“It would be the gentlemanly thing to do,” she says, arms folded across her chest.
I drop back onto the mattress and stretch. “Guess I’m not a gentleman, then.” Closing my eyes, I rest my head back onto my hands and relax for the first time in days. Forget dinner. I just want to sleep.
Something hard clonks me on the forehead. I sit up and rub at the lump already forming. Katya stands at the end of the bed, holding her shoe like she’s seconds away from pelting me with it. “What is with you and throwing shit?”
“Get up,” she says.
Oh, she wants to play this game, does she? “No.”
She throws the shoe, and I snatch it out of the air. “Rude.” Surprise briefly flashes across her expression before morphing right back into annoyance. “And again, no. I’m not squeezing into that tiny little space just to make you feel less insecure about the sexual feelings that might arise if you have to lie close to me. I get it. It’s tough, but you’re just going to have to power through.”
“Oh, don’t put your issues off on me. I just don’t want to get molested in the middle of the night by your wandering hands.” She illustrates her point by wiggling her fingers in the air.
“Please. We both know it’s you with the wandering hands.” I flatten my palms to my chest dramatically and raise the pitch of my voice to imitate hers. “‘Oh, Aemon, your muscles are so big.’”
Okay. We might be getting into dangerous territory here, but I’m not sure I can stop.
“I never said that.” She stomps her foot.
I shrug. “That’s what I heard.” It’s a total lie. She never said anything like that, but I’d like to think she thought it.
“You think you’re so special with your hair and your teeth.”
“Yes. I have hair and teeth. I wouldn’t call either special—”
Ignoring my response, she continues, her slender finger pointed at me in accusation. “But you’re lying to yourself if you think I want to have anything to do with you. You’re the one trying to touch me. Your thingy’s been poking me in the butt for two days straight .”
“It’s not a thingy, sunshine. It’s a cock. And it’s a natural reaction to having a girl’s ass rubbing up against it all day. It could happen with anyone.”
She cants her head. “Really?” Her lips curl into a smile and her eyes take on a maniacal gleam. I don’t know if I’m afraid or turned on or what, but I am most definitely in trouble.
“So, if I were to climb onto this bed.” She gets up onto the foot of the bed and crawls, CRAWLS, over to me, looking like my every dirty fantasy. And it is becoming rapidly clear that I am in way over my head here because this girl hasn’t so much as touched me and my cock is already rock hard. She comes up beside me and swings a leg over my waist, so she is straddling me, then takes one long nail and drags it down my chest.
Yep. In way the fuck over my head.
“You should probably get up before I do something you wouldn’t like.” I’m trying to keep some illusion of control here,but the truth is, there’s a knot in my throat and no amount of swallowing is pushing it down.
Katya calls my bluff. She leans over and brings her lips so they’re almost but not quite touching mine, and the top of her dress is hanging open, giving me an expansive view of cleavage. Her breath tickles my lips, and I find myself licking them, hoping to taste her.
“What are you going to do now, Mr. Muscles?”
“Just remember you asked for it.” I spear my fingers into her hair and crush my lips to hers as I flip her over, pinning her down with my weight. Her lips part and my tongue sweeps in, tasting and stroking. I angle her head, taking the kiss deeper, and she melts against me, her hands fisting my shirt like she can’t get close enough. I’m on fire, molten. I’ve never felt anything this intensely in my life. In this moment, I need her more than I need air.
She turns her head. “Aemon. Stop.”
Fuck.
Pulling away feels like someone’s grabbed me by the heart and squeezed all the blood out of it, but I do as she asks. I sit back on my heels. Her chest heaves as she fights to catch her breath, her lips are swollen from kissing, and her hair’s a mussed-up mess.
And she’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever beheld.
Gods, I’m so fucked.
I scramble off of her, practically throwing myself off the bed in my haste. She pushes up onto her elbows and watches me like I’m some curiosity at a freak show. I can’t believe I did that. She’s my prisoner, for gods’ sakes. What kind of bastard takes advantage of their prisoner like that?
“I’m—uh.” I look away. I can’t even look her in the eye. “I’m going to get us some dinner. I’ll be right back.” Spinning on my heel, I start for the door.
“Wait,” she says, and my stomach does a nosedive into my feet. There’s this niggling hope that she’ll say not to go or that she wanted to kiss me. Gods, I feel like a twelve-year-old boy with a crush.
