My hand clenches on my thigh, digging in and massaging the muscle. I’m so fucking tense right now. I want to walk over there and pull her up, drag her to the back bedroom and spank her ass while I break her in to my desires. I’m not tame. Hell, no. That’s why I’ve never crossed a line with Sasha.
But for awhile now, I’ve seen the desire in her eyes. Little golden flames in the hazel orbs. Her body moves closer to me all the time. Even when I moved away because I didn’t want her to feel my dick stiffening in my pants. Just hearing her voice makes me hard. Our movie nights? It’s like the most exquisite torture. I go home every time and jerk off in the coldest damn shower I can stand. She’s got me so on edge that I can’t even think straight when she tries to cuddle up against me. I haven’t even been able to be with another woman for ages because I can’t. I don’t want anyone else. Just her.
Her golden eyes dance over and away from me again.
“What were you thinking, Sasha?” I’m not telling her that I know. I want to know what she’s going to say. If she’ll be honest with me and herself.
Her face flushes, the red on her high cheekbones clashing horribly with her long red hair. “I don’t know what I was thinking.” Her eyes refuse to meet mine.
“Really, Sasha? I think you know damn well what you were doing. I think you were messing with my head, woman. I think you wanted my fucking attention so damn much that you put your damn body and your own fucking life at risk to try to prove something to me and yourself. Am I close?” I growl, my voice rough and hoarse with tension.
She flinches and her blush fades leaving her pale and frightened. I want to go to her and hold her in my arms, tell her that it’s alright. That I’ll always come for her. I will watch out for her until one of us leaves this earth. But I’m not her friend anymore.
I’m the man that’s going to claim her. Keep her and love her for eternity.
“Do you understand what you’ve done yet, Sash? Do you realize what’s changed?”
She shakes her head, her red hair sliding around her narrow shoulders like a glorious waterfall. “No,” she whispers.
“Come here, Sasha,” I order, watching her with narrowed eyes.
Her eyes widen, darkening to antique gold and green but she just shakes her head. “Come here, Sasha. I’m not going to ask again.”
“You’re not asking now,” she snips at me and my lip quirks up. There’s my little firecracker. I knew she was hiding somewhere close.
“No. I’m not. So come here.”
She stands up and hesitantly steps towards me. The little black dress slides up her thigh when she moves and my eyes follow the fabric up her slim legs. Damn, she’s beautiful.
Always has been. But with her parents being about the worst I’ve ever met and then passing away in a car accident while she was in college, I shut down all those feelings. Sasha had so much going wrong in her life. She needed a friend. She needed me. And before I knew it, there I sat firmly in the friend zone.
I hold out my hand and she slips her hand into mine, squeaking when I tumble her to my lap. My fingers tighten around her, one hand sliding under the curtain of hair and grasping her neck to hold her still, the other wrapping around her back to hold her snug to me.
“Now, Sash. Tell me what you thought you were going to accomplish by the stunt I just had to call in a bunch of men to rescue you from. What was the end goal?”
Her eyes skitter away and she sits silent until I pull her long hair, wrapping it around my fist, tugging her head back. Her shimmering eyes widen but she still says nothing.
“I want an answer, princess. I want an answer now. I know what I think it was but I want your fucking answer.”
“I just wanted to see what you thought about me, Jackson,” she whispers, trying to tilt her head down so I can’t see into her eyes.
“Not good enough, Sasha. Not nearly good enough. And I don’t think it’s the truth.”
“Fine, dammit! I wanted to know how you feel about me!” she hollers at me, her head still tilted since I have her hair wrapped around my fist.
“I don’t think that’s it. Not all of it anyway. I think you were hoping that I would fall in love with you. Because every man loves to be his woman’s knight in shining armor.”
Her mouth falls open and I clip it closed with the hand that was wrapped in her hair. “You’re gonna catch flies with your mouth hanging open like that.”
She shakes her head but says nothing. “I do love you, Sasha. That’s why I was trying to protect you. Even though we’ve been best friends forever, I don’t think you get me as much as you think you do. If you did, you wouldn’t have even thought of doing something this stupid. Selling yourself in an auction with a bunch of mafia running it and every black and gray-shaded asshole within traveling distance showing up for the fun! That’s fucking nuts, princess!”
She hangs her head, her heavy curtain of hair hiding her face. Her slim fingers twist in her lap and she groans. “I know, I know. It was stupid. I promise that I’ll never do something like that again. And I’ll find a way to pay you back. Maybe I can borrow a bunch of money from friends and come up with it,” she mutters under her breath.
I choke on a laugh. “A million dollars? Really! You think you’ll ever see that kind of money, princess?”
Her head pops up and she glares at me so hard that I feel my dick jump in my pants. Dammit! I love it when she looks at me like that. That fiery, feisty personality hidden under all that shy exterior. I want to dig down and find it and hold it in my hands. Make sure that she never loses it.
But for now…I need to rein her in.