She finally sits back and runs her hands up my hips and sides, tugging me forward so my weight is no longer on my arms. Malone closes the distance between us as she reaches for the cuffs, bringing us nearly chest to chest. Her mouth is wet from my desire, and her green eyes look more like green flames.
I really, really want to kiss her.
A click and my wrists are free. She guides my arms forward and carefully massages my shoulders. “Pain?”
“No.” I hardly sound like myself. “I’ve been cuffed like that longer with no problem.”
“Not with me.” She moves down my arms, touching me as if she can divine every single ache and twinge. She ends her examination at my wrists, bracketing them with her hands. “And here?”
“I’m fine.” I try to pull away, but she tightens her grip, holding me in place.
Malone traces her thumbs over my inner wrists, her expression going contemplative. “What is it that you want, Aurora?”
I almost blurt out the truth. Sex and endorphins and the aftermath of too many orgasms, and the words nearly spill from my lips at that tiny prompting. I manage to lock myself down at last moment, manage to shove everything down deep. It takes more effort than it should to dredge up my sunny smile. “What more could I want than what I already have?”
Her perfect brows lower, and she squeezes my wrists once, a warning. “You want to be a plaything for the rich and powerful? Always the bridesmaid, never the bride, constantly watching your patrons find love and relationships and their forever people while you are constantly left in the rearview mirror.” She laughs, pretty and cruel. “Don’t lie to me. You have too much fire to be content with that.”
She’s not wrong, but I bristle all the same. “You don’t know me.”
“I know enough.” She releases me and pushes to her feet. “Then again, I suppose I could be wrong. You might be nothing more interesting than a toy to be played with and then discarded.”
It stings. Good lord, it stings. How dare she pull out a layer of pain I very carefully don’t think about? “I have friends and people who care about me.”
“Yes.” Malone snags a small towel from a hook on the wardrobe and wipes her mouth. “And when they’re done having fun with you, they go home with the people they love and leave you in the shadows.”
Against all reason, my throat feels thick, and my eyes start to burn. “I’ve had relationships. Real ones.”
Something goes flinty in her eyes. “I’m aware.” She leans down until our faces are even, until I can’t escape her gaze. “And how did those relationships go? Every single one of them.”
“That’s none of your business.” I shouldn’t have even brought them up. I wouldn’t have if I was thinking clearly.
“I’ll tell you how they went.” She’s unrelenting, her cruelty quiet and cutting deep. “They saw what they wanted to see, what you wanted them to see. The surface shit. They liked the idea that they could have pretty, submissive, sunshine Aurora whenever they wanted. The darling of the Underworld. How long did it take for reality to creep in? How long until they started to resent you for the very thing that drew them in the first place?”
My eyes are burning, but I refuse to break her gaze. “Choosing the wrong partner doesn’t mean I’m not worthy of love.”
“You’re correct.” She tosses the towel into a metal basket near the door. “But it brings me back to my original question: What is it that you really want?”
I swallow hard. “I don’t know you or trust you enough to answer that question.” A last ditch effort to drive her off. If she persists, I’m not certain I can keep my secrets buried. A terrifying thought. I need time and space to get my armor back into place before we go another round. At this rate, the entire two weeks won’t end in my revenge being enacted; they’ll end with Malone taking my future the same way she took my past.
She considers me for a long moment before nodding. “I suppose that’s fair.” She grabs a thick blanket and starts to wrap it around me, but I move first, trying to stand so I can grab it from her hands.
My legs don’t hold me. My knees buckle, and I start to crumple.
Malone catches me before I hit the ground. Her expression is downright forbidding as she scoops me into her arms. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I don’t need aftercare.”
“Aurora.”
“Yes?”
“Shut the fuck up.”
I blink. Have I ever heard her sound so heated before? I don’t think so. She sinks onto the chair I just vacated with me in her lap and wraps the blanket around me. Malone looks… Well, she looks furious. She glares down at me like she wants to throttle me, and not in a sexy way. “Listen to me closely. You are not in charge of this situation, and you are certainly not in charge of me. You do not get to decide what’s best for you, because I already know what you need.”