"You prefer the subway over cabs. You love jazz music even though you play in an orchestra. I know that you wore a retainer until you were fifteen and that your favourite ice cream is Neapolitan. You give your spare change to the guy at the corner each morning before work. And when you don’t have change, you break a bill. You drop your eyes when you think someone’s looking in your direction so they won't be uncomfortable. You used to hate being called Addie, because your mother used to call you that, so you insisted all of your friends call you Addie until you could bear to hear the name again. Should I keep going?"
During his speech she had brought a hand up to cover her quivering lips. A gasp of dismay escaped now. "How...?" was all she could manage to choke out.
His voice was closer now, above her, like a swooping bird of prey. "I've wanted you for a while. Wasn't going to touch you though. We're from different worlds. Planned on leaving you alone."
"What changed?" she whispered.
"I touched you," he said simply. "Saved your life. In some cultures that would mean your life belongs to me."
Her chin came up. "Not in mine!" she snapped. "While I'm grateful for my life, I refuse to trade sex for it."
She tried to edge past him, but he blocked her path, forcing her to stand helpless in the cage of his arms. She shoved at him and when he proved immovable, she cried out, "You're a bully, Daniel Mercer. I don't deserve this!"
He leaned over her, nuzzling his lips against the small shell of her ear and whispered, "Maybe not. But I saved your life and it belongs to me now. And I can promise you this…”
"What?" she asked, her voice coming out in a gasping whimper.
"When I have you tied up, after I’ve whipped your gorgeous ass until it’s bright red and you’re screaming for release, you will look at me before I let you come. No more hiding those eyes from me Addison.”
Chapter Seven
He touched her jaw and then dropped his hand to her neck, wrapping his fingers around her throat, holding her still. He pressed his forehead against her temple. She tried to tilt her head away, but he held her still. She brought her hands up to push him away, but he was immovable.
"What... what are you doing?" she asked shakily.
She could barely speak after his declaration. It terrified her, but made her feel hot and uncertain at the same time. She wasn’t into the things he described. But… her body reacted nonetheless.
He didn't answer at first, his nose and lips making a path from her hair to her ear and further toward her cheekbone. She gasped at the intimacy. Shivers spread across her skin where his lips and beard caressed her. The feel of his skin was so gentle in comparison to the steel threat of his fingertips against her throat. She was confused and slowly falling prey to his seduction. She tried harder to shove him away, but he captured her hand in a hard grip and pulled her arm around, resting it on the desk behind her back.
"I'm going to kiss you, Addison," he said, his mouth hovering over hers.
"No!" she gasped.
She thought he would ignore her wishes. He was the type of man to just take what he wanted, to wreak chaos and walk away when he was finished. She braced herself for the devastation of his kiss, but none came. She let her breath out slowly, relieved.
He wasn't done yet. "I can see arousal in your face and body. I can smell your arousal woman. I know you're afraid of me, and that fear makes me want you even more than I did before."
She opened her mouth to tell him no, but only a whimper emerged. He gave her time - not time to form a denial, but time to let the fear of reality set in. The knowledge that nothing she could say or do was going to change his course of action. Then he swooped, like a bird of prey. Shadows blocked what little light her vision was capable of picking up as his lips found hers and took them in a fierce first kiss that challenged her to deny him.
As his lips took hers a strange thought occurred to her. He had an accent. She had assumed Daniel was as American as she was, but he had a very slight accent, so slight other people probably wouldn’t even notice unless they knew him well. Her ears were attuned to picking out differences in speech patterns, but she had been too afraid of him to notice earlier. She stood under him stiffly allowing her brain to wander and ponder the possibility that he had been born and raised in another country.
Perhaps it was the intensity of the kiss or the man himself that caused Addison’s brain to disassociate, but he noticed almost immediately. He pulled back with a growl, one hand twisting in her hair and pulling the delicate strands.
“Stop it,” he snapped, shaking her by the hair, his breath fanning across her cheek.
Her lips were moist with his saliva and felt slightly swollen from his forceful kiss. Her body leaned heavily against the desk and would have fallen if he hadn’t been holding her up. She didn’t know where to put her free hand, she didn’t want to touch him. He was right. She felt the intense attraction he spoke of. She was aroused by him, but she was also terrified. He had her trapped in his apartment. She didn’t know him. He could be some psychotic kidnapper or something. Every instinct in her body was pinging with danger signals and they were all aimed at the man holding on to her.
As if reading her mind, he said, “Relax, Addison, I’m not going to hurt you.”
Her voice came out in a shaky rush when she replied, “I suspect your idea of hurt and mine are different.”
He chuckled softly. The sound was off and a little surprising, as though he never used it. The fingers in her hair and holding her wrist behind her back flexed against her flesh as though eager to test that theory. “You’re probably right.”
“Please,” she whispered, her breath coming out in a loud rush to her ears. “I want to leave now. This is too much, Daniel. You’re too… too overpowering. I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“No,” he replied immediately. “I want you to stay.”
“You can’t just keep me here,” she gasped.
