was an act. “Wishful thinking, I guess.”
I hopped off the desk and fixed the skirt of my dress with a toss. “I don’t think you’re the kind of man who guesses. Especially when related to what you want.”
I knelt and fastened my shoes back on my still aching feet, while I thought about his offer. When I finished I stood and met his eyes. “Fine. But should circumstances require, when this is over, I reserve the right to renegotiate this deal. Until then, I’ll play your game, by your rules. No more fighting.”
He held out his hand for me to shake.
I eyed it for a moment and took it. “Now what’s the plan?”
He smiled, a full on damn smile with teeth. It unnerved me. “You’re going to help me put three bastards in the ground.”
Six
Eddy
When we finally left the party, I felt like I’d accomplished something, even if the end result wasn’t my starting goal. She even accepted my arm and allowed me to escort her to her bedroom door. Safely on the other side of the house in my own room, I released the tight hold on my control, allowing my body to simply react to the surge of lust her seduction elicited. It didn’t matter as long as she continued to think my actions were guided out of some power play, rather than actually wanting her.
I’d forgotten how she felt in my arms. How she tasted. How could I have when twenty years disintegrated with one touch of her lips?
My mind kept replaying it. The little noises she hadn’t even realized she made…. her grasping fingers in my hair, on my face. And the dam broke.
I unlatched my belt and opened my already strained fly. The material of my boxer briefs chafed as I free my cock and gripped it hard. I walked into the shower, braced a forearm on the wall by my head and began to pump. I needed to release this frustration, it would only distract me. In a few rough jerks, with the vision of her head thrown back exposing her long delicate neck, I shot jets of cum onto the shower walls and floor. My body shook from the force of it. After, I finished stripping, turned on the hot spray, and washed away the evidence of my weakness. The evidence demonstrated, in the most primal way, I’d always want her.
I stepped out of the shower, toweled off and entered my bedroom to find some clothes. A rustle from the adjourning door made me halt. I listened hard around the fresh orgasm heartbeat still pouding in my ears.
Someone infiltrated my office. No. Only one person would go in there without permission. I stalked to the door and jerked it open. She froze, hand hovering near a bookshelf.
I pasted on a careless look despite the anger drumming through me. “This trust thing is off to a rough start wouldn’t you say?”
Did she hear me in the shower? What the hell was she wearing?
The red sink dress had been replaced by a basic black slip, lined with lace. Her legs and feet were bare, her hair down, makeup washed away.
She dropped her hand and at least had the decency to look ashamed. When she finally met my eyes, they flew wide then tracked back down to my still wet chest to my towel and bare feet.
