Page 24 of Burn With Me

“You wouldn’t have been disappointed?” What makes me ask the question, I don’t know, but curiosity keeps me from taking it back.

Isaac’s head moves back once more and cool air filters over my skin. I swallow roughly, nervously. “What makes you think I’d be disappointed?” he asks.

“You seemed like it,” I said.

He arches a brow. “This isn’t disappointment, Goddess,” he says, rubbing his fabric-covered cock against me, between my legs. “It’s excitement.”

Maybe some of it is, but I’m not that naive. He was on the verge of disappointment. I just don’t know why. I bite my bottom lip as his head dips down and his mouth dances between my breasts, igniting a fire inside of me that I haven’t felt in a long ass time.

“I think you would’ve been disappointed,” I insist when really I want to slap myself upside the head and tell my inner curiosity to shut the fuck up. Now is not the time to be finding out what he’s so fucking disappointed about. It’s the time to be catching him on camera, naked and compromised. Something to use as blackmail later.

My breath comes out on a rush and my words are almost swallowed by the wind. But they’re there and he hears them. They give him pause and Isaac lifts his head once more, those dangerous blue eyes of his piercing into me in ways that go beyond the surface.

“What is that supposed to mean?” he demands, his voice rough with desire as well as something else I can’t name. Frustration maybe? Just how far am I willing to let him go tonight? This is just supposed to be enough to get dirt on him, not for me to lose myself. Yet, with every second spent in his presence, I can feel my resolve fluctuating. Not with my ability to see this through—I know I can and I will—but I almost want to be doing this for another reason and not because we see each other as enemies.

When I answer, the truth pours out. “When you thought I was going to take off my dress before,” I tell him. “You were disappointed.”

“You think so?” He neither confirms nor denies my statement, and for several long moments, the two of us stare back at one another with a heaviness that wasn’t there previously. “Maybe I just didn’t know if you were going to be one of those girls who fucks on the first date.”

My breath catches in my throat. “Looks like I am,” I say pointedly, looking down between us.

He hums in the back of his throat. “It’s different when I’m the one taking your dress off,” he tells me.

I frown. “If we fuck around, then what makes a difference as to who gets naked first?”

Isaac’s breath gets closer as he leans into me, his palm sliding up my spine as my legs tighten around his waist. “Is that what we’re doing, Goddess?” he asks tauntingly. “Are wefucking around?”

Silence descends between us after his question. It’s a distraction, a clear signal that he’s not willing to go into any more detail about why he might have been disappointed in me. I press my lips together and debate letting it go, but in the end, I can’t. “What do you want, Icarus?” I ask.

He blinks, pulling his head back again until a ray of moonlight slaps him right in the face he’s revealed without his mask. High cheekbones. Thick dark brows. Full masculine lips. He looks like the god he’s pretending not to be.

“Why are you calling me that?” he demands. “You know who I am now.”

I tilt my head to the side, since I know he can’t see the arch of my brow behind my mask. “That’s the name you gave me,” I say. “I don’t want to destroy the fantasy.”

His surprised expression morphs into one of amusement. “Are you saying you won’t reveal yours to me tonight?” he asks.

“My identity?” No. No way in fucking hell. No one can know what I’m about to do, especially not him, not until I’m ready to use this trump card I’m creating. “No.”

“No name and no secrets,” he whispers, bowing his head towards me. “You’re really making me work for no reward.”

My fingers arch up over his shoulders and my dress loosens even more with the movement. Fabric falls away and the tops of my breasts are revealed. Warm air touches my newly unclothed flesh. His eyes go immediately down to my cleavage as the dress droops further.

“That’s not true,” I say as his gaze eats me up. “I intend to reward the man who’s stolen into my garden tonight.” It’ll be his prize for falling right into my trap.

The quiet laugh that erupts from his throat is enough to shake me to my core. It’s dark and sinister, like something forbidden is being whispered into my ear. “If that’s how you want to play things tonight, Goddess, then so be it,” he replies. “I’ll play the part of your mortal lover if you open those divine legs of yours and let me inside.”

I don’t have a chance to say another word—be it acquiescence or denial—before his head descends and his mouth takes mine. A heat like I’ve never known consumes me. Fire burns away my thoughts as his tongue intrudes. Dirty. Filthy. Vile. Addictive.

Isaac Icari kisses like a villain. Like he’s a mortal trying to seduce the goddess he’s found. He plays into my fantasies like no other man could until I’m left breathless and on the verge of a new emotion I never thought I’d feel again. Not after…

I pull away from the kiss, shaking my head and disrupting the direction of my thoughts. No. I don’t want to think about that right now. It has no place here. Even if I don’t like Isaac, I like this. I like what his body does to mine. Just for right now, I’ll let myself forget that I’m supposed to hate him. Just for tonight, I’ll play the part he wants from me.

12

ISAAC

Abeautiful little liar, that’s what she is. An illusion.

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