I just manage to imprison the humiliating gasp scrambling up my throat. But there’s not shit I can do about the bottoming out of my stomach or the liquid, molten heat filling it. Or the moisture already wetting up my lower lips and panties. This man doesn’t mean my sanity or pussy any good.
“I don’t like fuck all about you,” I say, grasping ahold of my dignity with bloody fingernails.
He chuckles, and goddammit, a shiver crashes through me.There’s no way he missed it. The press of his chest to my back, the grinding of that big, long dick against my ass, clue me in that he caught every ripple that coursed through my body.
“Lie to yourself, but don’t bother doing that shit with me, baby girl.” He looses another of those rumbling, barely there laughs. “We both know there’s at least one part of you that likes me.”
He wraps an arm around my waist and dips his hand between my legs, cupping my pussy. If she wasn’t already leaking, she would be now. I sink my teeth into my bottom lip and clutch his thick wrist. To tug his hand away… to hold it tighter against me… I’m as indecisive as my sex.
Scratch that.
My pussy is decisive as hell.
“She loves the fuck outta me.” He squeezes my flesh, grinding the heel of his palm against my clit and setting off a chain reaction of electrical currents. They crackle up to my stomach, and it goes concave, before they double back and sizzle a path down my suddenly trembling legs to the soles of my feet. He just broke me in last night, and already my body responds to his touch like a trained circus animal. With immediate obedience and expecting a reward. “I can feel how hot she already is for me, and if I dragged down these dick-tease pants, I bet this pussy would wet me up. She knows who she belongs to.”
I…Oh fuck.I can’t.
This isn’t a shadowed library where I can convince myself my choices were limited. That sex was inevitable and that he was going to take it one way or another and the act of surrendering was a way of retaining some of my power. That pleasure from fucking him was biological, with no emotional attachment.
That I still hated him.
No, this is a cold, brightly lit conference room where none of those… arguments will stand. Not when reason isn’t clouded by greedy lust and desperate need.
Gripping his wrist tighter, I wrench it away from between my legs and tear from his hold. My neck and pussy burn as ifbranded, but I ignore them and turn to face him, inserting a safe space between us.
His gray eyes gleam, and for a second, I have the inane impulse to tilt my head back and bare my throat to him. Make myself vulnerable and submit to him.
Oh shit. This man is way more dangerous than I ever imagined.
He’s a threat to my very existence.
My hard-fought independence.
“Answer my question,” I say, the calm, even tone not reflecting the chaos wrecking shop inside me. “Why do you care about my opinion?”
“Do you or do you not hold a bachelor’s degree in biology and two master’s in biochemistry and chemical engineering?” He doesn’t give me an opportunity to respond but continues. “Were you the only one in the room with an IQ of 158?” I frown, unaware he knew that information. “Were you the only person attending that meeting with the exclusive knowledge of our product? Are you or are you not the last living member of the Cross family?”
I wave a hand, dismissive, even though the frantic, wild knocking of my heart more accurately relays the mixture of panic, anger and—God, I hate it—yearning written inside of me.
“None of that mattered to Marcus.”
He frowns at me as if genuinely confused, tipping his head to the side. “Maybe I was too quick in mentioning that high IQ ’cause I could’ve sworn I just said I’m. Not. Marcus.”
“No, you’re worse,” I murmur. “At least with him, I could trust in his disinterest, his neglect. This”—I sweep the same hand to the right, encompassing the room—“I can’t. Your outing me to the organization, introducing me as your fiancée, defending me to Michelle, and asking for my observations like they have weight…” I shake my head. “No. Iwon’ttrust it. Sex and playing like some fucking prince storming in to slay the dragon won’t erase years of pain and torture. So you’re absolutely right. You’re not Marcus. I could never make that mistake. It isn’t my father who invades my nightmares.”
Storm clouds gather in his eyes, transforming them into a gray so dark they nearly appear black. A shiver backpedals down my spine, but I force my feet to remain in place. As much as I like to believe I’m not afraid of Asad, there’s no denying he’s bigger, heavier, stronger.
God… If only it was his strength that presented the biggest threat. I wish I could claim that.
But when I bled on his dick, it usurped the crown.
Even now, shame crawls through me on its dirty hands and knees, head bowed, because while fear treads through me at the menace brewing in Asad’s narrowed gaze, so does lust. So does excitement as electric and stunning as lightning.
Head for the door. You don’t want none of what’s in those eyes.
My self-preservation is working time and a half today.
“You seem bothered by what I said.”
