“Well, it’s not your call.”
“It is when it involves you.”
“No,” I say firmly, shaking my head. I sit up and place my wine on the coffee table. “No, Stephen. You don’t get to decide which clients my firm takes on or which cases I work on. You don’t get to insert yourself into my job because you don’t like someone.”
His jaw flexes. “It’s not about like.”
“Then give me information,” I challenge. “Real information. Something other than ‘trust me, they’re bad.’ I can’t act on gut feelings. You’re asking me to compromise my professional ethics based on what—a look? A warning you won’t explain?” His silence is infuriating. “Exactly,” I say. “You don’t get to ask that of me. Not now. Not ever.” I stand and start putting on my shoes. “I’m going home.”
He stands instantly. “Dallen.”
“No. I’m not going to sit here and let you dictate my life.” When I turn to leave, his hand closes around my wrist, firm enough to stop me. He pulls me against his chest, and I lose my balance and tumble into him. Straight into his lap.
I gasp as one arm sits against my waist, while the other slides across my thigh, fingers tracing slow, consuming lines that melt through my anger like heat through ice.
“Don’t walk away from me.” His voice is low, rough silk against my back. “Not when you don’t mean it.”
“I do mean it,” I murmur, despite my body’s response—my pulse races and my skin prickles under his touch. Pulled by conflicting feelings, I crave him even as I try to muster resistance. Deep down, I know he’s blurring boundaries, using my desire to win me over—but I tell myself I’m stronger than this, even while my resolve shakes with longing.
I am.
“You’re angry,” he says quietly. “I get it. But I’m not trying to control your job. I’m trying to keep you safe.”
“That’s not your responsibility. I have enough of that with my father. I don’t need it from the man I’m fucking as well.”
He growls, and I’m not sure if he’s pissed or it’s because I rolled my hips against his engorged cock. “It became my responsibility the second you walked into my life.”
His hand sweeps higher, brushing my breast, and my breath hitches, my resolve trembles. “Stephen,” I whisper, “this isn’t how you win an argument.”
“I’m not trying to win.” His lips brush my shoulder. “I’m trying to keep you.”
A shiver runs through me—want and fury tangled so tightly I can’t separate them. I shouldn’t be with this man. Guilt stabs at me, and fear simmers beneath my longing. Everything that makes us who we are, our past, our future, nothing meshes, and yet, I can’t seem to pull away. “You can’t keep me from doing my job,” I manage, my voice trembling.
“I know,” he murmurs. “But I can show you how much you matter to me.”
And God help me…I let him. I let myself lean against his chest, his hands coaxing, distracting, soothing, and infuriating all at once. I let myself breathe him in, let the heat of him blur the sharp edges of my irritation. I let myself forget, for one dangerous moment, that the world outside his apartment that’s waiting to tear us apart doesn’t exist.
But it does.
FIFTEEN
STEPHEN
I’m goingto keep her forever and be damned what anyone else thinks of the matter. I’ll raise hell with anyone who gets in my way. The city hums faintly beyond the apartment walls, distant sirens and traffic muffled by glass and height.
Dallen is mine, and she, too, will soon come to realize that we’re made for each other. We click. The chemistry between us is off the charts. Nothing can change that, not even how much she loves her family.
In the end, she’ll choose me. I have to believe that, or I’ll go insane. Because the alternative—her walking away, choosing her father’s world over mine—is something I don’t know how to survive.
I play her body like an instrument, tease her breasts, roll my fingers around her nipples, and relish her sexy little squirm on my lap that presses against my cock. I’m going to fuck her so hard, control her like a toy. God help me, she feels like something I can lose, and that thought claws at my chest.
“Stephen…” Her breathy moan fires my blood more. I pick her up around her waist and set her on her hands and knees onthe lounge. I kneel behind her, the need burning through me like a wildfire I’m unable to control.
I push up her dress, her pretty, tight ass in her sexy thong greeting me. I lean down and kiss one cheek, sliding her silk panties off to pool at her knees. She shivers, and I can see she’s wet. I dip a finger into her cunt, twist it to tease her G-spot. She moans, gasps at my intrusion into her body, but squirms with need. Acceptance.
My cock hardens further. I rip my pants open, my large dick pressing Dallen’s sex as if it knows where paradise lies. I push into her, watching as I stretch her slick warmth, taking me fully. I remain still a moment, enjoying her heat as it tightens around me, contracts, seeking release.
Damn, she feels good.
