I move in, sliding my hips over his, the friction becoming too much to take. I want him inside me; I want him to own me, completely, fully, whatever it takes. I don’t want to think or feel; I just want to be.
But then he pulls his lips off mine and leans back, gazing at me with eyes that scream for more. But no matter how hard I try to seduce him, he doesn’t come for me. His penetrating stare forces me to come face to face with my own depraved lust. But I know full well what I did … what I said.
“I told you to fuck me,” I say straight to his face. His dick grows against my thighs, but he ignores it completely. “Why don’t you do it?”
He cocks his head, and a smile tugs at his lips. “I don’t need your permission.”
“But you wanted me to beg,” I mutter as my index finger grazes his lips. “And I begged for it.”
“And I heard you loud and clear,” he groans, grabbing my wrist. “But I want you to mean it.”
Our lips are so close, lightning shoots through my veins. I don’t want to beg, but I would do anything right now for those lips to numb this confused heart of mine again.
“I do,” I mutter, but deep down, I know it’s a lie.
I said it at a moment of delirium when the lines between what’s right and wrong blur. But I know I needed to go down into the depths in order to understand my own needs and to give in to them. Doesn’t that count?
“You’re beautiful when you’re lying,” he says, a lopsided grin appearing on his face.
I frown and lean back. “So you won’t take me even when I did what you wanted?”
“I want you to want it for yourself,” he says, still trying to keep me close to him. “Not because I want it.”
“But you do. We both do,” I say, sliding back into the water. “Why does it even matter?”
“You know why,” he says with a suddenly serious look on his face.
I shake my head and snort. “You did everything, all of this, to capture me, use me, and degrade me so you could flaunt it in front of my father to destroy him. You want to see him suffer, and I was part of that plan, right?”
He doesn’t answer, but he doesn’t need to. I know how he works.
“You hate him. And here is your one opportunity to stick your middle finger up at him, and you won’t grasp it?” I ask, raising a brow. “You won. I give in. I’m yours. What else could you want?”
“You,” he says with such a convincing, genuine smile that it shakes me to my core.
Why would he do this? Why would he make things so damn difficult? I was ready to give him my body, to give him what he wanted, and now he won’t take it.
“I’m here,” I retort in one last attempt.
He sighs. “Because I wanted you here. Because I made sure you’d be here, right in this position, saying the very things I wanted to hear. I made you this way. I broke you for my own selfish needs.” He licks his lips. “But that’s still not enough.”
Still not enough? Fuck him.
Fuck him and his self-righteousness.
First, he steals me away from my home, claims my life, my body, and anything under the sun, and now that I’m willing to give it to him freely, he refuses to take it? What is wrong with this man?
Then it hits me. There’s only one reason he wanted to steal me away from my home … my father and his business.
“This isn’t about me, is it?” I growl. “It’s about my father.”
He frowns. “What are you talking about?”
“You still want to punish my father.” I suck on my bottom lip. “This is all a ploy to get me to like you so you can throw it in my father’s face.”
“What? No?” He waves it away as if it means nothing.
“Don’t lie to me,” I say, pointing a finger at his chest. “If you love me like you say you do, stop lying.”
He grips my hand and holds it down. “Fine. Yes, a part of me does want to see him suffer.”
I shake my head. “So nothing has changed.”
“Yes, we have,” he says, cupping my face.
“No.” I swat his hand away. “You can make me be with you, but you can’t force my heart to love you back.”
“Why do you make things so difficult?” he sneers.
“Because I’m still only a tool for you,” I growl out loud and stand in the tub.
“That’s not true,” he says.
“Tell me the truth, Easton,” I growl, folding my arms. I’m not backing down from this one. “For once, tell me what it is you’re doing to him. If you think I can love you back after the truth comes out, then maybe it’s worth telling me after all.”