“What is it you want your future husband to accept about you, Nyx? What is it you hide from the world?” He leaned forward, using that thrall stare I’d experienced earlier in the day.
I licked my lips. “If you were the man I planned to marry, the one I loved, then I’d tell you. But you’re not. I want to know, what is it going to take to end this one year from now?”
“You want my price for freeing you from this engagement—besides your portion of the trust, you mean?”
“Yes.” I reached for my glass of water, but before I grabbed hold of it, he clasped his fingers around my forearm, sending a shockwave of sensation over my skin.
Holy shit, I shouldn’t react to him like this.
“Let me go, Simon.”
“No. We’re in the middle of negotiations.” He paused and then added with a smirk, “For your freedom.”
He held my arm with one hand and drew lazy circles along the vein on the inside of my wrist with the fingertips of the other.
His touch sent shivers down my spine as if his fingers were livewires. My face heated, and my breath grew shallow.
“I’m not sleeping with you.”
But if he were any other man looking at me the way he was, I would have jumped at the chance. I would have let him do all the dark and wicked things swimming in those emerald irises.
“Are you sure about that? I know you’re attracted to me. I see it in the way your pupils dilate, the way your lips part to take in little breaths, the way the flush on your skin deepens as I stroke the skin on your arm.”
Dear God, this man could seduce with just his words.
I swallowed, trying to ease my parched throat. “I don’t sleep with every man I find attractive.”
“The plan isn’t to sleep, Nyx.”
“It’s not going to happen, Simon.”
As if I hadn’t spoken, he lifted my hand, bringing my wrist to his mouth. I watched in curious fascination as he grazed his teeth along my sensitive skin. And it took all my will not to moan.
Realizing he’d caught my reaction, I jerked my arm from his hold. “No.”
“I don’t think you’re understanding how this works. You want your freedom, then for the next year, I want you in my bed. Whenever I want. However I want. To do with whatever I want.”
The arrogant, insufferable asshole.
Where the fuck were my knives when I needed them?
Yes, I knew. Stevie told me I couldn’t bring them since it wasn’t civilized to threaten my fiancé with bodily harm. See where that got me?
The arousal from only moments earlier had all but disappeared as my temper flared to an inferno level.
Narrowing my gaze, I rose to my feet and cocked a hand on my hip. “Well, I have a response to your proposal, Mr. Drakos.”
“What is that, Ms. Mykos?” He stood, meeting my challenge.
He towered his at least ten-inch height difference over me, pissing me off even further.
“You’re an asshole, Simon Drakos,” I seethed through clenched teeth, poking him in the chest, not caring that we were garnering curious glances from the patrons around us.
“I’m an asshole you’re going to get to know very intimately.”
“God, you are so damn cocky. If I had my knives right now, I’d—” I cut myself off, trying to rein in my temper.
“Would you gut me as those rumors say you would?” He stepped closer to me, capturing the hand that had just pushed him. “Just know, that isn’t the type of edge play I normally engage in, but for you, I can make an exception.”