Page 40 of Between Desire and Denial
“Friends with benefits then,” I countered because I was used to negotiating. I could start there and work my way in.
“Have we reached the official friend level?” She smirked.
She wanted proof; I’d give it to her. “Sure. I’ve known you for years now, Olive. I know you like doing my best friend’s hair. That you talk incessantly about absolutely nothing with her, but it still brings you joy. I know you like flowers in your hair but are subtle with everything else you wear. You’re quiet but observant and somewhat nosy. You care about your family even if they’ve given you hell in the past. I also know the warm amber color of your eyes mists over every time you’re upset and darkens when you’re turned on like right now. I know how greedy you can be too when you want to fu—”
“Okay. That’s enough.” She held up a small soapy hand. “Tell me something about you now. I want to know you just as well.”
I stepped forward and tried not to scoff at her question. “We don’t need to talk about me.”
“I want to.” Her bottom lip pouted out, and she dragged a hand slowly over the bubbles across her knee. “We’re living together, Dimitri, so I should know things too. I know you like to invest, take risks. I know you have brothers and are Kee’s friend. I know what the magazines tell me. But you’re mostly working when you hang out and, well, I…” She sighed. “Never mind. This should just be us getting off, right?”
Her words jolted me and felt like a punch to the gut. I immediately wanted to tell her to take that back.
Still, she kept going. “I mean, I know that. Friends with benefits. After Rufford, we had fun, and this can be fun now too. Probably will be better than the other dates since—"
“Other dates?” My gut twisted, and I felt my neck tighten.
“Well, I told you I was dating that day in Kee’s office. Not that I’m looking for anything serious… just new, you know, stuff.” She waved down at my cock like I got the idea, but then her eyes locked on the bulge there. I’d been hard for her all day. I wasn’t about to hide that now. “So, we can do that, right? I mean with Rufford—”
“Olive, Jesus Christ.” She was rambling about other men fucking her while she stared at my dick. “Stop talking about other men or I’m going to shove my cock down your throat to shut you up.” I wanted to squeeze her neck while I did it so she couldn’t get a word out about another guy.
“Right. Of course. Oh my God. This is all stupid.” She licked her lips because she still couldn’t rip her eyes away from me, and I saw how her hand slipped down her leg into the water. I knew she put it between her legs as she whimpered, shifting in the bathtub. She hadn’t learned to control her desire yet. I hoped she never did, because I loved watching her struggle with it. “Dimitri,” she breathed out my name. “You should probably just go.”
“Go? Go where? To the next room to fuck my hand to the image of you? Why not give yourself some relief too? You know you don’t want me to leave you here unsatisfied. You want to come on your hand when I leave or have me give that pussy what it really wants?” I lifted a brow and put my hand in my sweatpants.
Her eyes were glued there as her lips parted, dazed. “What does it really want, Dimitri?”
Fuck. She was showing me by asking that— she’d for sure pick fucking me over sanity. “It wants to ride my hand, have my cock fuck it into submission. You want to be owned by me, Olive. I’m your boyfriend now. I can show you a damn good time. Better than those dates you’ve been on. You and I both know it.”
She shook her head. “If we do this, it’s just fulfilling our desire right now. Not again.” Her breath was coming faster now.
I hummed as I smiled. She’d give in again. I think we both knew that now. “You know, my parents let me get away with everything when I was in high school. They had my younger twin sisters to focus on, and my older brothers had already set the tone, so I ran wild. Did anything I pleased. Dabbled in whatever. Took the initiative to get what I wanted.”
“Why are you telling me this?” She frowned and started to sit up. Yet, I shook my head and took her chin between my fingers so I could drag a thumb over that bottom lip.
“Because. You wanted to know something about me.”
“We don’t have to be friends, Dimitri,” she whispered.
I knew that. But I wanted to give her what she asked for, needed to. She’d compared me to other men she’d been with, and I wanted her to understand this experience would be something different.
“I think we can be friendly though, right?” I leaned in and tasted her lips, relished in how soft they were, how they pillowed out to taste mine back. “I’ll give you a little of me and then take a lot of you.”
“Tell me something else?” Her breath came faster still, like this was a fucking turn-on for her to know more about me.
I shrugged as I stood back up and stared down at her. “I’ve taken a lot in my life. I like to take. I like to own. I like to show everyone what’s mine. It’s why I invest ruthlessly and get what I want.”
“What is it you’ve wanted most?” The woman was so inquisitive even while moving under the water, and I indulged her as I stared at how the bubbles floated around.
No one had ever really asked me that before. “To experience life, maybe. And not crave any desire I couldn’t have.”
“Do you think you want for anything now? Or you get it all?”
“I’m staring at a breathtaking girl in my bathtub in a neighborhood I practically own. What do you think?”
“I think you don’t own Paradise Grove yet or this girl.”
“I will own both, Olive. I won’t stop until I do.”
