Page 37
Digging deep within to find his iron strength, he pulled her hand away from his side and slid out from beneath her. She softly cried out in her sleep as she squirmed on the bed, seeking out his warmth. His eyes were glued to her half-covered figure as she stirred and began to awaken.
His pants were pulled up and buttoned before her eyes opened and she looked around her in confusion as the sleepy smile fell from her lips. Before he locked away the emotion, desire began to climb, returning once again inside him.
The sheet slipped down her smooth curves, exposing her perfect br**sts to his view. Evidence of their love-making – no – sex, just sex, was covering her body. Small red marks were easy to see on her alabaster skin, and her pink ni**les were partially peaked as if she were ready for him to run his tongue across their delicate surface again. Such femininity, such perfection.
He turned away as he gathered the rest of his clothes. He heard her sitting up in the bed, and when he turned back around, his fingers methodically buttoning his shirt, she was gazing at him in surprise, gripping the blankets tightly across her body.
“Don’t act like a prude, Ari. I’ve touched and tasted just about every inch of you,” he said with a mocking tone, then smirking at the narrowing of her eyes.
“Get out,” she said, her voice controlled, surprising him and oddly raising his opinion of her at the same time. He’d expected hysterics or crying. He hadn't expected her cool detachment. He should feel a smidgeon of insult, but he knew he could make her body go up in flames with a single touch of his hand. He had nothing to prove.
“Meet me in the dining room in twenty minutes… unless you want me to come up here and find you again. ” He waited until he left the room to smile. He nearly laughed when he heard the thud against the door, wondering what she’d thrown at it.
Since meeting Arianna Harlow, his life hadn’t been boring. She was constantly surprising him, not only by her reactions, but by his to her, as well. She caused a stir in him that had lain dormant for so many years he hadn’t thought it capable of stirring to life again.
She would be his for as long as he desired her to be so. Until she did submit to him, he was sure enjoying the journey the two of them were taking. He almost dreaded the day he grew bored of her. He couldn’t imagine another woman stirring his damaged soul so much.
As Rafe sat at the table, watching the clock, he almost hoped she tried to defy him again. He wouldn’t mind hunting her down and teaching her the first real lesson in what happened to those who displeased him.
When nineteen minutes hit, his feet twitched. At exactly twenty, he was going to stand and begin his lesson.
“I’m here, master. ”
“Master?”
“I figure you think you’re the lord of all, so you’d want to be called by an appropriate dictator name,” she snapped as she sat across from him.
“Sir is just fine,” he mocked.
“How about ass?” she asked with innocence.
“Careful, Ari. I’ll only be pushed so far,” he threatened.
“Do you honestly think that you frighten me, Mr. Palazzo? I’m actually curious. If you so much as lay one finger on me, I won’t hesitate to have you thrown in jail. You may get back out really fast with your vast fortune, and what I’m sure is just about everyone in your back pocket, but still, I’d get the satisfaction of seeing you cuffed and taken in,” she said while looking him square in the eyes.
“I laid more than a finger on you earlier, Ari, and you were screaming – but not in displeasure. Should I demonstrate again how much you like my… fingers on and in you?” he called her bluff.
“That wasn’t the most unpleasant way I’ve spent a boring afternoon, but you know that’s not what I mean. I read your stupid contract, and though I may not be the most knowledgeable person on this planet when it comes to sex, I can read between the lines. You get control of me? You get to choose what I do, who I see, where I go. You’re a control freak and I want no part of it. I would never allow a man to hit me!”
“Is that what you think of me? Honestly? You think that I need to beat my women into submission?” he thundered as he stood up with his hands on the table and his body leaning toward her. He was furious.
“I’m just repeating what I read,” she fired back.
“There was nothing in those papers that said I get off on hurting a woman!”
“Then, please tell, how you exert your control!”
Rafe sat back down, his temper at an all-time high. He took in several deep breaths as he once again thought about the sanity of dealing with this woman. She’d made a lot of assumptions and he owed her no explanations. He was furious that he even wanted to have the conversation.