Chapter Twenty-Five
Arya
I ring the doorbell with a shaking hand.
Staring at the double doors while I wait, I grab the ties of my pink coat and pull it tighter around my body.
Either I’m about to commit the worst mistake of my life or the best. I can’t seem to care even if the former comes true. I’m sick of following rules. It’s gotten me nowhere, only left me alone and with a broken heart.
I don’t want to be a dutiful daughter, a fiancée, or a loving girlfriend.
I want to be wild and carefree.
Live my life on my own terms. Let lust take the front wheel. Tonight, I’ll be brave and go after what I desire the most.
The sound of footsteps approaching from the other side makes my heart pump faster, not with nerves but an electric thrill.
A gust of cool breeze breaks out shivers down my spine as the door glides open with a flourish. One second, my body’s cold. In the next second, a fire licks up my skin as I come face to face with the man who makes me lose all inhibitions.
“Nathan,” I murmur, going for confident, but my voice slips out breathless.
A lit cigarette hangs from the corner of his lips, taking me by surprise. The orange glow casts light across his sharp jawline.
Shock flickers in his shaded eyes at my presence on his doorstep. A knot forms on his forehead. Removing the cigarette, he blows the smoke to the side before demanding, “What are you doing here, Arya?”
Emboldened by my motive for showing up at his home, I don’t resist raking my gaze down his sculpted body. He’s still clad in his day suit sans jacket and tie. The top few buttons of his shirt are undone, revealing his thick neck, collarbone, and hard pecs.
The sight of his sunlight-kissed skin makes my mouth water.
When my eyes climb back up his bare feet and muscular legs, I notice his metallic ones are busy doing the same. The way they tighten in the corners at the peek of skin around my ankles has my toes curling in my four-inch heels.
Can he tell I’m naked underneath?
The heat ensnaring his gaze when it connects with mine tells me maybe he does. He’s too clever and perceptive not to notice little details that another mortal might miss.
He takes a step outside onto his porch, stopping shy of invading my personal space. It’s good. Because any closer and he can hear my thundering heartbeat.
Head tilting to the side, he prompts in a deep voice, “Ari?”
“I didn’t know you smoked,” blurts out of my mouth.
“Why would you?” he counters, letting his question simmer on the back burner. Even though intrigue is heavy in his expression. “We aren’t friends.”
No, we aren’t.
Nor do I want to be.
“Why are you here?” he asks again. “Don’t tell me you drove all the way over here, late at night, to go over another idea you’ve had.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Why then?”
“I’m…” I lick my lips, summoning courage. “I’m here for you.”
His pupils darken. “Me?”
“Yes, you.” I inch closer, pressing my palm in the middle of his chest and peering up at him beneath my lashes. I forget the little speech I practiced on my way here. “I want you, Nathan. I want to stop fighting this attraction between us.”
“Didn’t I warn you I’m bad for you?”
Not for you to decide. “I don’t care.”
“Even so, I’m not in the market for a relationship. And you, angel.” Capturing my wrist, he lowers it away from his body. “Will crave one once your broken heart is healed.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Am I?” His tone is harsh. “Tell me, when was the last time you were single and how long did that last?”
I fail to answer because uttering the truth will prove him correct.
At my silence, he shakes his head with a scoff. Taking a final drag, he throws the cigarette to the side and gives me a resigned look. “Go home, Arya.”
“Maybe you’re right,” I say, before he can turn around and leave. “But why are you so sure I’d want a relationship with you?”
“The fact that you showed up at my house. If all you were feeling was horny and looking for someone to scratch the itch, you could’ve gone to any other man. Instead, you chose the one who will hurt you again, intentionally or not.”
His words are a warning.
A prophecy.
Yet I ignore it.
“I am not interested in your heart, even if it is on the table.” I stand my ground, letting every ounce of desire I feel for him shine through my unblinking gaze. “All I want from you is the pleasure you bring me with a single touch. The way you make my head spin with lust and my body come alive.”
Feral need flashing across his face, he cautiously asks, “What are you saying?”
“I’m asking for a no-strings relationship. Just sex while we’re working together or until we get each other out of our systems. Whichever happens first.”
He’s shaking his head before I even finish the sentence. His voice cracks like a whip through the crisp air. “No.”
“You sure?” I rasp, stepping into his personal space. “You can’t keep your hands off me whenever we’re alone. Or taunt me with your filthy words. Can you promise you’ll never do either again?”
His gaze narrows dangerously, chest rising and falling unevenly for two beats. A muscle tics in his jaw as he falters to answer.
“You think I can’t resist you?” he finally says arrogantly.
“I know you can’t.”
“You have no idea what you’re asking for.”
“I know exactly what I’m asking for,” I counter confidently. “What are you so afraid of, Nathan? That you’ll fall in love with me if we sleep together more than once?”
