The scowl that hits me is impressive. Then she rolls her hips up into my groin, and I fall apart on the inside. There she is. This mid-twenties woman who can’t resist this man who’s knocking on forty.
“What’s all that about?” I ask. She will beg. Show me how crazy she is for me.
I know the moment she grasps my intentions because her face drops and her body goes lax beneath me. “You don’t need to keep me safe.” She wriggles free and heads for the bathroom, and I roll onto my back on a drained sigh.
“That’s how much I care about you,” I say to the ceiling.Love! Love, you fool. You fucking love her.
I hear the door close, and slap my palms over my face, scrubbing them down my bristles.Idiot.I roll onto my front and shove my face in the sheets, giving the pillow a few thumps. “I love you,” I mumble. “So fucking much, I’m in constant agony because I’m not sure you should love me back.”
The door opens. I still, listening hard. The sound of her feet pads the carpet past me. She’s going into the dressing room. Oh, here we go. I have zero faith that my gesture will be taken well. Not after her performance this morning.
I creep off the bed slowly and take tentative steps to the doorway, chewing nervously on my lip. “Problem?” I ask when I find her gazing at her dresses.
She turns toward me, my toothbrush hanging from her mouth. I frown. She didn’t see her own next to it? Her eyes fall down my torso. I consider distracting her further and giving her what she was asking for in bed a moment ago, but she speaks before I can act. Or, at least, she tries to. “Wh... hell... roths... ing... ere.”
I can’t restrain my smile completely, not when she’s got toothpaste dribbling down her face and she’s looking at me with such outrage. “I’m sorry. Run that by me again.” I need time to consider my answer, and it’ll be something she can’t argue with.
Her nostrils flare.Oh boy. Keep it light, Ward.Todayhasto be a good day.
She waffles on again, looking like she’s foaming at the mouth. She kind of is. Exasperated, I collect her and carry her into the bathroom, setting her by the sink. “Spit.”
She spits like a bloke and swings back to face me. “What’s all this?”
I can’t take her seriously when she looks like this, so I lean forward and rid her face of all toothpaste with my tongue. Distract her. Yes, I’ll give her what she wants, and she’ll agree to anythingIwant. That’s how we work, and it suits me fine. “There,” I whisper, finishing at her lips. She breathes in, her body hardening. “What’s what?” I work my way to her ear, reaching between her thighs.
“No!” She shoves me away. “You’re not manipulating me with your delicious godliness.”
My shoulders roll. My chest swells. “You think I’m a god?” Then she is my temptress. My defiant, little temptress.
Ava snorts and turns away, and I move in behind her, crowding her with my godly body as she stares at me in the reflection of the mirror.
I’m so fucking hard for her. “I don’t mind being your god.”
“Why is my stuff here?”
“I collected it from Kate’s earlier. I thought you could stay here for a few days.”
“Do I get a say?”
I thrust my groin forward, and she inhales sharply, her eyes sparkling. “Do you ever?”
Her head shakes mildly, her body alive, throbbing, glowing back at me through the mirror. I have her. But still, I will drag this out. It might kill me, but she needs to comprehend the sheer depth of our needs. I need her to comply. She needs me all over her. “Get yourself ready, lady. I’m taking you out. Where would you like to go?” I give her backside a swift slap, and she jolts forward.
“I get to choose?”
“I have to let you have your way some of the time.” I’m not a complete control freak. And besides, I need her in a good mood today. “So, what would you like to do?”
“Let’s go to Camden.”
Camden? I inwardly groan. I’d rather pull my own teeth out, but for the sake of peace and because I’m fair... “Okay.” I can make Camden work. I flash her another smile and hop in the shower, singing to myself as I wash my hair. I can feel her staring at me incredulously, probably still wondering where the raging bull is, and perhaps wondering why I’ve not dragged her in here.
She only has to beg.
But she remains on the other side of the glass, and I can sense her getting more and more worked up. Good. I step out, pull a towel off the rail, and dry myself slowly, ignoring her unmoving form before me. “All yours,” I say, dropping the towel and passing her, feeling her eyes following my naked back to the sink. I smile to myself. Perhaps now she knows what it felt like all that time she denied me. Granted, I’m punishing myself too, but I’ve never known a greater satisfaction than this. Feeling her want, seeing her tenacity. But she won’t just crack. She’ll break clean in two for me, and then the power will be mine again.
I grab my shaver and trim down my stubble, brush my teeth, and leave Ava still standing outside the shower waiting for me to indulge her.
After throwing on some jeans and a polo shirt, I head to the kitchen to wait for her, and I’ve worked my way through a jar of peanut butter by the time I hear her feet padding down the stairs. My phone rings, and I eye it warily, hoping this call isn’t going to put a dampener on my mood or ruin my plans for today. “John?”