“Don’t flatter yourself,” I snapped.
“Oh, sweetheart,” he murmured, “I don’t need to flatter myself. You’re doing it for me.”
My pulse thudded hard. “You’re delusional.”
“Only on good days.”
“And you really think you can talk your way into my bed?”
A grin curved across his mouth, suggestive and overly confident. “I don’t need to talk my way into it. I’m already more than halfway there.”
I swallowed, heat pricking up the back of my neck. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
He uncrossed his ankles and stepped forward, only a fraction, and dropped his voice into that warm, velvet-dark register that made my stomach twist.
“Oh, I know exactly who I’m dealing with,” he said. “A woman who’s been fighting for so long she forgot she’s allowed to want anything. A woman who’s convinced she has to do everything alone.” His eyes flicked down my body, not lewdly, but knowingly. “And a woman who is looking at me like she’s wondering what Itastelike.”
My breath stuck in the back of my throat. I hated that he noticed.
I hated even more that he was right.
“You’re out of line,” I reprimanded, trying to force my voice to stay steady.
“Probably,” he agreed. “But if I don’t push, you’ll pretend you don’t feel this.”
“There is no ‘this.’”
He raised a brow. “Then slap me now and we’ll call it even.”
I blinked.
He leaned in, just enough for me to feel the heat of him, the space narrowing like a held breath.
“Go on,” he said softly. “If I’m wrong, you’ll do it without hesitation.”
My chest twisted tight with anger, frustration, and heat, and all of them tangled together and clawed for release.
He smirked. “Or maybe you’re afraid you’ll like it too much when I pin you down to my bed and spread open those pretty legs.”
That did it.
My hand came up before my brain could stop it, and the slap cracked harshly across his cheek.
He didn’t flinch.
Didn’t blink.
Just slowly turned his head back toward me, eyes darker than before, a ghost of a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.
“Good girl,” he murmured.
My heart nearly exploded out of my chest.
I took a step back, breath shaking.
His grin spread wider. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Red-hot furysurged through me, and I slapped him again, harder this time. The sting of it reverberated up my arm,creatinga satisfying impactthat echoed throughout the courtyard for a few long seconds following the slap.
