There was an agonizingly long beat of silence where the tension around us built, and I realized I may have made a grave mistake getting into the car with him.
I knew he was a fucking murderer… Why had I trusted him not to kill me?
“Killing you would be easier. Trust me.” His voice was quiet and tired.
I didn’t like the way his brown eyes darkened. His pupils were much too large for how bright it was out, and he had that dead look on his face again.
I swallowed, and my dick hardened with the increasing rate of my heartbeat. He was so fucking scary when he was like this.
What was wrong with me that it turned me on?
“Cal, listen—” I tried to speak again. I wanted to tell him that I had been planning to tell Joannanobefore he interrupted. As much as it didn’t make any sense, I couldn’t deny he made me feel things. However, he didn’t let me get a word out.
“No, Ryan.You’regoing to listen.” His voice was low and dangerous. I swallowed again before nodding.
“I tried to do this the nice way. I tried to bullshit that we could be friends, but we’re not friends.”
“We’re not?” I asked, feeling strangely vulnerable at hearing him say those words out loud.
“No, Ryan. We’re not.” Without warning, his hand was cuffed around my throat, and he had me pressed back against the passenger window. “I can’t get you out of my fucking head. I know it’s wrong to force you, but I can’t help it. Fuck you for making me obsessed with you.” He growled. His lips were so close to mine that I could taste the peppermint on his breath.
“Whether either of us wants this or not, my screwed-up brain has decided that you’re mine, and I don’t fucking share, Ryan. Do you understand me?”
Completely enraptured and terrified at the same time, I nodded, but he gently squeezed his fingers tighter around my throat.
“I don’t know that you do.” He rumbled. He traced his lips against mine, and my mouth parted on reflex, but he didn’t kiss me. “Starting now, there will be rules, and I expect you to follow them.”
Suddenly, the spell I seemed to be under shattered.
Rules? Fuck that!
I was a grown-ass man. I ran a business. I made the fucking rules. Not some out-of-control, irresponsiblepunk!
Out loud, I scoffed. “If anyone should be making rules, it should be me,” I snapped, and Cal’s hand tightened even morearound my throat. He released a dark chuckle, though there was no humor in his eyes.
“You want to make the rules, baby?”
“I think out of the two of us, I’m clearly more qualified to be in charge. I’m much more level-headed,” I shot back.
He let out another dry laugh. “Sure, Ryan. You want a chance to be in charge? You’re going to have to fight me for it.”
“Fine. But you have to fight fair. No pulling guns this time or taking me by surprise.” Nearly every time we fought up until this point, I lost, but Cal almost always played dirty. I was used to boxing, where there were hard and fast terms of engagement. I knew I could beat him on an even playing field.
A spark of fire ignited in his scary, dead eyes, and a tightness I hadn’t noticed in my chest loosened.
As much as I had this strange, twisted desire to get Cal all riled up, I didn’t like it when the rage crossed into that unnerving dead zone he sometimes slipped into.
He stroked his thumb possessively across my jaw and nodded.
“Alright. I’ll play fair. But when I win, there’s no fucking safe word, Ryan. This is your last chance to willingly submit. If I have to force you to submit, you will need to take whatever it is I give you. Consent now.”
Something about him forcing me to submit sent a fucking thrill through my body, and blood rushed to my cock at an alarming rate.
What would he do to me if he won?
Why did I low-key want him to win?
No, no. I wouldn’t let him win. This was bigger than just this one fight. Whatever happened in the next few minutes was going to set the tone for the rest of our relationship. I knew it in my bones.
