Page 31 of Sweet Surrender

“Nobody will notice. I thought I asked you to shut up.” We reached the patio spanning half of the house’s east side, where she tried to push me away. “I’m fine now. I’ll go up to my room.”

“Let me help you up there,” I offered, caught between fucking with her and wanting very much to have the excuse to get her in the bedroom.

She flushed in the light flowing out from the kitchen. “That’s unnecessary.”

Fuck this. I wasn’t going to beg, and I wouldn’t help her when she insisted on being so fucking stubborn.

“Fine. Crawl up the stairs for all I care.” I continued without her, marching across the flagstone patio and flinging open one of the French doors leading into the kitchen. My flask was in my bag, which I left in the entry hall to carry up later.

She took considerably more time to reach the curved staircase leading to the second floor, but I pretended not to notice as I went through my things. By the time I found the flask of Macallan, she had managed to hobble up five stairs out of many more.

I knew what I should do, no matter how tempting it was to let her screw herself over since that’s what she was determined to do. “I don’t need your help.” She sounded weaker than before, and she didn’t believe herself no matter what she said.

“Which room did you take?” I asked with an arm around her waist and began helping her hop from one step to the next without paying attention to her protests. Eventually, I lost patience, ignoring her ineffectual arguing in favor of lifting her off her feet and carrying her the rest of the way.

“This is stupid!” she groaned out.

“It was either that or spend the rest of the night helping you get upstairs, and I have better things to do.”

She pointed down the hall to one of the guest rooms, and I headed there, not letting her go until we were inside the spacious room across the hall from the room I’d always used. Rose had seen to it the space was aired out, with fresh linens on the bed and fragrant flowers on the nightstand.

“Okay. Put me down.” Her insistence irritated me worse than ever. What the hell was her problem? I had heard of people cutting off their noses to spite their faces, but she was taking it to the next level.

Still, electricity was in the air when I set her on the bed. “Let me take a look at this,” I offered, one hand on her calf, lifting her leg so I could observe her swelling ankle. “There’s probably bandages or something around here. You might’ve sprained it, but you can still move it. I doubt it’s broken.”

“Thank you, Doctor.” She pulled herself free of my grip and propped on her elbows, glaring up at me. If she only knew how irresistible she was when her eyes flashed and her cheeks flushed, not to mention she was practically sprawled out across the bed.

My dick stirred at the sight of her. “Want me to rub it for you?”

“I want you to leave me alone.” It didn’t sound that way. Her words were hollow, weak, almost whispered. “Please. Be decent and leave me alone.”

“Decency has never been my strong suit.”

“Shit. I already knew that before you threw the club in my face.” When all I could do was gape at her, she rolled her eyes. “In my office. Don’t pretend that’s not what you were trying to do.”

“I’m not pretending.” I stepped up close to the bed until my knees brushed the duvet, and she had no choice but to spread her legs to make room for me. Oh, she was so tempting. “Now I get it. You thought I was making fun? That’s what you think of me?”

“Could we not turn this into?—”

I shook my head, reaching down to take hold of her knees and hold them apart while I leaned down, my eyes locked on her. Her baby blues widened, her head pulling back until it practically touched the bed, brown locks fanning out around her. “Let me make one thing clear. I was not interested in making a fool out of you, and I’m not interested in it now. Next time you’re confused about something I say or do, talk to me about it instead of throwing me out before I can explain. Understood?”

Eyes narrowing, she asked, “What do you think you’re doing? Don’t talk to me that way.”

In a flash, I reached down and slid a hand under her head, pulling it toward me until our mouths nearly brushed. Her short, quick breaths hit my face while mine did the same to hers. “I asked if you understand. Yes or no?”

She gulped but gave me a slight nod. “Yes.”

“Good girl.” Hunger roared inside me. Fuck, I was touching her again, smelling her skin, feeling her warmth. So far, I had exercised self-control, refusing the intimacy of a kiss. Yet when her tantalizing lips parted, I was nearly knocked on my ass by the sudden, undeniable urge to taste them.

“Not that easy,” she informed me in a shaky whisper. “You can’t say a few words and think it will change anything.”

“Then again, we’ve never needed words, have we?” My hand slid up her thigh, gliding over the soft leggings she wore, while the fingers of my other hand slid through her soft hair. “We did just fine without them before. Unless you faked it when you came all over my cock.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, shuddering. “Don’t talk about that.”

“Is that going to erase the past? Pretending it didn’t happen? Do you honestly think you could forget how good it was? You loved it. Don’t lie to yourself, especially not to me.” I groaned, pressing my fingers against her supple flesh. “You’re getting wet right now, aren’t you, Sienna? Admit it. You can’t handle being this close to me any more than I can handle being close to you.”

Her brows drew together, almost like she was in pain. “You don’t need to be.” Who did she think she was kidding? She was trembling again, the innocent fawn cowering in the face of what she couldn’t resist.

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