Anthony knew—the bastard knew what he was doing to me, and I turned my face away until he disappeared from my peripheral. His tone said it all, and my nipples ached and tightened against my padded bra.
“Does the future stress you out that bad?”
“You know what you’re doing—” The sharp snap echoed around the kitchen loudly, and I whirled around to glare at Anthony’s darkening face. “This is your fault, you know exactly that I’m not okay, Anthony. You’ve been doing this all week, and even before all week.”
“That barely makes any sense, Hailey.” Anthony had washed Antonya during our chat, and he picked her up out of the water to hold her to his chest. He didn’t even care about getting his shirt wet, and I clenched my hands into tight fists as he finally turned his swirling, heavy gaze to me. “I thought you were open to this.”
“I am!”
Why am I yelling?
My loud shout was met with terse silence, and Anthony frowned even as my vision blurred and watered slightly. Flinging my arm out, I sucked in a harsh breath while my heart beat harder to put tremendous pressure on my aching lungs. Tightening and burning, my throat throbbed all the way up the front of my face, only stopping just above my eyebrows.
“You know this makes me all crazy, and then you compliment me—you know what you’re doing.”
“You don’t like my compliments…?” Confusion laced Anthony’s voice, and my mind stalled as I furiously tried to figure out what was going on.
Why was I mad?
Why was I horny, and why did that bother me so much?
Why was I having an episode now and not two weeks ago?
“Yes, I do.”
Why am I crying?
Wiping my tears away roughly, I sighed harshly and crossed my arms tightly over my chest. The action only rubbed the pads in my bra raw against my nipples, and I growled as my trembling fingers fumbled with the front clasp. Only faintly did my watering, blurry gaze catch Anthony setting Antonya in her bouncer, but my scope of comprehension narrowed into no wider than a hair’s width.
“Hailey, Ha- babe, stop. Stop it—” Grabbing my wrists tightly in both his hands, Anthony forced me back as my shallow pants became thick with his smell. Whimpering and sniffling l
oudly, I ground my forehead against his chest while he locked my arms behind my back. “Stop. You gotta stop, Hailey.”
“No-o-o! Unless you’re going to tie me up, you stop!” Muffled and hoarse, my declaration only earned me a heavy sigh, and my emotionally overcharged brain balked. That was all I got? A damn sigh? “You need to get out… I can’t… I can’t be around you anymore… I can’t do it- I- I- I…”
“Like fucking Hell I’m leaving you like this.” Before I could even realize it, Anthony pinned me against the refrigerator with a hand wrapped tightly around my neck and the other holding my wrists high. His eyes flared like pools of liquid, blue fire, and the heat of his gaze dried my tears instantly.
“I’ll tie you up when I feel like it, understand? You don’t get to cry and automatically get your way, Hailey. Don’t forget—I make that decision. Not you.”
“Why not? I deserve it! I don’t even know why this is happening!” Anthony must’ve seen what lay beneath the swirling maelstrom of anger, sexual frustration, and all-around crappy emotions that roiled in my eyes.
Panting harshly, I started to wheeze when he tightened his grip on my neck. Leaning down, his nose brushed mine, and my heart palpitated with a desire that wasn’t at all the rough and bumpy kind. His eyes never left mine even as his face distorted, and he didn’t so much as blink in warning before his lips brushed mine.
Tentative, gentle, Anthony’s mouth pressed against mine experimentally, and every muscle in my body hardened to stone. My brain stopped firing; my vision went dark, and even the blood pounding against my eardrums went eerily silent. He kissed me more firmly, and my momentary shutdown ended as a violent shiver lodged between my shoulder blades.
Sucking in a sharp breath through flared nostrils, I blinked hard and opened my mouth just as Anthony stepped into me fully. His fingers crept up my neck and over the side of my face into my hair, and I moaned as he gripped my hair tightly.
Pleasure. This pleasure—this thing that formed a dense ball in my chest—I had almost forgotten what it felt like. I clung to the taste of him, the sensation slithering down my throat as our tongues wrapped and caressed. Whimpering a muffled sound, I rolled and ground my hips against nothing, but my needy mind didn’t recognize the fact that Anthony wasn’t anywhere near the juncture between my legs.
“You do deserve it, Hailey… I’m not going to risk it.” Mumbling against my lips, Anthony’s gravelly voice reverberated down my neck and into my collar bones, and my chest tightened. “I want to take care of you this time. I can’t do that if I don’t know you. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“I loved it, though. I loved it with you.” My hoarse whisper pulled a groan from Anthony, and I licked him from chin to nose. His growl raged through my body, like he was some sort of animal set on a hunt, and the fine hairs on my face stood up.
“You should go to sleep, Hailey. I’ll take care of Antonya. You rest.” Déjà vu hit me hard, and a gasp flew from my mouth when Anthony carefully eased my arms to my side. “Go.”
Shivering when Anthony stepped away from me, I forced my blurry gaze to sharpen, and he strode heavily to the baby bouncer on the floor near the archway to the living room. My heart beat frantically in my throat, lungs unable to expand fully as I watched him crouch down to adjust Antonya’s towel underneath the buckles. For a time that felt much longer than a few seconds, I could only stare, but he unfastened her swiftly to pick her up. Her burbles tickled my ears, and my eyes widened as realization slammed into me.
She’s not wearing a diaper. Turning on my heel, I practically ran out of the kitchen and down the hall to slam the door behind me. My tears of frustration became tears of shame, and I fell on my bed to curl up into a ball. She’s not wearing a diaper.