Chapter 20 #2
“I warned you,” I growl, as I open the door, heading inside. “You’re not good at listening, are you?”
The guards are all gone from here too. Miles knows me well.
“I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but you don’t own me. I can walk around here butt-ass naked if I want to.”
I tighten my hold around her, my other hand landing sharply over her bare ass cheek, my palm itching to turn her skin a bright shade of pink.
She lets out a small moan, so I let the rough pads of my fingers sink deeper, getting a wince out of her. I like knowing I have control over her body even when she isn’t mine—not in the way I want her to be. But we’re too far gone for that.
We’re nothing but enemies who were once so close it’d have taken an army to tear us apart. Sometimes I want to go back to a time when she was the only person besides my family who mattered.
“Why do you care who sees me naked, huh?” Her voice comes out all hoarse.
My cock likes the sound, wanting to fill that mouth of hers.
“My body doesn’t belong to you.” The words fall over my back, her warm breath caressing me.
“Like hell it doesn’t.” I smack her ass harder, and she yelps, practically jumping off my shoulder. “You belong to me. Everything in this house does.”
“I belong to no one!” she roars with fervor in her tone.
I let out a mirthless laugh as I climb up the stairs to my room. “Is that why you’re working for the man you claim to hate?”
“Fuck you!” she fires back with more ammunition than should be allowed for a woman in her compromising position.
Forcing the door with my foot, I carry her inside. Once I have the door locked, I slide her down my body, her feet beside my black loafers.
She bores her eyes into mine, her cheeks flushed from the sun and from what I hope is me. The harshness of her breathing matches the fieriness in her gaze.
Her stare narrows, her arms crossed over her chest, denying me the sight in private that she was so willing to share in public.
“What do you want, Brian?”
I circle around her slowly, getting a nice view of her round ass. A single finger hooks into the side of her thong.
“Take it off,” I demand as I pull the lace at her hip, before letting it go.
“No.” She pops her brows as I face her again.
“Why not? You wanted all of them to see you. So let’s see you.” I tip her chin up with a finger. “All of you.” I place my hand over her wrist. “Drop those arms, Chiara. Don’t be shy now.”
Her chest rises with every quick breath as her steady gaze draws into mine, and without a show of hesitation, she lets her arms fall.
My lips slither into a smile as I back away, staring at her heavy breasts, wanting my mouth, my hands all over them. Wanting to hear her say my name while I fuck her. My real name.
I creep closer, until her hardened nipples graze across the buttons of my shirt. She whimpers as my mouth falls close to her lips. “You’re not done yet, baby. Now lose those panties.”
With her chin high, she hooks her fingers into the black lace and lowers them, and I step back.
“That’s more like it,” I say smoothly, drifting my gaze down her body, drinking in every curve.
My blood swells with need, wanting to touch, to taste. She’s so beautiful with those full hips and an ass I want to watch bounce on my cock.
I once thought I’d marry her, even as a kid, but now that dream feels like it belongs to another person, living my life in some alternate reality. I don’t recognize the woman before me. Then again, why would I? She’s someone else now as much as I am.
“What are you going to do to me?” she asks with a shudder in her voice, her thighs clamped shut.
All I want is to tear them wide open. I reach a hand toward her face, and she doesn’t even flinch, her breasts trembling with each weary breath.
“What do you think I should do?” I run my hard knuckles down the side of her cheek, my gaze slamming into hers. “Are you afraid I'll touch you?”
Instead of pushing away, she leans her face closer into my touch as she shakes her head, her brows creased. “I'm afraid you won’t.”
Fuck.
The sensuality beneath those words drowns out every thought that screams at me to stay away. Knowing she craves my touch, wants it this badly, makes it harder to refuse us both.
Would she still want me if she knew who I really am? Who I’ve become? I doubt it. Maybe that’s the biggest reason why I haven’t given her my real identity. She’ll hate me for it. I’ve grown comfortable with my disdain for her, but I’m not ready for hers.
My hand drifts down the side of her smooth body, coming around her hip. “I’d be more than happy to show you just how much of your body I own.”
She pants with a barely there groan.
I lean forward, my breath lingering over the shell of her ear before my teeth sink around her lobe, taking a little bite.
“Is this what you want, Chiara?” I ask harshly, my hand gliding down past her stomach until a finger lands on the heat between her thighs.
“Is that all you’ve got?” she spits out, finding my eyes again, making me want to see that fire burning within hers.