“You are really pushing me, Ember.”
“Good! Maybe if I push hard enough, you’ll start to hear me. I am not your enemy. I would never hurt you like that. I meant what I said, Roman. I am in love with you. I would never?—”
“Don’t say that again,” I snarl at her. “You don’t have any idea what it means to love a man like me. You don’t have what it takes to stand by me when everything in the outside world tells you otherwise. You don’t have the stomach for it.”
That hurt her and, in turn, hurts me. I know I’ve just crossed a line. Her bottom lip trembles, then stiffens as she regains her composure. “You’re so full of shit, Roman.”
I roll my eyes at her. “Whatever.”
“And you’re deflecting. You wouldn’t waste your breath on me if you thought any of that was true. I’d be dead already if you really believed that.” She pauses, looking at my face, the corners of her mouth twitching. “In fact, I think you might actually love me back.”
“I think you’re delusional.”
“Fine. Say it to my face, then. Tell me you don’t love me. That all this was just a fling and you’re trying to save my life out ofthe ‘kindness’ of your heart. Do that, and I’ll leave. I’ll walk out without another fucking word.”
I scoff at her. “You’re trying to goad me.”
“I’m trying to get through to you. Tell me you don’t love me.”
The way she’s looking at me, daring me… I take a drink from my glass and set it down. “Get out.”
“No.”
“Ember.”
“I just gave you the easiest way to make me leave and you can’t do it, can you?”
I look her in her eyes and the ice in them melts something inside me. I cannot stand that I’m hurting her. I can’t stand that I have to push her away. I can’t take it that love or whatever this is just isn’t enough in the end.
“I’m not going to tell you again.” I set my drink down and approach her. She crosses her arms defiantly.
“Make me leave, Roman.”
Standing this close to her, feeling the aura of her strength mixed in with that sweet smell of her skin, it’s mixing things up inside me.
I’m still angry with her. I’m furious, actually. I’m also really turned on right now. Sexy doesn’t begin to describe her right now. I want her submission as much as I want her dominance. I’m hungry for every part of her body right now.
She sees it. She tilts her head slightly at me and in a low, sensual tone she says, “I said, make me.”
I grab her by the arm and turn her around, pulling her close to me while I pin her arms behind her back. She gasps in surprise as I lean into her hair, indulging in her sweet scent. In her ear, I growl, “Always the fucking brat. What’s it going to take for you to understand that no one demands anything of me?”
Breathlessly, she responds. “Just tell me you don’t love me.”
“I shouldn’t have to tell you anything.” I bite her earlobe. Her breath catches as she bites her lip. “You should know better by now,milaya.”
I switch to holding her wrists with one hand while I move the other around her waist and undo the zipper of her jeans. “You are such a little bratty thing,” I whisper as I slide my hand down her panties. My fingers run through the soft down of her pubic hair and down between her legs. My fingers find the lips of her soaking wet pussy and I stroke her slowly.
“Of course you’re soaking wet,” I whisper into her ear. “You get off on being a brat, don’t you?”
She doesn’t respond, so I tighten my grip on her wrist. She whimpers, “Yes.”
I stop stroking her pussy and say, “You’re not new to this. Yes… what?”
“Yes, Sir,” she whispers. She moves her hips so that my hand slips out of her panties a little. I pull her wrist upward. She moans out in pain. I push my hand back down into her panties, rolling her clit under my fingertips.
Ember’s breath quickens and she’s trying not to moan. Trying her best not to enjoy this.
“Don’t act ashamed now.” I nuzzle my face into the crook her neck, kissing her skin. “Let me hear you. You want me to fuck this pussy?”
