“Sam!”
She chased him around the counter as he held the phone over his head, her socks sliding on the polished floor when heabruptly changed directions. He laughed at her frantic attempts to match his speed. When she got frustrated enough to clamber over the counter, he ran for the bedroom.
“Sam!”
“Ah-ah.” He scolded as she tried to climb him to reach the phone. “Behave, or I’m going to crush it.”
She subsided at once, glaring at him. “You can’t seriously want this. You can’t stand him.”
His smile grew. “Yes. That’s exactly why I want nothing more.”
She huffed, throwing herself down on the bed face-first.
“This is insane,” she whined, her voice muffled by the sheets.
He slid his hand up the back of her thigh, dipping his fingers between them. Stooping over, crowding her, he massaged her through the seam of her pants. Her fingers knotted in the sheets as her breathing grew erratic.
“Tell me you don’t want me to fuck you,” he purred, rubbing circles over her sensitive flesh. “Say those words, and I’ll give you the phone.”
She shuddered beneath him, turning her face to the side so their eyes met.
“What if I don’t like it?” she asked in a small voice that pierced him.
His hand fell still. He pulled it away from her core, instead sifting his fingers through her hair as he lay down beside her. “You’ll like it. And if you don’t, tell me to stop.”
She worried her bottom lip between her teeth.
“But you… you don’t have to listen to me,” she said, her eyes darting away and back again.
He frowned. “No, I don’t. But I will. I admit to a perverse kind of pleasure in tormenting you, but not with sex. Haven’t I stopped every time you’ve asked?”
She blew out a breath, relief lighting in her eyes as she nodded slowly.
“I always will.” He smoothed his thumb along the curve of her cheekbone. “You’re safe with me, Ophelia. You’ll always be safe with me.”
She leaned forward and kissed him sweetly at that, a chaste but lingering press of her lips.
“We don’t have to do it, but it would bring me great satisfaction to claim you in front of him. To help you spite him.”
She wriggled closer to him, tucking herself beneath his chin as she molded her body to his. “You’ll really stop?”
“Yes.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“And if he shows up and I don’t want to do it anymore?”
“Then I’ll kill him instead.”
She drew back in horror, gaping up at him. He laughed.
“I’m teasing you.” He put the phone back in her hand, curling her fingers around it. “If you really want to text him, do it. But I think you’ve earned your revenge, petty as it might be. I want to give it to you.”
She looked down at the phone in her hand. “I’ve never really been the vengeful type.”
He believed that, just as he believed she may have more cause than most people to be vengeful, if her parents were any indication.
“You’ll never have to be again now that I’m here. I seem to be programmed in a way that lends itself quite effectively toward vengeance.”
“That’s so not comforting at all,” she muttered.
