I witnessed his jaw clench, like he was about to give in, like he was ready to tell me the truth, finally. “I told you, I’m not—”
My thick fingers wrapped around his throat, pushing him against the wall. “We’re alone now,” I said. “Cut the act.”
“How would you even know?” he asked through the light grip I had on him. I wasn’t trying to strangle him, just pin him in place at a pinch point with my hand pushing lightly on his Adam’s apple. In some ways, it was cuteness aggression, the way people got when they squealed seeing cats. I had that for him, and it was only getting stronger with how close we were now—and alone.
“Do you think we’ve never been under surveillance before?” I asked him. “Do you think we’ve just been skating through life as a family, growing our business across Boston without scrutiny from government agencies?”
Kalen’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not a—”
My hand tightened on his windpipe, cutting him off. A smirk formed at the corners of my lips as I forget my own power. “I’m not a what?” I asked, my face getting closer to his. “Because if you tell me again that you’re not a federal agent, I might have to exercise my right as a homeowner to use the cuffs I have, and the bolts in the walls. Oh, and the soundproofing.”
A single tear formed in his eye, but he smiled at me. “I don’t know what you want,” he said as I loosened my grip on him. “I’m just trying to be here for my mom. And I’m also trying not to die. At least not from you.”
“Why not me?” I asked.
His smile nearly consumed his entire face now. “Because I think you get off on this stuff,” he said. “Is that a—a boner rubbing up against me, or are you packing extreme heat?”
I was hard, my entire body was pulsing, pumping so much blood at such a fast rate that my cock had stiffened all the way up under the waistband of my underwear. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“I was begging to get on my knees for you in your office,” he said.
“Disarming me through this type of stuff,” I mumbled, overexplaining his actions like they weren’t effective on me—but they were. I’d have lied to say the idea of dominating him sexually wouldn’t bring me joy. It would’ve made me very happy, but the only thing worse than dealing with killing with a Fed was fucking one, and I really wasn’t going to try and get that stink all over my hands.
He giggled, and it took me off guard. I let go of him. He’d been on his tiptoes. “Why are you—” He looked around at the open-plan loft with all the exposed brick, lost for words, and that was the usual look I got when I brought guys back here—but in very different contexts. He was here as a captive, not a sexual conquest. “Why are you even bothering to entertain me?”
“Entertain you?” I scoffed. “You think this is entertaining?”
“No, but you could’ve killed me already. You could’ve had someone else kill me, you could’ve done so much that didn’t involve you standing in front of me, rubbing yourself on me, and trying your hardest to make me bend to you in submission.” He let it all out, like there was finally something true there. “Instead, I’m alive.”
“Because killing you wouldn’t be good for anyone,” I told him. Most of all, I needed him to be away before the big underground poker games tomorrow.
“Tell me why?” he asked, prodding his finger into my chest. “Why?”
“Because your mom is sick,” I said. “And you made nice food.”
Kalen rolled his eyes. “So you’re taking pity on me?” he asked, shaking his head. “I don’t need your pity.”
I grabbed him again by both shoulders, pushing him against the wall. “What are you trying to make me do? You’re trying to get me to hurt you. You’re trying to—”
“What?” he asked. “Trying to get you to what?”
Staring into his eyes—his push against my dominance was hot—I’d never felt so many mixed signals in someone before. I couldn’t do anything with him, though. He was untouchable. No fucking, no killing, and definitely no—I licked my lips.
“Kiss me?” he said. “Are you trying to kiss me?”
I shook my head, but as his lips puckered and his head pushed forward, we kissed.
Not what I expected, not what I wanted, but I’d needed it. The soft plump lips pressed aggressively against mine. Kalen jumped, wrapping his legs around my waist. He pulled his head back. “It’s what you want, right?” he asked.
“Is it what you want?” I asked, pulling him away from the wall.
He smiled at me before kissing me again. I carried him to an empty room and pushed him against the wall in there, where the bolts in the walls had metal cuffs hanging from them. He barely noticed when the first one went round his wrist, but he pulled away from my face the moment it locked.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to do,” I said, as he dropped his legs from around my waist and stoodwith his hand yanking at the cuff keeping him in the room. “But it’s not going to work on me. You’re not going to seduce me. You’re not going to find any secrets. But what I will do for you is call my contact and make sure you’re taken home—wherever that is out of the state for you.”
His big eyes stared at me blankly now. “Please don’t do this,” he said as I backed away out of the empty room. “Please. Don’t. Please.”
Once I was out of the room, I leaned against the wall and sighed. My lips tingled from his kiss. I licked at them, then rubbed them clean with the back of my hand. I couldn’t do whatever that was, even if my entire body was begging for it, even if his body was begging too.
