Page 80 of Meet Me in the Dark: The Complete Series

“Seeing how close I can get before you try to run again.”

He takes another step, then another, until he’s right in front of me, and he’s right. I have to grip the sink behind me not to bolt from the kitchen. Because I hate the way my body yearns for him, how it begs me to arch forward to get closer to him, to close that small distance between us and finally feel his touch.

He hums, “Brave now, huh? Brave enough to tell me what those dreams were about?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I say hoarsely.

“You’re right. It doesn’t. Because I don’t want to be in your dreams. I’d much rather fulfill your fantasy.”

A sharp inhale is the only sound I can make.

“Now that I finally have you where I want you, well not exactly where I want you, but this will do for now...” He gives a dark, sexy chuckle. “I’m going to say what I’ve wanted to for months and what you do with it is up to you. I think we can be what each other needs. You want to give over control, and I’m a person who needs control. Absolute control.”

“I’m sure there are other women who will let you control them.”

“I don’t want other women. I want you.”

I lick my lips and his eyes dart down to them, tracking my tongue. A harsh breath escapes him before he swallows and continues.

“You want to be forced, and I know I can give that to you. Make it everything you need it to be.”

“How?”

“Don’t you want to find out, Charlotte?”

I do try and arch forward then, but he backs away, refusing me anything more than his dirty words and a dark promise. Heturns around, plucks a paper off my refrigerator and the marker next to it.

“Just tell me one thing,” he says as he begins writing on the paper. “Are you wet right now? Are your panties drenched?”

It’s not like I need to even think about it. The tension between my thighs, the urge to rub them together to get some type of relief, the arousal thrumming through me, it all makes it painfully obvious that yes, I’m wet right now.

“Yes,” I answer.

He smirks and hands the paper to me. I only look down at it for a second before looking back at him.

“I’ll be waiting for your call,” he tells me.

Then he’s gone and I damn near collapse against the counter. How can one encounter be so intense when he didn’t even touch me or kiss me? I look down at the paper, having to pretend it’s not shaking with the trembling of my hand. I’m not going to call him. What would even be the point?

“Char, your bed is here,” Sophie shouts.

“Yeah, Char. Come get your bed,” Jackson tells me.

Oh God.

Chapter 2

Two-thirty-four in the morning. I’ve been up since one, trying to go back to sleep, trying to pretend I didn’t just have yet another dream about Jackson. Only this time, it was part reality. It was us in the kitchen again, except in my dream, he didn’t move away when I arched into him. Instead, he spun me around so quickly I became dizzy, and barely noticed him tearing my leggings down until he was ripping my panties off.

He'd pushed me until I was bent over the sink, then only gave me a moment to find something to hold on to before he'd slammed into me. And of course, of course, I'd woken up before he could even make me come, leaving me to do it myself. That man was even infuriating in my dreams, more so because I had to bring his image from my dream to behind my closed eyelids just to be able to make myself come.

And now, once again, I’m lying awake, frustrated, still horny, and mad as hell at Jackson for just... being Jackson. I look at my phone for what has to be the tenth time, knowing I've stored his number in it. Wanting so badly to call him but knowing I shouldn't. So I take the coward's way out and text him.

Me:What exactly are you offering me, Jackson?

I put my phone down, not expecting a response this late, or early. So when it vibrates not even a minute later, I have to swallow before picking it up, trying and failing to extinguish the excitement rising in me.

Jackson:I'm offering to pretend to be a stranger, to force you to do whatever I want you to. To give you pleasure beyond anything you've ever imagined, by giving you exactly what you need, when you least expect it. I'm offering to take you against your will in every way but in reality.

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