I look up at him surprised, my eyes narrowing slightly as I try to gauge if he’s serious or just fucking with me.
“How can you possibly guarantee that?” I say breathlessly, still reeling from the taste of his mouth.
I’m appalled at how badly I want him to be serious. For this to be a possibility for all of us, but I can’t help the part of me that is still guarded and afraid to hope for anything.
Ian brushes his thumb over my bottom lip, and I study the amusement and frustration in his eyes as he brings his lips to myear. “Because you’re forgetting the part where I get to fuck you too.”
My eyes widen, and my lungs fill with air, shocked by the prospect of himwantingto fuck me. Ian’s words sink straight to my core, breaking through the haze of lust that has clouded my senses, and I’m suddenly aware of what’s happening.
I drop my legs from his waist and push him away, “You don’t want to fuck me, Ian,” I say, but he grips my hips keeping me in place. He presses his body into me, and I feel an unmistakable hardness against my thigh.
“You may want to tell that to this guy then,” he says, grabbing my hand and placing it over the hard outline of his cock, straining against his jeans. “It’s so incredibly frustrating that you don’t realize the effect you have on me,” Ian says, not letting me back down so easily. “I get so fucking hard thinking about you.”
His cock throbs under the grip of my hand, and desire overwhelms me as I notice the thickness under my fingers.
His breath is hot against my mouth as he lingers impossibly close. “I’ve wanted you since the day I met you. I just cursed my luck that Mitch got to you first.”
“Got to me first?” I repeat, more confused than ever. “Mitch has been trying to hook us up since we met. He didn’t get to me first. You just shot down every attempt he made to get us together.”
“I never shot down anything,” he snaps, then takes a breath to center himself. “I don’t know how to act around you,” he confesses, with an edge of vulnerability. “I’ve never been so attracted to someone and so fucking terrified of them at the same time.” He laughs. A nervous laughter that reflects in his eyes.
“Terrified? You’re scared of me?” I ask, dumbfounded.
“Fucking petrified,” he clarifies with some confidence. “You are so fucking intimidating. Some days, I look at you, and it’slike looking straight into the sun…like, I know I shouldn’t do it, that I’m only hurting myself, but you’re so fucking mesmerizing I can’t help it. Other days,” he pauses as if he’s unsure he should say the parts he’s held inside for all this time out loud. He grips the outer edges of my thighs as he breathes deeply, “Other days, you could chew me up and spit me out, and I’d beg you to do it again.”
To say I’m shocked is an understatement. Dumbfounded doesn’t even begin to cover the extent of howI feel right now, and he’s looking at me like he can sense it. “You were pretty clear right off the bat that you weren’t interested, so I just matched your energy because I was a fucking coward. Too scared to tell the scary girl I thought about her in ways that would make her knees weak.”
“Bullshit!” I manage to say this time, but the heat from his hands on my thighs forces my breathing to quicken. “You can have anyone you want, Ian. I’ve seen several customers run into displays craning their necks to get a glimpse of you.”
“Their eyes aren't the ones I'm looking for,” he confesses.
“I don’t believe you,” I say cautiously, starting to believe him.
“Then let me prove it to you,” he pleads. “You know, for someone who has a hyper-critical and logical approach to everything, you really are a fucking idiot.” I roll my eyes, and he grabs my jaw to return my face to his. “A beautiful, stubborn, scary, fucking cunt of an idiot.”
I can’t help the laugh that escapes my throat. I shake my head, looking at him with new eyes. I study his features, soaking in the lines of his face and how his eyes crinkle when he smiles.
Because he is smiling at me. For me.
“I see you,” he whispers. “I see that deep down behind all the cynical bullshit, you’re just as scared as I am.” Ian looks at me as if he’s looking inside my soul and finds something familiar. “You’re so afraid that you’ll suck up every ounce of good inpeople until they're shells of themselves, and you’d rather push people away than risk bringing them down to your level.”
I open my mouth to argue, frustration and sadness warring for dominance inside me. Ian leans in and captures my lips once more, and I forget how to breathe, let alone think. They are so similar in so many ways; it’s no wonder he and Mitch have been best friends for so long.
“If a bit of corruption is the price I have to pay to be with you, then I’ll pay it tenfold. I’ll give you my soul…even if I have to shove it down your fucking throat.”
My heart beats faster under his grip, firm but gentle.
“I want you. I want him. And he wants us,” he says, punctuating each sentence with a soft kiss.
His free hand slips up my skirt and traces his fingertips along the edge of my panties, and for some godforsaken reason, I don’t stop him.
“Do you want me, Roxy?” he asks so softly, running his fingers along the crease of my thighs, teasing me.
Brick by brick, my resolve crumbles.
SEVEN
The way he glares at me is criminal. I scan his eyes, looking for any hint of lies or dishonesty, but all I see is the brutal truth reflected back at me. This isn’t just an attempt to appease Mitch, as I initially thought. Ian Summers wants to destroy me, and I’m pretty sure I want to let him.
