Page 24 of Wilt

“Sure, Rose. Why not?”

“You’re not letting me out.” She says it as a statement, not a question, like she’s accepted it.

“I said I’d think about it.”

“Don’t bullshit me.” Her shoulders bunch up, then relax as if through will power alone. I can see her clench the bedsheets with one hand. “Have you come to finish the job?”

“Rose.”

“Don’t call me that,” she snaps, her voice lashing out violently at me.

“I’ll call you anything I fucking want.” I’m starting to get angry now; I didn’t come here for pushback.

She pushes out a breath of air and the sound wraps about me like a hug. “Are you here to finish the job?”

“No,” I say, not needing to even think about my words. “But I will, and when that happens, it’s not going to be a job. You’re going to want it, desperately.”

A small shudder passes through her. “No.”

I smirk at her, pressing on past her ill-constructed barriers. “You are going to want me, plead for me to take you, maybe even on your hands and knees. You’re going to give yourself to me, willingly. But we’re not there yet.”

“You really are a bastard,” she says softly, head hanging low.

My gut tightens at her look of defeat. It shouldn’t—I want her defeated, don’t I? “You’re collateral, if we’re being utterly honest. Not any of my concern.”

She raises her head. “Collateral, as in damage?”

She’s young and she’s smart. She thinks she’s being tough and playing the game my level. Maybe this is just her trying to grasp a complex meaning when it’s all simple.

I nod. “You’re collateral damage—you’re what he wants and I have you. End of story.”

She sucks in a breath of air at the truth I just dropped. “Please… go away.”

I don’t move. “You don’t get to give orders.”

“And you’re never letting me go.” She looks over her shoulder and it takes my fucking breath away. My cock stirs again, and I’m cursing its existence.

Rosalind’s been crying, yes, and crying women don’t turn me on. But the steel, the challenge—the goddamnchallengein her gaze—oh yes, that does get me fucking wound up. It shouldn’t, that look. It reminds me of Derek, but where he’s got a deadness to his eyes, she’s life. All life.

Her eyes narrow. “If you think I’m going to give in, sit here and let you do what you want like I’m some kind of doll, then you’re a fool.”

I grip the side of the doorframe to stop myself from stepping in. Does she even know how her challenges ensnare her tighter into my web? “I’m not a fool, Rose. I know what you are.”

She just quirks an eyebrow in a challenge, which spurs me on even more.

“Mine, to do with as I wish. You didn’tlikewhat I did to you downstairs. You fuckinglovedit. You came so hard on my fingers, and you were so fucking wet for me. I bet if I’d said the word, you’d have gotten on your knees in front of everyone and sucked me off.”

Her eyes narrow. “Only because you would have killed me if I hadn’t.”

“No,” I say. “Because you wanted my cock.”

She recoils, just slightly, as her eyes widen. My words hit a nerve of truth in her. Rosalind might hate me, but she wants her mouth on me. I smile.

“I’m going to hurt you,” she whispers. “I’m going to destroy you, and you won’t see it coming. I’m going to survive this and I’m going to take you down.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. I just thought I’d tell you, since we’re being honest, Nikolai.” She says my name like a dirty word, and that turns me on, too.

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