I refused to let him believe he could get under my skin, so I turned around and walked into the kitchen. “The usual, it is.” Once the wall separated us, I finally took a deep breath and dropped my stern expression. This man made me walk on eggshells without actually doing anything to me. It was a different kind of presence. When Egor didn’t get his way, he resorted to torture to make me cooperate. But this man didn’t need to resort to such measures.
“You’re blushing.”
“Jesus.” I nearly jumped out of my skin, not noticing him standing there. He must have walked into the room quietly, or I was so distracted I hadn’t noticed him. My hand flew to my chest, feeling my erratic heartbeat under the skin.
He gripped the edge of the counter on the other side of the island, staring at me with the same fierce expression he wore in the dining room.
“Is there something you wanted?”
He cocked his head slightly, his eyes narrowing a little more. “You look like a strawberry right now. A cute strawberry. I wonder if your pussy is the same color.”
My eyes widened to the size of baseballs, and my jaw nearly hit the floor. “Keep it up, and you won’t be getting breakfast at all.”
“That’s fine by me. I already said I preferred you.”
He was digging his way under my skin, making my breath uneven and shallow. He was burying himself deep, like a knife cutting through muscle and bone. I couldn’t let it affect me, couldn’t give him any indication that I really was blushing…everywhere. I turned to the fridge and grabbed the carton of eggs. “I’ll make you what I made yesterday, then.” I grabbed my supplies and set them on the counter, doing my best to ignore him.
He hovered there, still staring at me with the intimate expression. As long as he stood there, my cheeks would continue to burn the color of rubies. Something about his presence unnerved me, not the way Egor’s did. I didn’t feel unsafe in that moment. I felt something else entirely.
I cleared my throat. “Yes?”
He moved around the corner, and just when I thought he was going to leave the room, he came around the kitchen island.
To my side.
He came right up behind me, pressing his chest against my back. His hands moved to the counter, gripping it with his large hands. His knuckles popped up, and his forearms were corded with veins. His breath fell on the back of my neck, and when he pressed into me a little harder, I could feel the outline of his dick.
His fat dick.
I hadn’t paid attention the last time he was on top of me. I was in a state of panic, terrified that this strange man was going to fuck me on the bedroom floor. But now I stared down at the bowl of scrambled egg whites in front of me, feeling the definition of his thick cock in his sweatpants. He was definitely bigger than Egor, definitely bigger than any other man I’d had before.
No wonder he was so arrogant.
He stayed there, his hard chest pressing against me every time he took a breath. His hands gripped the counter harder, his knuckles starting to turn white. I could feel the heat radiate from his body, the need to take me right in the middle of his kitchen.
I waited for him to move, but it was obvious he was going to stay in that exact spot until I pulled him tighter or pushed him off. “What are you doing?”
“Exactly what you want me to do.”
I looked at him over my shoulder. “I never said I wanted you.”
He pressed his mouth against my ear, his breath audible in my ears. “But you haven’t pushed me away either.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, my palms becoming sweaty for no reason at all.
“And we both know you have no problem throwing me off.” He pressed me farther into the counter, caging me like an animal. He breathed louder into my ear canal, his lips brushing against my hairline. “I see the way you look at me. I see the way you pretend you don’t want me when you really do. So let’s stop pretending.” He angled his neck down and gave me a kiss on the neck, right over my pulse. It was short and simple, just a brush of his lips against my hot skin, but I could feel the softness of his lips, the coarseness of his facial hair. A slight tremor moved down my spine, a natural response that I couldn’t control. It all happened so quickly, and I felt a rush I hadn’t felt in so long.
Arousal.
I hadn’t wanted a man in years. Sex was a chore that I had to do every day. It was torture, to have a man like Egor inside me, to dump his seed within me against my consent. It was painful and abrasive, making me bleed because I was always so dry.