Page 23 of Dangerous

Blaine’s kiss was rough and wild, his lips bruising in their all-encompassing need.

It wasn’t enough.

I kissed him back with equal strength, biting at his lip as he pushed his tongue in between mine, fighting him for dominance. The heat of his mouth was intoxicating, and all I could think of was getting more of it—more ofhim.

Our tongues tangled and I moaned at the first brush. Yes, just like that—

He pressed down on top of me and in between my legs, and I felt the heavy weight of his cock straining against his jeans just where I needed it as he ground against me.

Yes, yes, yes!My body sang as my clit pulsed from the stimulation, and I rocked up against him to meet his thrusts.

Blaine groaned into my mouth and released my wrists.

I immediately latched onto his shoulders, pulling his chest down on top of me. I wanted to feel all of him against me, wanted all of his heat to consume me—

The unexpected touch of Blaine’s hand against my abdomen ripped me out of my hazed lust more efficiently than a bucket of cold water would have.

I pulled my head back from his kiss with a gasp and looked down. He’d shoved my shirt up high, exposing my soft stomach to his hungrily roaming eyes. And my scars.

“Stop it!” I let go of his shoulders and thrust both hands down in front of me, pushing my shirt down to cover me again before I scrambled to scoot out from underneath him.

Blaine froze, his expression turning from wild lust to confusion—and frustration. “What?”

“You can’t just paw at me like a wild animal every time we get into a fight!” I finally managed to get out from underneath him so I could sit up, clutching my crumbled shirt tighter to my body as I glared at him. The inexplicable wave of lust was—mostly—gone, replaced by anger and fear once more. Though this time, it wasn’t Blaine that caused my hands to shake as they clutched at the fabric of my shirt. It was my own reactions to him—how I couldn’t seem to trust myself around him. One minute I was pushing him far beyond the edge, even though I knew full well it was a stupid thing to do, and the next I was writhing in helpless surrender underneath him. And this time, I didn’t even have the alcohol to blame for my erratic behavior.

No, it was becoming increasingly obvious that, for whatever reason, my brain switched off whenever I was around Blaine Steel—andthat…that terrified me to my very core.

“Me?”Blaine pulled back, his upper lip curling with renewed anger. “You were not exactly an unwilling participant, were you?”

“You chased me through the house and tried to have your way with me on the goddamn floor!” I hissed, hating that he knew just how much I’d wanted it. “Tell me how I had a choice in the matter!”

Blaine’s eyes darkened. Abruptly, he stood up, leaving me alone on the soft rug. “Fine! If you want to pretend like you’re a bloody victim, that’s up to you. I’m done with your bullshit.” With one final glare in my direction he started down the stairs. Less than twenty seconds after the top of his head had disappeared down them, I heard the front door slam.

Slowly, I gathered myself up from the floor and wiped irritably at my cheeks. There was no need to cry—I’d wanted him to leave me alone, and he had.

Gingerly, I put a hand to my stomach and traced the scars through the shirt. I couldn’t feel them through the fabric, but I knew their jagged lines by heart.

Past lovers had asked me about them, and I’d lied and said they were from extensive surgery when I was a kid. Blaine would undoubtedly know what they were from a single glance. Heck, he’d probably been the cause of similar scars in his line of work.

The thought of him knowing what had been done to me made me sick with fear. Because the second he knew, he would know that I was weak. A true victim. And I knew what men like Blaine did to the weak.

I swallowed thickly and dropped my hand from my midsection. I had to stop letting him get under my skin like this. I’d thrownwineat him, for Pete’s sake, after goading him on a subject I knew was sore.

Was it my desperate need to show him I wasn’t weak? Or was it… I hesitated to even think the thought through, but dug my nails into my palms to steel myself. Was it that some shameful part of me wanted him to lose control and take me like he had that night at the hotel?

As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t deny my physical attraction to him, and the sex had been…

I shook my head when I felt myself redden at the memory, angry that I let myself be so affected by Blaine’s—granted, godlike—physique. I wasn’t some blushing teenager who had never seen a man naked before. I had to control this—like I had to control my messed up relationship with Blaine.

Trying to befriend him was obviously not going to work out before I could figure out exactly why I was acting like I was around him, so I had to find another way to make him respect me.

I glared balefully down the stairs where he’d disappeared not that long ago. Clearly, there was a huge power difference between us, and when he could run off whenever he didn’t want to deal with me anymore, and I couldn’t, then he had no need to respect me.

But if I wasn’t here when he came home…

My glare turned thoughtful as a plan slowly began to come together in my mind.

Consideringhow much Blaine had emphasized that I needed to stay in the house and that he had guards posted to watch the front door and the perimeter, it was surprisingly easy to sneak out unnoticed.

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