Page 97 of Corrupted Deception

“So what?” I said, because sharing the deep shit with her wasn’t going to do anything but scare her off.

She looked at me, speechless.

“I don’t see a ring on your finger,tempesta,so who cares if it’s a bad idea?”

“I care.”

I shrugged, keeping shit light. “Not really my concern. I can tie you up, if you prefer—let you play the helpless victim here.”

Those silver eyes sparked, then darkened like she’d shifted gears in an instant. It could have been the alcohol in her veins, but I had a feeling she just liked giving me whiplash.

She smiled menacingly.

“Just try it. I dare you,” she said, her voice practically oozing sex and battle.

What shot through my veins wasn’t arousal; that was too small of a word for it. It really was a drug. One fix, and I was hooked, all the dark places in my mind lighting up in a way I’d never imagined.

I grabbed her by the arms this time, holding her still while I kissed her, tasting the sweet, nutty liquor on her tongue.

She made no move to pull away, but I could feel the change in her jaw as she got ready to bite even as her fingers dug into my shoulders, holding on tight.

My cock jerked. I’d had no fucking clue that a woman who fought like Charlotte did was what I’d been missing all along. I’d sought out control—more and more of it—and there were countless women who’d submitted easily. Too easily, it turned out.

But I could feel the fine line we were walking on, like a tightrope wire in the wind, nothing but hard ground far beneath us if we teetered too far, leaned too far into violence and lost our balance.

Instead of letting her sink her teeth in, I clamped my fingers around her jaw, keeping her from biting down, and I pulled away, with one hand around her arm to hold her still.

“Tell me this is what you want, Charlotte,” I said because that son of a bitch drug dealer was still in my head, and I was taking no chances.

She nodded, her gaze locked on mine. “This is the only way I want it, Cielo.”

My feet felt sturdier on the wire.

“Bene.Because I’m still tempted to gag you,” I told her, my lips a hair’s breadth from hers. “Try to bite me again, and I will.”

“You can try,” she said right before she wrenched her jaw out of my grip. “But I’ve still got my stiletto heels,” she said, looking down toward her feet. “And I won’t miss this time.”

I chuckled, but there was no denying those things could be serious weapons. “Then I guess I’ll just have to do something about that.”

I picked her up before she could anticipate the move, wrapped my arm around her thighs to hold her still, and used my free hand to yank off the weapons. And I was feeling pretty damn cocky about it until I set her bare feet down on the ground and she swiped out with one foot, sending me down on my ass. Hard.

Christ, the woman was good.

Rather than going after her weapons, she straddled my thighs and lowered herself down until her fabric-covered cunt hovered inches above my cock.

“Not feeling so cocky now, are you, charming?” she asked, tilting her head to one side.

Maybe not. But with her so close, I could smell her arousal. I could imagine her cunt glistening, ready to be fucked.

So, yes, I was still feeling pretty damn cocky.

“It’ll take a lot more than that to take me down a peg,” I said as I wrapped an arm around her waist and put the other behind her head, cradling it to protect her from the blow when I dug one heel into the floor and flipped us over, dropping her down on the cold marble floor.

But it seemed she wasn’t in the mood to be subdued. She dug in her heel the same way, bucked her hips, but we’d reached the base of the breakfast bar; there wasn’t enough room for her to carry out the move.

It did give me a wonderful idea, though.

I wrapped an arm around her and pulled us up off the ground, pinning her between my body and the breakfast bar with her back to me.

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