Page 48 of Indecent Demands

I looked her in the eyes. “Because I care about you. Far more than I should. And I want to help take care of you because nobody has and you deserve that. You shouldn’t have lost that with your parents.”

Ariana looked down and wiped at her eyes. “You really don’t owe me anything. We can argue all day long about semantics and this weird game we’re playing, but we don’t actually owe each other anything. Nobody would blame you for turning me in, including me.”

“I’m not going to turn you in.” The moment I said it, I knew it was true.

Even if it would be harder to get us both out of this and avoid getting my own reputation damaged for helping shield a criminal—I wasn’t going to turn her in. I truly believed in what she was doing, even if I felt she was going about it in the wrong way. And I cared about her too much to let her be punished for helping people.

“I’ll figure something out, but I’m not turning you in,” I reiterated, even if that meant pulling every favor in law enforcement owed to me to make that happen. “I’m keeping you safe. No matter what.”

Ariana stared at me for a moment in apparent shock, her mouth open and eyes wide. “You really mean that.” It was a statement, not a question, but there was still a note of wonder in her voice.

I nodded. “I do.”

For all that I had a bit of a soft heart, and I could admit to that—I found myself without any poetic words to say. It was like it all crammed up in my throat. I liked spending time with her and I respected her. I liked her décor suggestions for my house, and I liked coming home to her. I liked that we could take turns cooking for each other and that I could talk with her about computers and that she was so damn talented at them.

Ariana stared at me for another moment, and it was like she could read everything I couldn’t find a way to say in my eyes, because she lifted onto her tiptoes and kissed me.

I kissed her back, my hands falling to her waist. This wasn’t what I’d expected. I would’ve thought that Ariana would want to get away from me, that I was just a semi-reliable protector and a good time sexually. But instead she seemed—relieved. Overwhelmed.

The kiss kept going on, neither of us willing to stop. I found myself clutching her, pulling her against me, like someone might try and rip her away from me. I would’ve felt embarrassed at myself, except that Ariana was clinging to me, looping her arms around my neck and sliding her fingers into my hair to grip tightly while she pressed herself against me.

My hands slid down and I picked her up as Ariana wrapped her thighs around me, stumbling a little until I had her pressed against the wall.

This wasn’t anything like our previous times together, times I’d kept myself completely leashed and under control. I hadn’t given into any urges to let loose. I had kept myself precise. I hadn’t taken her to my actual bedroom, I hadn’t slept with her after the sex, I’d been in control.

I didn’t do any of that now.

Ariana could’ve so easily been caught and turned into a patsy or worse if Damien had realized what she knew—and what she’d done. I could’ve lost her before I ever really had her, because of all my friends, I turned out to be the chickenshit who couldn’t admit when he was falling for a girl. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

I felt wild, kissing her with abandon, the hall filled with the slick noises of our mouths and Ariana’s tiny little moans. She clung to me wildly, her hands roaming all over me like she couldn’t figure out where she wanted to touch me, greedy for all of me.

Not that I was any better. I ground against her, my cock straining at the fabric of my pants. Jesus, I wanted to just fuck her hard right up against this wall. I hadn’t had an out of control hookup like this since… since college, actually. Once I found BDSM and I knew I didn’t have time for the relationship I wanted, I was careful to never get my heart involved, waiting for the right woman.

Looked like I’d finally found her, and I’d been stupid enough to nearly let her go.

I dug my fingers into her thighs, relishing the softness and warmth. Even though the fabric I could tell that she was wet. I couldn’t wait to feel it—on my fingers, on my mouth, on my cock. I was going to fuck her so goddamn hard…

Ariana moaned as I kissed down her neck. “Fuck me, Seth,please…”

A growl slipped out of me, like someone was trying to take her away from me. I continued to thrust between her legs and Ariana’s eyes rolled back into her head. “N-no, you’re gonna make me… come…”

I practically ripped her shirt off, throwing it to the side. Ariana tugged at mine, helping me to get it off while we desperately thrust together like a couple of teenagers. I wanted to make her come just from this, just from grinding against my clothed dick, like we really were sixteen and fueled by lust. I wanted her that fucking desperate.

Ariana clawed at my bare shoulders and threw her head back against the wall. “Seth,” she moaned. “Seth!”

She kept chanting my name as she shuddered, and I felt the front of my pants get wet with her orgasm.Fuck.

As much as I wanted to take her right here against the wall, we were both wearing pants, and if we were going to bother to get those off we might as well be on a horizontal surface.

Besides, I really wanted to fuck her in my bed.

Ariana squeaked as I hoisted her up and carried her up the stairs. “God,yes,” she pleaded. Her hands framed my face and she kept kissing me—she was damn lucky I was strong enough that I wouldn’t drop her and that I knew my way through my house by heart so I didn’t need to see where I was going.

When we reached the bedroom and I tossed her onto the bed, Ariana blinked and looked around, confused. She looked so fucking hot, topless and spread out for me, but there was real confusion on her face.

“We’re not going to the other room?”

I shook my head. “That room is for a scene.” Not that we couldn’t do BDSM in my bedroom, but I didn’t know how to get into all of it now, how I was feeling and what I wanted from us.

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