“Jagger,” I warn him.
“What, flower?” he asks, all innocent, when we both know he’s not.
“If you can’t be honest with me, show me who you are even just a bit, then whatever this is, it’s done. I’m serious.” My heart kicks up a beat because that’s the last thing I want, but I need more from him. I don’t care how selfish that is. He made an effort here tonight; he wouldn’t have done that for just anyone.
His hand slides down my wrist gently, then he brings them all the way back up, gripping my wrists tightly. He lets out a heavy sigh, his eyes flashing with something dark and unhinged, and I think I might have just pushed him too far. “I was seeing someone who was useful in a few different ways. I didn’t need her anymore, so I broke it off,” he eventually answers me.
I sit up straighter, mortified for the poor girl. “You were using her?” I gasp, unable to hide my disgust at the idea.
He lets my hands go. “Don’t look so disappointed in me, flower. Every relationship is a business deal of some sort. An arrangement where one person or the other, sometimes both, trade something they want for what the other is willing to give. She was using me as well.”
My hands settle on my thighs, almost too scared to attempt to touch him again. “What did you want from her?”
He raises a brow, and I think he’s going to brush me off again. “She was useful in getting information from when Sloane was in trouble.”
“What?” I blink back at him. He used her to help his sister! I can’t decide if I hate him for it or have just grown a whole heap more respect for him. And something Sloane said to me at the café comes back to me. She saidthat shit sounds like something he would do if he thought he was responsible for your safety in that way. Is this what he does? Goes around doing what he wants in the name of keeping the people he cares about safe.
“She’s a cop,” he says like that makes it okay.
“Oh.” I blink back at him, not sure what to say about that. A cop with him seems like all sorts of bad news. How would that even come about, and why would she? “What did she get out of it?”
He chuckles darkly. “Me.”
I tilt my head to the side, wondering what the hell he means by that. “Elaborate, Jagger. You’re pissing me off with all the short answers.”
His hand slides up and over the hem of my T-shirt, brushing over my thigh. I swipe it away. He’s not going to distract me that easily this time. I want to know what he means. He looks at me, unimpressed by my rejection. “Sometimes powerful women just want to be dominated. They spend so much of their time having to be in control that when someone offers them an out, an escape from the pressures of their life, they take it gladly.” His hand settles back on my thigh, his fingertips pressing in lightly as if he’s testing the waters.
She was with him because she liked his style of pleasure and pain, his way of dominating her and letting her submit to him. I try to move out of his hold on me, suddenly needing space. But he won’t let me, hisfingers pressing into my thigh firmly enough that I can’t move away. I flick my gaze back to him. “How did you meet her?”
He runs his tongue over his bottom lip. “I think that’s enough of question time. I want my reward.” His hand moves higher under the shirt hem, brushing the inside of my thigh.
I try to squeeze my thighs together and move off his lap, not ready to give in just yet, when I’m finally getting somewhere with him. But it’s no use. He moves his legs apart, and I have no choice but to widen mine just from the way we are sitting. “Answer me. How did you meet her?”
“Be very careful, flower.” He stares me down. Or what, he will punish me for asking some reasonable questions?
I stare back at him, not giving in so easily.
“I met her at my club, The Precinct.”
Why that makes my heart thump a little louder I have no idea, but I don’t like the unease it fills me with. Does that mean he could still be seeing her at his club? I swallow the lump now formed in my throat. “What does your club do exactly?”
His fingers slide between my legs, and he strokes me leisurely. “It’s more of a dive bar really, that’s what most people see it as. We host events at times, and we have a few private rooms for other activities.”
“Like Sloane’s club?”
He considers me for a beat. Then, he pushes two thick fingers deep inside me. The sound of my arousal as he pumps in and out of me makes him grin. It’s a little evil, and when I can’t help but let out a breathy moan, it only grows more sinister. “More like, what Sloane won’t do at her club, those people come to me.”
“So, it’s more full-on? More depraved?” My voice is a whisper as I try to keep my mind on the questions and not how he’s bringing me undone.
“More specialized,” he says with an air of arrogance, and I know that’s all I’m getting out of him.
I rock my hips over his fingers, itching for more. “Why can’t I touch you? When we’re screwing, you can do what you want to me, but I can’t ever touch you. It’s not fair.”
He pulls his fingers free and then pushes three of them back inside of me. I can’t help but moan into the room. I’m so full, so stretched, and he knows exactly what he’s doing to me, turning my brain to mush. “Fair? When did I ever say this was going to be fair?”
“Stop playing games, Jagger, answer me,” I whimper.
A flash of sympathy comes over him, only for a second, and then it’s gone and his cold mask is firmly back in place. “We both have an ugly past, flower. It’s why you flinch whenever you think someone is going to hit you, but I don’t force you to talk about it, do I? I had a fucked-up childhood, end of story.” He drops his lips to my neck, placing a soft kiss just below my ear. “Now if you’re done with the questions, you can give me my reward.” He scoops me up and carries me through the living room, shoving open a door to a luxury suite.
