Page 45 of Tamed

Yet looking at Isabel Fox sitting in the armchair, naked as the day she was born, sent an arrow of pure, unadulterated lust straight through me.

As if she knew, as if she was well aware of her effect on me, she leaned back and parted her thighs slightly, giving me a glimpse of the pink, tender flesh between them.

Nothing about her was different. Nothing should have gotten my cock as instantly hard as it did. She was just another woman who wanted me and yet…

I couldn’t tear my gaze away. The dark part of me, the devil on my shoulder, whispered in my ear that she was right, no one would know if I decided to take her after all. If I pulled her down onto the floor and showed her exactly why her crush on me was a bad idea. And perhaps if I did, she’d never want me again. She’d never even want to look at me.

I’d never shown her the devil in me, that part of me Old Nick had seen that had made me his right-hand man. I’d always kept her protected, because that world had never touched her, and I'd never wanted it to.

But maybe the time had come for her to see it. Maybe if she did, if she saw who I truly was, she’d run for those hills and she’d never look back.

I shouldn’t have let her get to me. I shouldn’t have let her affect me. I should have turned my back on her and walked away.

But I didn’t. My decision was already made as I strolled toward her, taking my time.

She wanted me and so I’d give her what she wanted. But it was going to be on my terms. I’d show her what I truly was, not anyone’s protector, and certainly not any young girl’s fucking crush.

I was the devil and the sooner she understood that the better.

She watched me as I came closer and when I put my hands on the arms of her chair and leaned down, caging her where she sat, she took a sharp, indrawn breath.

Her eyes had gone wide and dark, the kind of green only found in the depths of the ocean, and the pulse at the base of her throat was beating fast.

“Do you know what you’re asking for, Isabel?” I let her see the devil in my gaze. “Do you really understand?”

“Yes,” she said breathlessly, proving that of course she didn’t. “I want more, Caleb. I want you.”

“But you don’t know me, little girl. You don’t know anything about me.”

“I do.” Her gaze searched mine as if whatever she could see in it didn’t faze her for a second. “I’ve known you all my life.”

“No,” I corrected gently. “You only know what I wanted you to know.”

Perhaps she understood then, because for a moment uncertainty flickered in her expression. Then it was gone, leaving behind it only the stubborn determination that she was made of. “So?” she said. “Show me the rest then.”

I ignored that, leaning in a little closer, so her face was inches from mine. She smelled like a summer garden with a delicate, musky edge, and that combined with the sweet heat of her body was getting me even harder.

Her breathing was getting faster, goosebumps rippling all over her skin.

Delicious little brat.

“Tell me,” I said. “Are you a virgin, Isabel?” I knew the answer already, but I wanted to hear her to say it.

“No,” she whispered.

“Don't lie to me.”

She took another breath, shifting in the chair. Her nipples were hard and that pulse at the base of her throat was now racing. “Okay, okay. Y-Yes.”

You like that. You like the thought of being her first lover.

Something shifted in my gut, a raw intensity I hadn't felt for decades, not since my teens when sex was still new, and I hadn’t been able to get enough of it.

Ididlike that thought. I liked it too much, and that was a bad thing. I was possessive of what I considered mine, but Isabel Fox wasn’t mine and I couldn’t start seeing her that way.

I shoved the feeling aside, though. There could be nothing emotional about this. It was about sex. It was about showing her that she didn’t understand what she was asking for, that she should have listened to my warnings.

“I’m not any woman’s first lover,” I told her, watching the dark green shift and flicker in her eyes. “I like it rough and dirty, and if it’s romance and kindness and tenderness you want, you won’t find it with me.”

---