The minute the security light turns green, I open the door and step inside the room. I take only a few steps and whirl on him. He’s already inside, the door shutting behind him.
“Already can’t look at me, I see,” he says. “Or touch me.”
“Are you serious? I’m looking at you now. I was afraid I’d start yelling at you if I looked at you in the elevator.”
“Is that right?”
“You’re baiting me. Stop it. You are the one doing all this Kace. You. I’m angry and hurt because of how you’re acting, not because of what Alexander said. I could give a damn what Alexander has to say.”
“We both know that’s not true.”
“You were just waiting for the moment you could do this. You were never in this all the way.”
“I told you I had a side you wouldn’t like.”
“If this is it, you’re right. I don’t like it. We should go home. You go to your apartment and I’ll go to mine. Of course, I don’t have one because you own it now.”
“You own it. It’s deeded in your name.”
“I don’t want your hand-me-downs, Kace. I’ll sign it over to you and find a new place.”
In a blink he’s in front of me, catching my arm and pulling me to him. “I told you you’d run.”
“I’m not running. You shoved me out the door. You didn’t even give me a chance to know the truth. I trusted you with my life and you can’t even trust me with something bad that happened in yours? I love you, Kace, but that isn’t enough for you and it’s not enough for me. Let me go.”
“You want to know the truth, Aria?”
“I want you to trust me. I want to know all of you, not just the parts you think I can handle.”
“You can’t handle this.”
“Then why were we playing this game together? Let me go and I don’t mean my arm. Let. Me. Go.”
His mouth closes down over mine, hot and hard, a lick of demand on his tongue before he says, “You want to know all of me? Take the dress off.” He sets me away from him.
I stumble back and grab the back of the couch behind me. He stands there, waiting, watching and this doesn’t feel like any time I’ve undressed for him before. But he needs control right now. I feel that. I knew that in the hallway. Alexander took it. Now, I’m taking it by demanding answers. He needs to balance that, to control me in other ways. And I know him enough to understand that comes from some deep, damaged place he buries all the pain in his life. And that pain runs deep.
He needs to know that I still trust him enough to be vulnerable with him.
I reach for my side zipper and then slide my dress down, stepping out of it. I’m wearing a gorgeous gold studded bra and panty set and when I set the dress on the couch, his hot gaze sweeps over my body, and then lifts. “All of it. Except the heels.”
There’s a coldness to him that I don’t like, and yet, I am helpless to control my desire for this man. I am wet and wanting. I am also certain that he’s trying to intimidate me and it won’t work. He’s still him and I’m still me. I unhook the bra and toss it aside, my nipples puckering with the cool hotel air in contrast to his hot stare. My fingers catch the small strings at my hips and I slide them down. Kace’s stare traces their path, with such intensity he might as well be touching me. I step out of the panties and straighten.
“Now what, Kace?” I ask.
He tears his shirt over his head and stalks toward me. “Don’t push me, Aria,” he says, his hands on my sides, over my ribcage and I’m hyperaware of his long, talented fingers just beneath my breath. “You won’t like the results.”
“Still trying to get me to run?”
“Baby, we both know you’re going to run.”
“I’m here, Kace, I’m naked in every way with you. It’s your turn.”
“You want to know how dark I can get?” His hand is on my breast, his touch rough but erotic, fingers pinching my nipple.
“Yes,” I breathe out.
“You think you can handle that? You really think you can handle that?” He doesn’t wait for an answer. He turns me to face the couch, forcing me to catch my hands on the cushion. He presses into me, and his hand is on my backside. He smacks my cheek and I yelp. It’s not hard, but it shocks me, which is his intent.
I suck in a breath preparing for more, and he leans in and cups my breasts, his lips at my ear and he says, “That’s only the beginning. Still think you can handle it?”