“If anyone’s going to make that mistake, it’s you, angel,” he taunts. “You wear your heart on your sleeve.”
“Why don’t you let me worry about it, hmm?
” Running my palms up his arms, I curl them around his shoulders and give him a warning of my own, “If you let me walk away tonight, I promise you I will never allow you near my body again. Our relationship will be strictly professional. I mean it this time.”
A war brews on his handsome face while he makes no move to touch me. He knows I’m not bluffing.
His body is taut everywhere, like a raging bull seconds away from charging.
I need to entice him out of his cage.
“You think you can resist me?” I rise on my toes until my lips hover against his. We breathe the same air, and I taste whiskey on him. Smirking, I dare, “Prove it.”
Taking a step back while he watches me intensely, cautiously like I’m a ticking time bomb about to go off, I unknot the tie holding my trench coat together and pull the sides apart. My nude body is exposed as I peel the single barrier away, letting it hit the ground with a soft whoosh.
Nathan sucks in a sharp breath.
The low and rough inhale floats to my ears like a victory song.
He fights, really fights, to not stray his gaze away from my face. In the end, he loses the battle, sweeping his gaze down my vulnerable body, tortuously slow.
I arch my back so he can see my hardened nipples, making his nostrils flare and jaw grind harshly.
Each expanse his eyes roam over, they darken further into two pools of carnal lust. When they stop between the juncture of my thighs, my soaked pussy clenches.
Bringing forth an ache so visceral that my knees buckle.
“I want to be her, Nathan,” I murmur seductively. “The woman you need. I ache to fall apart under your touch, to give you complete control over my body. Dominate me. Use me to sate your lust. Have me. I crave it all. Let me please you. Please. Please. Plea─”
His mouth crashes against mine, swallowing my plea.
My eyes shut in bliss as his lips ravish mine in a rough kiss.
Delving his fingers in my hair, he slants my head and holds me still.
His tongue licks my bottom lip before thrusting inside and sliding against mine.
Sucking on it harshly, he groans at my taste, like I’m the sweetest thing in the world.
Flipping us around, I’m slammed against the brick wall. The coldness is a stark contrast to the heat of his firm body. I grasp his waist with both hands, trying to yank him closer.
“Goddamn you, Ari,” he growls, pinning me to the wall with a hand around my throat. I whimper when he nips my lip savagely. “You’ve made it your mission to bring me to my knees, haven’t you?”
Without giving me a chance to answer, he swoops in for another wild and open-mouthed kiss. I roll my tongue around his, licking every crevice of his mouth and kissing him back just as fervently. I become drunk on the taste of smoke and whiskey.
“Say yes,” I moan, his lips kissing down my jaw, the slope of my neck, and sucking hard where the soft skin meets my collarbone. I tug his face back to mine until we’re lost in each other's hooded eyes. “Tell me you desire me as badly. That you can’t stop thinking about me.”
“I haven’t stopped thinking about you since the moment I left your place.
” Shadows dance over his sharp cheekbones, making him appear almost predatory.
“I warn you to stay away from me, and you show up at my door instead. Seducing me and acting like a cocktease. You have no self-preservation, little minx.” Grasping my jaw, he tilts my head back and cruelly bites my top lip until I whimper.
“You want to be ruined by me, I’ll happily oblige your wish. ”
Kissing me hard, his calloused hands explore my curves possessively. I sigh in wicked pleasure, falling apart at the edges. Yet somehow held together by him.
“More,” I beg. “More. Make me come.”
Ripping his mouth away, he clicks his tongue. “That’s not how it works. If you want me to say yes to your risqué deal and fuck you in secret, your orgasms won’t be your own but mine. You come when I say… If I allow it after you’ve been a good little girl.”
A needy sound escapes my lips. I nod my head. “Okay.”
“I get to fuck you anytime, anyplace I want.”
“Do… Do I have the same power?”
His lips tilt up salaciously. “Do you mean can you show up at my door in the middle of the night when you’re feeling needy?”
I flush red, my lungs constricting as his arrogant question steals my oxygen.
“Because you will, since I own your orgasms,” he hums, running his palms over my breasts and cupping them tightly. Twisting my nipples, he demands, “Answer me.”
“Yes.”
“Yes what?”
“Yes, can I come if I… I want to…” I trail off, suddenly feeling shy.
“To fuck,” he finishes, tweaking my swollen nipples again. “Say it. Fucking is all it’ll ever be between us, Ari. I won’t be your boyfriend who takes you on romantic dates, who asks about your feelings, or is a shoulder for you to lean on.”
“I know. This is just sex.” Dark amusement lights his eyes when I don’t say ‘fucking’. “Nothing more. Will you please say yes now?”
“Not yet.”
“Nathan,” I whine, breaking apart at the seams.
“Show me how well you can obey and please me first.”
“How?”
He leans in. “Get on your knees.”