Lilian mumbles something against my skin as she comes up tolook me in the eyes that sounds like “Fuck the clause.” Before she turns towards the car and pulls me with her.
8
LILIAN
PLAYLIST: WICKED GAME – CORVYX
I've never broken any of my rules regarding women before. Now, the woman looking challengingly at me has already made me violate three of my rules, and I can't do anything about it. Perhaps I wouldn't have broken them if I didn't know Mae had moved on, or so I tell myself.
I ought to be attending to everything else—handling the company's situation, discovering who was after Jared and, by extension, me. Instead, I find myself here, drawn to her as if steered by an external force. My core burns me down as I let my lips wander over her sweetly scented skin.
I can’t wait to see her kneel for me. I have never been one for back-and-forth or long dates; I don’t have time for banalities like that, and I have expected her to request to do so.
Now, I know there is a lot more to her, and I’ll find out whatever it is she is hiding from. My guess is her dark desires. She seems so innocent, and those who give that impression are usually the ones who deny themselves authenticity by not allowing their dirty desires to be. I find joy in pushing women beyond what they dare to be.
It has been the same with Mae. She has been this wallflower, quiet, always perfect, shy. One year later, she was everything but. She has become confident and daring, even bratty.
It will be the very same with Ella. I am going to strip her bareuntil I can see her soul, and she fully submits to me—not because I make her, but because she wants to.
I kiss my way from her collarbone all the way up to her ear. Her skin tastes so real, not diluted by perfume, simply her—and her lust. She bends back into the wall from the sensation, and I grasp her waist to pull her with me to the car. I can feel Doug hovering behind me with the tension he's been under lately.
“Get in,” I tell Ella and almost push her in. She does as told, and a rare smile appears on my face as triumph washes through me. It was what I wanted since the day she saved my life, and now I have her.
I get in after her, and Doug closes the door. Her body language tells me she is insecure as she settles into the seat.
“They’re paid for their silence,” I tell Ella as her eyes check out the two bodyguards in the front.
“Just because they don’t say something, doesn’t mean they don’t have opinions,” says Ella, and a chuckle slips me.
“You really like to keep a certain image to the outside world, don’t you?” I ask her.
“I do.” Her eyes flash so beautifully at me.
“And being with me does what to your perfect image?” I ask because I want to know everything there is to know about her.
“You are cold, calculating, and exploitative,” she says. “I am warm, kind, and generous. It’s like I am fraternizing with the enemy.”
“Yet, you are here,” I say. I don’t care if anyone calls me cold or calculating. I actually enjoy it; it makes people worst-case respect me and best-case fear me.
“Yet, I am,” she says, and her eyes pierce me. I feel a flutter rushing through my chest. Rationally, I know it’s desire. Emotionally, I cannot grasp it. Cannot, or rather: want not.
“Tell me why,” I say, trying to push her. I want the real reason.
She tilts her head slightly, one corner of her mouth tugs up as her eyes flicker.
My heart beats faster. I know something is coming; I can feel it, and it rips the control from me.
She takes her time answering, and I know she is challenging me, testing the grounds—so muchabout her innocence.
It costs me all my willpower to keep the gaze. And then, she leans forward, slides towards me, and grasps my face.
My heart stumbles.
Her lips almost touch mine.
Her warm breath caresses my skin.
“Because I want to do this,” she says silently, before her soft lips meet mine in an embrace I haven’t experienced before.
