AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Merde, if you could feel how hard I am…how fast my heart is pounding.”
I shivered.
Violently.
“If you knew why I’m doing this and why I need you...” He let out an involuntary groan right against my cheek. “If you knew how hard I’m fighting to stay human…you’d know that the helplessness you feel right now is exactly how I feel.” He nuzzled me. “You don’t know me and I don’t know you, yet every cell in my goddamn body is snarling to bend you over this bar and claim you.” He chuckled. “So yeah, maybe you’re right: I am delusional.”
I stumbled backward as I sucked in a shaky breath. I hated the visceral reaction he caused. The heat. The awful, awful flush of awareness and shock and rage and…want.
I had no idea what to say.
He successfully gagged me with brutal honesty or conniving lies.
Twisting my arm in his fingers, I croaked, “You said you’re doing something against your wishes? Well, you have my permission to stop. Let me go. Take your money. And leave.” My gaze flickered down to his trousers, my heart skipping at the bulge between his legs.
He wasn’t lying.
He was hard.
And somehow, that turned every part of me into a traitor.
What was it about this man that irked me, infuriated me, and intoxicated me quicker than any other substance on earth?
“I can’t do that,” he said almost sadly, his fingers pulsing around my wrist.
Self-preservation shot like a sobering cure through my veins. Squirming again, I bared my teeth. “Yes, you can. You can’t buy me, rent me, sleep with me, or do whatever it is that you think you’re doing. If you don’t let me go this instant, I’m going to knee you in the balls, then call the cops, and—”
“Shit.” He wrenched me closer. His face twisted as his lips returned to my ear, hot and seducing, feeding his sins directly into my blood. “I should warn you, I don’t do well with threats. I wish I was free to do exactly what you demand, but I can’t. The only thing I can give you is advice….the more you fight me, the worse this will be for you. So, don’t fight. Just give in…like I have. Surrender, Ily, and this…this can all be over soon.”
My name.
He claimed my name without it being his to use.
The way it rolled on his tongue and clung to his teeth. It felt as if the soft sunshine I’d been named after just had its light smothered and heat frozen over with his arrogant, dangerous tone.
I positively hated that my nipples pebbled; my core clenched on phantom need.
Surrender?
To him?
No way.
Never.
Not when the very foundation of my life shuddered like quicksand beneath my feet.
Whoever he was, he wasn’t delusional or dangerous. He was a demon and death all in one and I needed to run.
Balling my hands, I yanked my arm. Not that it made a shred of difference. “Let me go—”
“No.” His nose nuzzled against my neck, inhaling deeply as if he wanted every spritz of my rose-quartz-and-freesia-infused perfume to soak into his lungs. “I told you, I can’t. I wish I’d never set eyes on you. I wish you didn’t exist. I wish…merde, it doesn’t matter what I wish.”
“I’m going to scream.” I leaned away, but he merely wound an arm around my back, pinning me to him.
I shivered against my will. “I’ll do it.”
He groaned as if my threat turned him on. “But I haven’t even touched you yet.”
