His mouth formed a flat line, and his jaw hardened. “I wasn’t trying to offend you. You hardly ever open up about your past. It makes sense to think something might have happened—”
“Nothing happened to me!” I flung my hands in the air and stood, pacing the floor. “Women went from Victorian gowns and fainting spells to building bridges and sitting on Capitol Hill. Is it so hard to comprehend I might be less sugar and more spice? When will men stop trying to pigeonhole us in these dainty little molds? Nothing fucking happened to me. I’m not broken. I’m strong.”
“Okay.” He held up his hands, palms out, in surrender. “I never said you weren’t strong.”
I scoffed, the sound coming from the back of my throat. “I grew up in a normal home with a normal family just like you.”
I could hardly believe the lie sprung so easily from my lips but fuck him for acting like the only excuse for my personality might be broken parts of my past. I wasn’t broken!
He continued to hold up his hands. “I’m sorry.”
Encroaching uncomfortable territory, I redirected the conversation. “I have studying to do and, apparently, so do you.”
He frowned. “We’re talking.”
I moved to the kitchen, putting distance between us. “We’re done.”
“That, right there.” He rose from the table and cornered me. Startled, I twisted my back into the cabinets as he towered over me. “See what you’re doing? You’re grappling for authority. But in bed, you’re different, Avery. I’ve seen you.”
“Only because you suck at following directions, Noah.”
“Bullshit. Last night I gave you a thousand chances to call it quits. You want to be the boss, but not as much as you want someone else to do it for you. Power can be a burden.”
I rolled my eyes. “You have it all figured out.” I turned, and he grabbed me from behind, his hands curling around my arms just above the elbows, his body and bulk angling me forward.
“I think I have a little more figured out than you want to admit,” he whispered, mouth against my ear.
“And this is what you think I want?”
“I think you like when I take you, and you don’t have a say in how I do it. I think you like the break from responsibility.”
“If this is for me, how come it’s your dick poking my back.”
His arm slid through mine, pulling them tighter at my back as his hand shoved into my pants. “I call your bluff.”
His fingers twisted in my panties and I grunted as he inserted a finger into my pussy. A second later, his hand was in front of my face, finger glistening with my arousal.
“You’re soaking wet, Avery.”
My molars locked as I glared at his finger. I jerked in his hold, but he didn’t let go. “Get off.”
“Lick them clean.”
“Get fucked.”
His hand covered my mouth, and I growled a scream, the sound muffled.
“Do you taste yourself?” His breath teased my ear as he turned my body, bending me over the lip of the counter. “You’re a little liar.”
He removed his hand from my mouth, and I panted. He shoved my pants down, still holding my arms tight at my back. “Look at you. You’re drenched.”
“I could have you arrested.”
“Or you could stop denying that you like having the choice taken from you and let me fuck you in a way I know you’ll enjoy.” His fingernails scraped over my ass, and I sucked in a breath. “Little Avery, so tough and in charge.”
I jerked my body, and he chuckled. The heat of his cock rested on my bare skin. “Noah…”
“Tell me to go home, Avery.”
Go home. My lips wouldn’t open. My mind playing a game of hide and seek where one second I was It, and the next second, I was the prey. I couldn’t decide which role I wanted.
He loosened his grip and gathered my wrists in his hand. “Don’t move. I have to put on a condom.”
Well, he was an idiot. The second he took his hands off me. I bolted and yanked up my pants, running full speed into my bedroom.
“Avery!”
27
Noah
I caught up to her in only a few long strides. She swung the bedroom door shut, and I caught it before it slammed. My heart raced as I backed her toward the side of the bed. Stroking my dick, now suited in a condom, I stalked her. She claimed she preferred sex to be honest, and I intended to get the truth out of her if it killed me.
“I’m not having sex with you, Noah!”
“Yes, you are.” The challenge only got me harder.
“Um, no. I’m not.”
“Get on the fucking bed, Avery.”
She shook her head.
I crowded closer, and just as her knees bumped the mattress, I gave her one more chance to obey. “On your back.”
“Fuck you.”
“I’d rather fuck you.”