Barefoot, she stood near broken glass, and that beast inside me that I keep caged broke out. I couldn’t restrain myself. I threw her over my shoulder like some caveman and spanked her on the way here as punishment for being so careless about herself.
Did I overreact?
Yes. Yet, I couldn’t help it. She stirs parts of me that only people I consider mine can evoke. Unless you’re mine, you’re not my responsibility. If you’re not one of the four people who are mine, you’re responsible for your own safety, security, and well-being.
But if you’re mine, you’re MINE. I take care of everyone I consider MINE, but it comes at the cost of their freedom. This is why I don’t date, why I avoid attachments. No woman wants to be MINE. They want to be mine.
There’s a difference.
I possess the woman who is MINE.
I own her heart, soul, and body. I consume her every waking moment. My initial is tattooed on her left breast so even when she’s nursing my baby and looking down on our baby’s cute face, she who is MINE knows that she belongs to me.
When I fuck the woman who is MINE, she submits completely. I do notswitch, and I never will. But most importantly, she won’t want me to, because a man who begs on his knees for scraps of her attention will turn her off.
My match doesn’t seek a groveling beggar. She seeks a champion, a man who will take care of all her needs and, if need be, give up his life for hers. Me and MINE would be a yin and yang, a completion, an all-consuming love. An absolute and mutual obsession. I want nothing that I’m not willing to give.
Since I’m turning forty this year, I’m old enough to understand all that about myself. I’m also old enough to understand I’ll remain single for the rest of my life because I won’t compromise the needs I have for an all-consuming love.
Lake Wilder wants nothing do with such a man, which is why we had a one-night stand, and not a two-night stand or another version of our relationship. And we most certainly shouldn’t be stuck under the same roof. My roof. Where I would consider her MINE.
“Fuck me,” I mumble.
“We can’t,” she replies while sitting up in my bed. She eats the pizza with her fingers instead of a fork and a knife. Normally, I would lecture a person on proper etiquette, but I won’t lecture Lake. I’m making an exception.
Making exceptions for her is a very bad sign. I should throw her out. I should. But I won’t.
I hover over the bed, hands on my hips, waiting for her to finish the meal. It’s nearly midnight, I know what I want to do with her, and it’s definitely not chat over pizza.
“I wasn’t suggesting we have sex.” I’ll make my move when she’s done eating. After all, I’m a gentleman.
“What are you thinking?” she asks, then coughs, choking on a bite she most likely inhaled.
I rush to the mini fridge and grab a bottle of water, handing it to her quickly before she dies in my bed.
Once she’s breathing normally again, I say, “It’s almost midnight. We’re going to sleep.”
She puts the tray on the nightstand and swings her feet over the mattress as if she’s going somewhere.
“Don’t make me restrain you,” I warn. After I watched her almost choke on a meal, we’re done with accidents for the night. DONE.
She giggles. “Alessio, I can’t sleep with you.”
“Sure you can.”
“I can’t.”
She’ll never let me consume her the way I need to.I shrug off my shirt. “You can, Lake. But you don’t want to, in which case, take one of the guest rooms.” There. The beast walks back into his cage. I lock it and pocket the key. Crisis averted. “There’s a spare bedroom next to Leo’s.”
Since I wore my pajama bottoms, I slide under the covers and lean on my right elbow so I can watch her finish her meal. I’ve also never had a woman in my bed, and the novelty of it pleases me. Lake’s overall appearance pleases me too.
The chestnut curls of her hair frame a delicate face with a straight nose and pouty lips. There’s calmness and grace about her that soothes me in ways I can’t explain. Long, curled lashes hide her eyes as Lake watches her plate while eating. When she looks up, the warmth in her gaze feels like sunlight in the room.
Lake offers me the last bite of her pizza. I shake my head, and she eats it.
“Do you want to read something before you sleep?” I ask.
She frowns. “Should I?”
