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She was hungry.
So she was mine.
“What will you give me?” She asked, tearing her warm brown eyes away from the strawberry.
“What do you want most right now?”
“To go-”
“Don’t you dare say home.” I cut her off with a harsh tone, “Because we both know you don’t want that.”
“Outside,” she whispered.
“You want to go outside?” I repeated, admitting to myself that had not been what I expected her to say.
She looked back out the window, “I’ve never seen fall foliage so vibrant before.”
I glanced past her at the scenery outside, something I’d experienced every year of my life, and tried to see it through her eyes. I also knew she had seen it before, but she was pretending that she hadn’t.
“Then clothing,” I responded, “Each bite will give you a piece of clothing better suited to go outside in.” I let my eyes roam over her bare skin exposed to my eyes around the small robe. “Deal?”
She tilted her head back towards me, and chewed on her bottom lip in a way that made me want to taste it myself, and then shifted to face me more directly. “Clothing, and answers. One and then the other.”
I dropped my hand to my lap with the berry and glared at her, “Now you’re pushing it.”
Her full lips pulled up into a tentative smirk, almost like she wasn’t used to smiling, “Take it or leave it.” She nodded towards the platter, “I’m used to going far longer than one day without eating. I can outwait you.”
I growled in my chest, “You won’t use food as bartering chips with me, Arianna.” I warned, “After today, you’ll eat a healthy amount of food, any food you desire. I won’t have you putting your health in jeopardy to play a game.”
“Aren’t our lives just one big game of chess?” She wondered out loud with a cocked eyebrow. I didn’t answer her, because she was right, and I didn’t want to give her that satisfaction. She sighed and reached for the strawberry in my hand, “Fine. Give me.”
“Nu-uh.” I pulled my hand back before she could grasp it. “Allow me.” Her eyelashes flared wide as I put my hand over hers that she tried grabbing the strawberry with, pinning it on my leg as I lifted my other and placed the berry right in front of her lips. “Open.”
“I can feed myself.” She argued, her eyes jumping back and forth between the berry and my own.
“Open,” I repeated and she sighed but obliged, parting her full pink lips slightly as she stared at me. “Good girl.” I put the juicy strawberry against her bottom lip, and she opened further, allowing me room to place the entire thing into her mouth before closing her lips around the tips of my fingers and taking the fruit.
I doubt she meant it seductively, given that she had no experience with men before we met days ago, but the action sent electric bolts of desire straight through my body, though my face remained impassive.
I watched her chew and run her tongue over her lips when she was done. “Another,” I picked up a block of cheese and held it out for her, but this time I didn’t reach as far forward, making her lean to me to get the offered food.
She rewarded me by using her teeth to grasp the food instead of her plush lips and nipped my thumb in the process before pulling back and smirking again, proud of herself.
I smirked too, simply because I couldn’t help it.
“The strawberry was for a pair of pants, and the cheese for an answer.”
“Hmm.” I hummed, leaning back against the wall behind me and nodding for her to continue.
“Why did you take my mother’s tonic and station your men to intervene on our wedding day?”
I clenched my jaw at the memory of that bitterly drugged beverage her parents used to control her with and answered. “Because it wasn’t right of them to do that to you.” I said plainly, “And I wasn’t going to allow it to happen inside of my home.”
“And what you did to me after our weddingwasright?” She snapped and I chuckled at her dismissively.
“It’s not your turn.” I rejected her and picked up a rolled piece of ham off the platter. “It’s mine, now open those pretty lips and eat.”
Her nostrils flared at my words, but she obeyed, leaning forward once again and taking the offered food. When she was done chewing, she simply said, “Socks.”
