Her pretty pink nipples pucker with the cool air, and while I should be enjoying “the game” and this is a game we’re playing, already I just want to grab her and pull her to me. But that’s not what this night is about. I glance at her pants and then back to her face. “Everything,” I order.
“What about you?”
I arch a brow. “What about me?”
“When are you going to undress?”
I fight the urge to promise her my protection, even now, when I’m the one making her feel vulnerable. There’s a growing part of me that wants what I want, and that’s all of her, the parts of her that she shows no one. I also know that despite my reasons for taking her to that place tonight, for asking for that from her, it’s not completely fair. Not when we both know I’m leaving. I have to leave.
She hesitates a minute longer, the room silent but for the sound of our breathing, and the heat of demand and vulnerability that almost hums. That’s what I want. No music for distraction. No words. Just us. Just the anticipation of what comes next.
Pri shoves down her pants and panties at once and kicks them aside. My gaze rakes down her beautiful body and lingers in all the sweet spots as she says, “Now what?”
My eyes meet hers. “Get down on your knees.”
Chapter Thirty
PRI
Get down on your knees.
That command by Adrian intimidates, and I expect it to stir uneasy, old demons that Logan created, but it doesn’t. There is just that intimate arousal. I am so turned on that my sex aches and my breasts are heavy.
Adrian won’t hurt me. Adrian won’t force anything on me that I don’t want to do. I know this, deep in my core. I know this.
And I also know that he doesn’t really believe I trust him enough to be this vulnerable with him. He believes I’ll prove him right, but I also think he wants me to prove him wrong.
And I already have.
I love this man.
I go down on my knees.
Chapter Thirty-One
ADRIAN
Pri doesn’t just go down on her knees.
She does so right in front of me and her hands settle on my thighs.
Her naked, with her hands on my body, is about the end of me and this game, but this is bigger than the moment. I need her to understand that no matter what good she brings out in me, there are other parts of me, darker parts of me, that will not go away. Parts she won’t like. Once she understands that, her thinking will shift.
I remove her hands. “Touch me when I tell you to touch me.”
“But I want to touch you.”
“And I want you to touch me. Just not yet. Trust, Pri. I’m in control. You do what I say.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I’ll punish you.”
“Punish me?” she challenges. “Is that supposed to scare me, Adrian?”
She thinks I can’t challenge her. She’s wrong. “Hands and knees, Pri. Right here in front of me.”
Her teeth worry her bottom lip and there is a flicker of apprehension in her eyes before she gives a small laugh that is really not a laugh at all. Her lashes lower and then lift as she says, “All right then,” she says. “I will.”
She rotates slightly and settles on her hands and knees. My cock throbs with the sight of her, naked and submissive. My hand settles on her back, between her shoulder blades. “Don’t move. Okay?”
“Yes.”
I push to my feet and undress, my skin hot, my cock so damn hard it hurts. When my clothes are set aside, I sit back down on the couch, and my hand returns to her back. “Now what?” she asks.
“Now this,” I say, running my hand down her spine, my mouth replacing my hand between her shoulder blades, my tongue teasing the delicate skin. She arches her back and my hand travels to her backside and gives it a squeeze. My other hand is on her belly, sliding low, and when I give her a tiny pat, just enough to shock her, she gasps, but my fingers are already sliding between her thighs. I go down on my knee beside her, and when I give her a full-palm squeeze, I say, “We’ll stop if you want to stop. Just say the word.”
She glances back at me, her eyes heavy and whispers, “I know that, Adrian.”
Because she trusts me. And I want her to trust me. Suddenly, I don’t know what the hell I’m trying to do right now. I don’t want her to distrust me. I don’t want her to hate me. But she will, I remind myself. She will when she knows the devil in the details—unless she doesn’t.
Suddenly, I have a flashback to being on the com when she was fighting off Logan and I really don’t know what the hell I’m doing. Fuck. I grab Pri and pull her around to me, fingers in her hair, my hand molding her close. “I’m sorry. So damn sorry.”