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When we reached the dining room, it was my moment of truth. Either I kept the coat on and avoided the wrath of Amos, or I went big so we could go home. I unbuttoned my coat, slid it off my shoulders, and handed it to the attendant at the door who would take them to some mysterious, fancy person coat room.
Amos handed his coat to the young guy—probably a college kid earning some hefty tips—and turned back to me. He froze. Ice sculpture, marble monument, stunned into silence froze.
I tugged my bottom lip between my teeth and gave him an innocent blink. “What?”
There wasn’t anything remarkable about my dress, really. It definitely screamed “sex” with its red lining and black lace top layer, and it ended mid-thigh, which was just this side of slutty. But the black leather bralette I’d paired under it swooped over my cleavage, crisscrossed up my breastbone, and circled my throat. If my dress screamed, “sex,” then the bralette hollered, “spank me, Daddy.”
Amos looked entirely lost for words, so I looped my arm through his again and led him into the crowded dining room. “I wonder what they’re serving,” I mused.
He turned us right back around, snatched our coats from the coat kid, who looked like he’d seen Amos rise from a coffin, and marched us right back out the foyer. He shoved my coat back over my shoulders. “What in the name ofGodare you wearing, June?” he hissed.
I bit my lip again, fighting a laugh. “It’s a dress, Amos. I know I don’t wear fancy ones very often, but I thought—”
“That is not a dress,” he snapped. “That is… I don’t know.”
“Sexy?” I offered. Another surge of nausea threatened to overcome me, and I swallowed back the bit of bile that had sloshed into my mouth.Keep it together, I thought with consternation.
He stopped in the middle of the foyer, his eyes hard obsidian. “That is the understatement of the century, Matthews.”
I gave him my best doe-eyed look. “Are you telling me to cover up, Amos? I thought you were a feminist.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked. “What are you playing at here, June?”
“Nothing,” I said, splaying my hands out in front of me. “I mean, I wouldn’t consider it agameso much as amessage, and since you’ve been firmly ignoring said message for several weeks, I figured, hell… why not shout it?”
He considered me with ember-dark eyes, his straight brows drawn together infinitesimally. Finally, he looked away, smoothing his fingers over his mouth. “June. We’ve been over this.”
“Oh, I know we have,” I quipped and turned back around to go into the dining room. “And since you can’tmakeme leave with you, I think I’m going to set the terms. Either we go home,” I continued, even as he hooked his hand around my elbow and dragged me over to a huge marble column to tuck me into the shadows, “or I stay here.” He pressed me against the hard column, his long body pinning me in place. I gave him a pointed look. “Either you treat meexactlythe same way you treated your other girlfriends, or I’m staying here and showing off my interests.”
“They’re notyourinterests,” he bit out, bending over me and leaning his forearm against the stone beside my head. “They’re my interests, and I don’t think they’re fitting for you or our relationship.”
“Why?” I challenged, some of my ire leaking out around the word. “Why not? Why don’t I measure up to every other woman you’ve been with?”
He sighed through his nose, letting his head hang a moment. His cologne surrounded me, heightening my emotions and compelling me to nuzzle my nose against the base of his throat. I heard him swallow. “It’s not that you don’t measure up, June.” Amos lifted his head so his shadowed gaze captured mine. “It’s that I… I treasure you. I can’t do those things to you. I don’t want to.” He bent his lips to my jaw. “You’ve given me a sweet tooth, Cupcake.”
I let out a little growl. “I don’t want to be treasured. I want you to fuck me the way Iknowyou want to. You’re holding back because you think I’m weak.”
“Fragile,” he corrected, angling another look my way. “And precious.”
“I am not,” I scowled, pulling away.
Amos chuckled softly. “Imagine being told you’re precious and getting angry about it. Matthews, you defy logic.”
I gagged, suddenly coughing on another bit of vomit that threatened to escape from my throat.
Amos gave me a concerned, assessing look. “Babe, I think you need to sit down.”
I resisted the urge to stomp my foot. “Play dirty, Amos. I’m asking you to. I’m insisting on it.”
He rolled his eyes. “Well, considering that you played dirty first,” he responded, hooking me with one of his glares that sent goosebumps skittering down my arms. “I’m not sure I have much of a choice.”
I shrugged, giving him a falsely hopeless look. “I guess so.”
Amos narrowed his eyes. “You want me to punish you, June?”
“Mhm,” I hummed, my gaze flicking up and down his hard features.
He hooked a finger through the collar of my leather bralette and yanked me so our lips nearly touched. “Then take off that coat and walk into the dining room.”
