One Dirty Night

“If your heart is already invested, don’t you think that’s a moot point?” I crossed my arms too, mirroring him, pushing my breasts up. “There was more than just sex between us last night, and you know it. There’s been more between us for months and—”

“And now, there’s nothing. We got each other out of our systems. That’s all.”

“That’s all, huh?” I cocked my hip, my voice taunting with fury. “What about your possessiveness over me when Hunter fucked me? What about your anger whenever he touched me? You were jealous.”

“Don’t talk about him.”

“Why? Does it hurt you to remember that I fucked him as well?”

“Careful.” He gritted his teeth. “I’m warning you.”

“You enjoyed yourself too. You both enjoyed taking me. What don’t you like about it? Watching him or knowing he pleasured me?”

“Both!” he roared. “I wanted to be the one to pleasure you. I thought I wouldn’t care watching him have you, but…. Fuck, it was the hardest thing in the world.”

“Why?” I whispered. “Why was it hard if you don’t care—”

“It crippled me when you moaned for him. Listening to you enjoying what he did to you? Those little cries, your pleas. Christ, Ella you writhed for him. It was the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. I get hard every time I think about it, but…”

“You didn’t like sharing?”

He narrowed his eyes, flecks of green and brown kaleidoscoping. “Just stop. Stop talking about him.”

“Not if it makes you honest for once in your life. If I have to remind you that he licked me, touched me, fucked—”

“God’s sake, stop.” Charging into me, he wrapped his fingers around my throat and slammed me into the wall. “Do not remind me that he’s been inside you, Ella. You won’t like what I do in return.”

“What would you do?”

“You think I’d tell you? You’d like it far too much.”

I shivered. “If you know that about me then how can you deny yourself? We already know sex between us is explosive—”

“I was caught up in the night. It meant nothing.”

“If it meant nothing, then why do you care that I was with him? Answer me, because right now all I see is—”

“Because he didn’t deserve you.”

“Oh, I don’t know. He seemed rather deserving last night. He hunts bad guys and gives good orgasms. Pretty much a superhero in my eyes.”

“Ella…” he rumbled. “Please, stop.”

“No.” I cocked my chin, even as his fingers tightened around my neck. “I don’t think I will. I want to push you. I want to break you. That’s what he told me to do. He said if I wanted you, I had to break you, and you know what, Nick? I want you. I’m in love with you. So if I have to break you, I’ll—”

“Enough.” Choking me, he shoved his face in mine. “I’m done.” Letting me go, he backed away, raking both hands through his hair. “You want me to admit that I crave you? Fine. I crave you. You want to know how much I want to rule you? Fine! I want you gasping at my feet and dripping wet for me at all times. I want you bruised. I want you branded. I want you utterly obsessed with me because I’m utterly obsessed with you, and that sort of longing is wrong. It’s dangerous. It’s compulsive and consuming and…fatal.”

“It’s called attraction, Nick! That’s all.”

“No, it’s far, far worse. I want you, Ella. I want you every moment of every goddamn day. I ought to see you as the woman you truly are. So incredibly bright and smart and capable. You work tirelessly. You love freely. And when I hear you riding your vibrator at night, you tie me into fucking knots.”

His chest heaved as he shrugged. “Is that what you want to hear? You want to know all my twisted secrets? You ready? Ready for me to list all my perversions when it comes to you?” He chuckled blackly. “Okay then, I want to debase you until you’re nothing more than my plaything. I want to gag you instead of talk to you. I want you begging for my touch and pleading for my dick. I want you all to myself. I want you bruised and bleeding and bare at all times. I want you to exist only because I allow it. I want to fucking own you.”

He wiped his mouth with a trembling hand and a horrified wince. “What sort of sick prick wants that? What sort of bastard wants to be in charge of your every single heartbeat, moan, and quiver all because if I can control your life, then I can ensure you will never die and I…I’ll never have to lose you like I lost—”

Cutting himself off, he snarled, “You’re an intelligent woman, Ella. You can see for yourself that I don’t deserve you. Just like he doesn’t deserve you. I can’t stop you from dying, just like I can’t stop myself from getting sick. Those facts will never change, so it doesn’t fucking matter if all I want to do is throw you down and fuck you hard enough to make you scream. It doesn’t matter that I can scarcely breathe with how much I need you. I won’t touch you because I can’t, so stop putting goddamn temptation in my path and leave me the hell alone!”

My heart galloped as my body throbbed with his every confession. I trembled with the most uncontrollable need. Never had someone been so angry and fierce and honest with me. Never had a conversation made me ache right between my legs.