I dragged my gaze up over my Reaper hoodie and found her eyes already on me, searching for something I didn’t know how to give her. But I wanted to. For the first time in my life, I wanted to please someone who wasn’t in a position of power. Old childhood habits died hard.
“Tiny. Well, I guess I am short.” She shrugged.
“You guess?”
“Anyone is short next to someone who’s six-five.” Her nose crinkled as a smile spread across her face.
“True.” It was the smile that broke me. “I thought you looked like an angel.”
She sucked in a breath, her eyes flaring.
“I got you back on your feet, and your eyes…” I slammed mine shut for a second, remembering the moment. “Everything about you cut me to the quick because I knew you were the kind of woman I could never have.”
The air between us thickened with that electrical charge I only felt around her.
“Okay.” She nodded, not asking why I could never have her. Somehow this woman knew exactly when to push and when to let something go when it came to me. “I was thinking about what Andromeda said.”
I nodded, figuring that had been it. “And?”
“Maybe I am frigid. Maybe that’s how I wound up a twenty-four-year-old virgin.” She gave me a self-deprecating little chuckle. “I just never felt that hunger for someone before, you know? Not that I haven’t been to third base. I have. I’m not completely inexperienced or anything. But when my boyfriends would press me for sex, I’d just break off the relationship, because let’s face it. If you’ve been dating someone for six months and still don’t want to sleep with them, something’s wrong.”
Suddenly I wanted to know the name of the guy who’d made it to third base with her and permanently remove his hands. Jealous much?
“I agree. And you’re not frigid.” My hands moved to her knees.
“You can tell that from one little kiss?”
“Yes. But I knew that the minute you bought me at the date auction.”
Her cheeks colored. “Right. That. I was just trying to save you from—”
“From the hot brunette in the second row?” I teased.
“Was she hot?” Persephone blinked at me with mock innocence. “I guess I didn’t notice.”
“Right. Look, no woman who’s frigid or scared of sex climbs a man like a tree in her dad’s study and then begs him to keep going when his hand is one scrap of lace away from her pussy.” There. I said it.
Her jaw dropped.
“I couldn’t think of a less vulgar way to put it.” I shrugged.
“You put it just fine.” Her hands gripped the edge of the bench on either side of her knees. “I didn’t want you to stop.”
“Persephone.” It came out as a strangled plea. For what? For her to stop? Or for her to continue?
“Was my sister right? Am I keeping you from finding…satisfaction because I’ve got you tangled up in this marriage?”
“I haven’t been satisfied since the day I met you,” I admitted, knowing my honesty would eventually come back to bite me in the ass. “But if you’re asking if I’m going to lose control of my cock because I haven’t gotten laid in the last few months, then the answer is no. And as for what your sister said—I got more satisfaction from kissing you than I have from any sexual encounter I’ve ever had.” It was true. Sex had stopped being fulfilling once I’d laid eyes on Persephone. Once I started seeking out brunettes so I couldn’t give in to the fantasy and pretend I had her beneath me.
“I bought you because I didn’t want to see you leave with another woman,” she admitted in a whisper.
“No.” My hands flexed, sliding up to her mid-thigh as need pooled, thick and heavy in my dick. This was a bad idea. We had to put the walls up. Had to ignore the attraction. This could only end in two ways—badly or fucking horribly.
“It’s true,” she snapped. “I didn’t want to think about you on a date with someone else. Not that I didn’t hear about your escapades from the gossip mill, but that night I just couldn’t stand to know I’d sent you on a date with someone else.”
I rose on my knees, bringing us level. “No. You bought me because you couldn’t stand to think about me fucking someone else. It had nothing to do with the date.” I pushed her thighs apart and filled the space between them, leaving only inches between us.
“Maybe.” Her breath hitched.
“No maybe about it, Princess.” My hands rose on her thighs until I gripped her hips.
“Don’t—”
“I call you Princess because to me, you’re untouchable. You’re so far out of my fucking league that you might as well be royalty. Not because you’re cold or fragile, because you’re not. I’ve felt the passion in you, and you prove to me every single day that you’re anything but delicate. Don’t punish me for shit your sister says and stop letting her in your head. I call you Princess because you’re fucking flawless. That’s what I saw that day in the hallway. What I see every time I look at you. You. Are. Fucking. Flawless.”