And I didn’t want it to stop.
Panic clawed its way up. I tore my mouth away, panting, pressing my hand against his chest. I unwrapped my legs and dropped to the floor, shoving space between us even though every part of me screamed against it.
“Last night was just for fun, a one-time thing,” I gasped out, trying to steady the hurricane inside me.
Nick braced his hands on the wall, boxing me in, his forehead almost touching mine.
His eyes raked over me, slow and searing.
“Not for me, princess,” he said, voice low and rough.
“And not for you either. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have started this little game of cat and mouse.”
He tilted his head and dragged the tip of his nose across the sensitive skin of my throat, sending a violent shudder through me.
“Besides, your little boyfriend Johnny needs to know who you belong to. And so do you. And I have just the reminder.”
A warning. A promise. A threat.
I hated how much I ached to hear it.
“I don’t belong to you. And you can’t force me to be yours.”
“You’re right.”
Hope flared — stupid, fragile — until I saw the sly curve of his mouth.
My stomach twisted as he finished:
“I can’t force someone who is clearly willing.”
Rage and humiliation clashed with the heavy pull of desire inside me.
I shoved past him, needing space, needing air.
He thinks I’m weak. He thinks I’m easy. He thinks he can use the little bit of truth I shared against me.
Well, fuck that.
“You are the one who said you’re never going to have sex withme, remember? And you can’t have someone when this,” I waved a hand between us, furious, hurt, “isn’t real.”
Nick was on me again before I could reach the door, his hand wrapping around my wrist, anchoring me to him.
His voice was low and rough in my ear.
“If you never wanted to be here, doing this with me, then you wouldn’t be standing here, sleeping in my bed, and showing me your pussy. Besides, we can keep sex and love separate while we pretend to be married and use each other. Your words — we are just using each other. So why not sex too?”
His grip tightened like he thought he could hold me here, keep me from slipping through his fingers.
He didn’t realize: I was already too far gone.
Too broken to be caught.
Too ruined to be saved.
“Because there’s no need to pretend there is an us when there isn’t.”
26
