“I hate you,” she whispers, but there’s no hatred in it. Only heat.
“You don’t,” I correct softly. “Not even a little.”
My hands slide to her hips, anchoring her in place.
“You can keep measuring if you want,” I say, voice dropping. “But if you keep standing here with those thoughts in your head, I’m going to start making decisions for you.”
Her breath catches, and she glances down at the belt wrapped around my hand.
She freezes.
And I feel it—her body reacting before her mind catches up.
I tilt her chin back slightly with two fingers. “You want to push some boundaries with me?” I ask quietly.
The words hit the air like a match.
She swallows, throat bobbing beneath my touch. “What kind of boundaries?” she whispers.
I don’t answer immediately. Because the truth is, I want to push all of them. Lily has a lot of layers to tear back, but it’s all in her own time.
I want to take every inch she offers and worship her until she forgets her own name.
But that isn’t what this is about. Not really. This is about giving her something back.
Control. Choice. Power.
A future.
“I want to hear you say yes,” I murmur. “Not because you’re teasing. Not because you want to distract yourself. Because you want me.”
She turns her head just enough to look at me from the corner of her eye.
I start to stroke myself, eye contact never wavering.
“I want you,” she says.
My chest tightens like it physically can’t hold how much that means. “All your clothes off. Now.” I order.
She tosses the tape measure onto the floor and spins to face me. I reach out, grabbing her face and kissing the side of her jaw, gentle but possessive. Mine.
“Good,” I whisper. “Show me what’s mine, Lily.”
I want the last version of me she remembers to be this.
The man who held her steady. The man who gave her pleasure without fear. The man who made her feel chosen.
Slowly—so fucking painfully—she slips out of her little black dress and lets it fall to the floor.
Completely naked underneath.
“Fuck,” I hiss.
She gives me a slow twirl, hands gliding down her waist like she knows exactly what she’s doing to me.
“You like what you see, Drago?”
I drag my palm down myself, swiping away the evidence of how badly I want her.
