Page 65 of Red Flagged
All the air left my lungs in a beat.
“And for a second, Callum,” she continued, “I believed it. I believed you didn’t love me at all, because that’s how you made me feel. In front ofeveryone.”
Something shattered inside my chest.
I opened my mouth—helpless, wrecked, wrecking—but nothing came out at first. What could? How the fuck was I supposed to explain the kind of love that made me want to destroy the world just to keep her safe… when I’d managed to hurt her worse than anyone?
“Auri…” My voice cracked, low and hoarse. “I—fuck. I never meant to make you feel that way. Not ever. But if you think I don’t love you…” My teeth ground together, fury and desperation bleeding through. “Then you don’t know how goddamn deep you live in me.”
She blinked, that storm still warring behind her eyes.
And then she yanked me forward by the belt loops.
My hips slammed into hers, rough and unforgiving. She caged me in with her rage; I caged her in with my body. Both of us were breathing like we’d barely survived the last round, already starving for the next.
“You arrogant, possessive, control-freakbastard,” she hissed. “You don’t get to make me want you like this.”
“Keep pushing,” I growled, low and lethal, my mouth grazing the curve of her cheek. “See how far I’ll let you run before I drag you back.”
“You think you can distract your way into forgiveness?”
I gripped her chin gently, but firmly, tipping her face toward mine. I pressed a soft kiss to her lips. The fact that she didn’tpull away was progress. “I don’t want forgiveness. I want you. All of you. Even the angry parts. So shut your pretty fucking mouth and listen to me.”
Her eyes flared—wide and wild—just as I dropped my other hand to the back of her knee and hitched it over my waist. Her bare thigh slid up the side of my body, hot and trembling. Skin to skin. The slit of her dress fell open, baring her to the cool air and the hard line of my cock straining against my slacks.
Her breath hitched. She arched, and her nipples brushed my chest, visibly hard through the thin fabric of her dress. Her pupils blew wide, and my cock twitched so hard I nearly lost it. My blood roared. I could taste her skin already, feel the phantom drag of her nails down my back, her cunt pulsing around me while I drove into her.
I didn’t stop.
“You’re not getting away from me that easily, Aurélie. You wanted a man who’d fight for you? Good. Because you’ve fucking got one. It’s not always pretty, but it’s real. I’m real. And I’m not going anywhere.”
I let go of her chin, returning to brace it beside her, not giving her space to bolt. Her chest rose and fell in shallow bursts. Her pulse fluttered at the base of her throat. She didn’t look away.
“You don’t own me, Callum.”
Fuck. I saw red, but not from fury. It was heat. Pure, blinding heat. It blurred my vision and made my body ache with restraint. It made me want to fuck the defiance right off her tongue.
My hand slid up her thigh under that sinful black dress, until I reached the cleft of her ass. I gripped it hard enough to bruise. Her leg twitched, and the tiniest whimper escaped her. The intoxicating scent of her arousal hit me like a punch, and her nipples—already peaked—visibly tightened beneath the fabric, brushing my chest again, driving me fuckingmad.
“Say it again,” I snarled. “Tell me I don’t own you. I fuckingdareyou.”
She gasped, half from shock, half from the sudden shift in air. Then her eyes narrowed. Her voice turned syrupy, venomous, and bratty as hell. “Why? So you can play caveman until I’m too cockdrunk to remember how mad I am?”
Oh, shereallywants to fight.
“You’re right,” I said, voice shaking with restraint. “I don’t own you. But Iownthis mouth. And if you don’t shut it, Iswear to God, Aurélie?—”
She jerked her face out of my grip. “Swear to God,what? You’ll fuck me quiet? You’ll punish me until I behave?”
“I’ll spank your ass so hard you won’t sit right for a fucking week?—”
“How fucking dare you use oursex lifeagainst me right now?”
That was it. The scream. Not loud, not dramatic, but entirely ragged, sounding as though it had been ripped out of her chest, leaving something bloody behind.
And I lost it.
I dropped my hands and stepped back like I’d been slapped. Of all the things she could’ve said to me… that cut the deepest. First the comment about not knowing if I even loved her. And now this? Thinking I’d use her body against her?
