I bring my eyes to his in a silent defiance.
He grips my jaw a little tighter. “Do you understand that?”
“Yes. I understand it.” I snatch my hands from his grip and knock his fingers from my jaw. “I belong like you, like a pretty little possession.”
“You belong to me, but nothing like my possession. As much as I’d love to possess you and your naked body, you’re your own person and I respect that. Until you push me. Push me and you’ll find out just how f**king possessive I can be.”
“I think I have a pretty good idea.”
He spins me into him, slides his fingers into my hair, and pulls my head back. “You have no idea just how thoroughly I could possess you, Bambi.”
“Don’t call me Bambi.”
Our lips are a whisper apart as he dips his head to mine. “You’ve always been Bambi to me, and I’m not changing it now just because you’ve decided to ignore our past. I refuse to ignore it, so get f**king used to it.” He brushes his lips across my cheek. “Get ready. We’re going to dinner at seven.”
Chapter Six
I haven’t said a word to Aaron Stone for two hours and seventeen minutes. Not that I’m counting, of course, and not for his lack of trying to make conversation. As it is, I’ve made it through a whole dinner and a drink with only speaking to the waiter.
Because he’s royally pissed me off.
What’s even worse is that the possessive shit he pulled, the grabbing and the whispering and the sexy-ass threats, turned me on. Panty-changing, leg-clenching, pu**y-throbbing kind of turned on. I loved it and hated it at the same time.
Love it because the only thing that’s turned me on in at least two years is battery-operated. Hate it because it’s him. Enough said.
“You have to talk to me sooner or later.”
No, I don’t.
He raises an eyebrow. “How long are you going to keep this up?”
I’m not falling for that. I smile tightly at him.
“Fucking hell, Day.” He rubs his hand down his face and sighs. “You’re being incredibly immature, do you know that?”
As if to validate his statement, the urge to poke out my tongue overcomes me. I beat it down. Just.
I take my purse and stand, turning away. His chair scrapes against the floor as he gets up after me, and I hear his shoes squeak against the tiled floor of the restaurant behind me. We leave the busy restaurant, together yet apart, and I head toward the casino. If the next six weeks follow the pattern of the last two days, I’ll be in a perpetual state of annoyance.
Aaron’s hand finds mine and pulls me back into the wall of an empty hallway. He stands in front of me, his eyes searching for my gaze, his free hand holding my jaw much the way he was earlier. He tilts my head back so my eyes crash into his.
“We can’t go in there if you’re not talking to me. Too many people I know.”
I raise my chin defiantly.
“You’re not going to say a word?”
I stare at a spot on the wall over his shoulder.
“Fine. That’s fine”—he bends his head forward—“because there are other uses for your mouth.”
My eyes close at the firm touch of his lips on mine. They’re warm and soft with a lingering taste of the oaky whiskey he drinks. Caressing and gradually more probing, they’re everything I remember and more.
I drop my purse, and his fingers curl around the back of my neck as mine grip the lapels of his jacket. Our bodies push together, and when his arm snakes around my back, holding us together, a small gasp leaves me at our full-bodied contact.
His kiss is as engulfing and suffocating and intimate as it was before. Only now it’s laced with a power and determination he didn’t know then, with the possessive, domineering streak he showed earlier.
“You’re a bastard, Aaron Stone.”
“I know, but it worked.” The lips that were just covering mine are now curled in a smug amusement.
“A woman ignoring you is not an excuse to kiss her.”
He runs his thumb across my mouth. “I didn’t see you using these for anything else.”
“Really? They were about to tell you where to go.”
“Behave.” He kisses me again, once, deeply, and tugs on my bottom lip. “I’d hate to say something that would make you ignore me again.”
“I bet you would.” I uncurl my fingers from the material of his jacket and flatten them against his chest. “You’re lucky you’re paying for that. Anyone else would have felt the damage of my heels.”
Aaron laughs, his hand still firmly on my neck. “Oh, Bambi. I didn’t pay for that kiss. I stole it.”
“Then, perhaps”—I step into him and slide my hands over his shoulders—“you should give it back.”
He barely has time for his eyebrow quirk before I tug his face to mine. My lips mold against his forcefully, and he wastes no time pulling me into him again. I nip at his bottom lip and run my tongue across it after, soothing the tiny sting and then smiling against him at the flexing of his fingers on my back. Gently, I coax his lips apart and flick the tip of my tongue against his. My fingers tangle in his hair and he groans quietly into my mouth at the tiny pull it causes.
His tongue explores my mouth the way mine does his, and briefly, it occurs to me that we’re making out in a hotel hallway like a couple of teenagers, exactly how we used to. The kisses were simply more desperate and wanting instead of the point-making charade it is now.
I can feel him growing hard inside his pants, and his erection digs into my stomach. I trail my fingers down his chest and cup his cock, rubbing my thumb along the side of it, and he tightens his grip on my neck.
I break the kiss and rest my cheek against his. “You might have stolen the first one, but you definitely just paid for it.”
“You’re pushing me, Dayton. Very close to the edge.” He takes my hand from him and holds it behind my back. “Keep it up and you’ll find it’s a long f**king way down.”
A breathy laugh leaves me. “I dare you to take me there.”
“Do you have any idea how easily I could tease your body into coming for me?”
“And there is our difference. You seduce women for fun, Aaron, and I seduce men for a living. I seduce without being seduced, and that’s a skill in itself. I don’t get seduced. Ever.”
“Really? Because…” He slides a hand down my body and between my legs quicker than I can realize his intentions. He slips a finger along my underwear, feeling the dampness there. “You feel seduced to me.”