The look in his eyes was lecherous. “Look at us, Nyx.”
When he referred to me as the most powerful goddess of them all, I detached from myself for a moment. We weren’t mortals, but two gods of Olympus, above reproach or consequences. My head fell back on his shoulder, my cheek grazing the faint stubble on his, and I sighed.
Wait. I wasn’t Nyx.
There were other questions to ask him, but his presence was gathered around me like smoke filling a room. It made me heavy, weighing me down. His grip on me was oppressive and dominating. As he slid my hand from one breast to the other, his warm breath cascaded down my neck and rolled over my chest. He was closing in, surrounding me, waging war on multiple fronts.
I boiled the question down to its simplest form and said it between two enormous gulps of air. “Why do you hate him?”
“Royce?” His hands slowed, and mine followed suit. Something like hurt filled his eyes, but it was fleeting. “I don’t. I’m only hard on him because he’s spoiled. You asked me once if I have a moral hazard, but it’s him you should worry about. He’s had anything he’s ever wanted, and it’s made him soft. He’ll need to be much stronger if he’s going to succeed me someday.”
Except Macalister was wrong. What did it matter if you got everything you wanted . . . if you didn’t get to keep it?
Like his mother.
Or his father’s love.
It was clear Macalister didn’t want me thinking about anyone other than him. His hands started up again, and determination painted his face in dark shadows.
“I’m not soft,” he said, and for added effect, he pushed his pelvis forward, and the hard bulge ground against me. A noise of satisfaction rent from his lips. “I’m going to bring you to orgasm with my hands essentially tied behind my back. Imagine what I could do to you if you allowed me the full use of my body.”
I wasn’t sure which was more terrifying. Him, or the reaction he provoked. My bottom lip quivered, and I bit down to stop it.
He noticed, because of course he did. Nothing seemed to escape him, least of all me. “Don’t you want that?”
“No,” I said.
His smile was all-knowing. “You were right. You’re not very good at lying.”
But I was tonight. At least, I hoped.
His right hand made me go faster still, and my heartbeat banged in my chest. My ragged breathing rang out, masking a quiet moan that seeped from me, and I fought myself not to like it. Beneath his hands, I tried to stay at his direction and not adjust to the perfect spot that would maximize my pleasure.
My body had other ideas.
When my hips moved, it rubbed against his erection, and he hissed his pleasure through tight teeth. Both of his hands came off me, and I froze, my fingers still pressed to my needy clit.
“Up. In my lap, so you can feel what you do to me.”
Oh, God.
Win at all costs.
I reluctantly set my hands on the armrests, lifted myself up, and pushed back so my ass pressed against the hard length of him beneath his suit pants. He groaned under his breath, and before I could take my hands off the chair, he snatched them up. He shoved them right back where they’d been, one on my breast and one between my thighs.
“Does the idea of me frighten or excite you, or both? That’s how I know when to pursue something—when the thought of having it is thrilling.”
His controlling hand pushed mine down from my breast, making it glide over the flat of my stomach and down to my hip. He urged me to rock, to slide my ass back and forth over the fly of his pants.
What the fuck was wrong with me? Every sigh and heavy breath from him seduced the terrible part of me that didn’t mind it so much. It had no problem being pulled deeper under his power. But the rest of my brain was screaming in protest, beyond angry.
“You’re a dangerous creature, Nyx.” His words invaded. They destroyed like thunderbolts hurled from above. “And someday you will let me possess you completely.”
No, this was too much. The defiance built inside me, but he guided my left hand down farther. His cold fingers were much longer as he curled them over mine, tucking them in—all except for our index fingers, his stacked on top of mine.
And then he pushed them both inside my body.
My mouth rounded into a silent cry, too stunned to find words. The sudden stretch was painful, but he kept advancing, sliding our fingers deeper. It made my brain fracture. Words like no, and wrong, and rules all tried to come out at the same instant, producing only a choked off noise of surprise.