She sucked in a tattered breath, her eyes molten, nipples peaked. “But it would be you, and you do deserve me.”
“No—” It took every drop of willpower I possessed, but I pushed her away and stepped back. “I don’t.”
The sexual fog that’d slowly wisped around us was so dense I could barely breathe. My skin was on fire. My body in torture. And she’d pissed me off thinking she could psychoanalyse me. That she could stand before me and write a medical script of bullshit, providing me with a cure that meant nothing.
She wasn’t a doctor who could snap her fingers and fix me. And she definitely couldn’t stand there, dangling herself as bait, persuading me to try. To trust.
Trust what?
That I wouldn’t screw everything up again?
“El—” Pim stumbled forward, her fingers micro-beats away from touching me.
If she touched me, it was all over.
Unleashing my temper to full gale, my arm shot up and my hand wrapped quickly around her throat.
Pim switched from turned-on to petrified.
Night and day.
Black and white.
She’d tried to manipulate my flaws to get what she wanted. Well, now I’d do the same to her.
Panic swirled in her fascinating eyes as her fingers looped over my wrists, the hint of nails digging in warning.
My hand shook, my stomach queasy at deliberately making her fear, but she had to listen, had to hear, had to behave. My fingers tightened around the delicate column, feeling the gushing of her blood and rapid heartbeat. “I’m done talking about this, little mouse. It’s off-limits. Do you understand?”
I waited for the panic to evolve into a full-blown attack. For her to associate my imprisonment with whatever torture she’d lived through. I cursed myself for doing such a thing even as I condemned myself for not letting go.
She stopped breathing as my fingers tightened, but her terror never escalated—if anything, it receded—slowly switching the whiteness of her face to flushed bravery. Her eyes remained steady on mine, daring me to go further. Her temper billowed, shoving aside whatever weakness she might’ve felt and facing me head on.
Christ, this woman.
Swallowing hard, I was the one who backed down. Loosening my fingers, I caressed her throat with my thumb in homage and utmost respect. Her pulse hammered, but it wasn’t from horror anymore, it was anger.
Her skin broke out in goosebumps as my fingers continued to pet. I didn’t give them permission. I simply couldn’t survive if I didn’t touch her.
Lust leapt back into my body—a terrible toilsome passenger, twining its limbs through mine, doing its best to turn me into a puppet and obey its mastery to fuck this woman and damn the consequences.
My mouth watered to kiss her. To lick her.
I was so close to giving in.
So, so close.
But I didn’t.
Because I love her.
Dropping my touch, I backed up a step. “I’m sorry.”
“You should be.”
My eyes snapped to hers. I didn’t know what I’d expected, but dripping fury wasn’t one of them. “Excuse me?”
She stood with her hands balled and a wildness in her gaze I hadn’t seen before. Something damning and provoking, something that punched me in the gut and had way too much power over me.
It made me want to bow at her feet and do whatever she commanded.
“You heard me.” Her chin tilted with defiance. “You should be sorry. Not for trying to scare me with your hand on my throat—I’ve learned to control it. Wait.” She held up her hand. “If I’m going to be honest, that’s a lie. I haven’t learned to control it. You’re the one who helped me because you’ve shown I can trust you not to hurt me. That touch from you—on any part of my body—is not only wanted but invited.”
“Pim…”
“If you were looking for a trigger to put me in my place, too bad. That trigger is gone. If I can do that…who’s to say you can’t work on yours?”
Coming toward me, she licked her lips, her eyes dancing over my mouth with a flash of liquid need. “I won’t fight you on the lock. If you had it installed for your own peace of mind, then fine. I can live with that. But don’t expect me to use it.”
“You will use it.” My voice came out harsh—a barbarous demand. “I want to know you’re safe.”
She shook her head, irritation bright on her face. “I am safe. I’m safe around you. Why don’t you believe that? When you next let me into your bed, Elder, I’ll show you.”
“There won’t be a next time.”
“Ha.” Walking around me, she paused by the door, tapping her foot impatiently. She cocked her head toward the empty corridor. “Leave.”
What the hell?
First, she’d invited me into her room, and now, she’d banished me?
I moved stiffly over the threshold. “You’re telling me you’ve rescinded your dinner invitation?”
“You did that, not me.”