“Fine. Have it your way.”
The pounding stopped, and I sighed in relief that he had given up. I had begun to sink down to the floor when I heard what sounded like a strained battle cry from the other side, followed by a loud crash against the door that sent me tumbling forward. I managed to catch myself on my hands and knees and whipped my head around as light from the hallway spilled into the room.
Noah stood in the center of the doorway, his arms hanging at his sides, his shoulders rising and falling with heavy breaths. A shadow fell across the front of him, but I could still see the menacing look on his face. He looked almost lethal.
“You accuse me of treating you like any other employee, yet you never listen when I give you an order,” he seethed.
“Yeah, well I’m insubordinate. Fire me,” I said, getting to my feet to storm past him.
He grabbed my arm and swung me around until my back was pressed to the wall just inside the door. His body was pressed to mine, his forearms flush with the wall and rendering me immobile. He forced my legs apart with his knee and I could feel his hot breath against my ear as he ground the bulge in his pants against my stomach. He wasn’t kidding when he said he had a lightning-quick recovery time.
“Why? Why can’t I call you Lanie?” He buried his head in the crook of my neck. The sound of his voice was a mix of desperation, anger, and frustration, and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why. He dragged his lips across my skin sensually and then lifted his head to look me in the eye. Piercing hazel orbs reflected an intensity that both shocked and made me want to give him anything he asked.
“I’ve treated you well. Better than you could’ve possibly hoped for in your situation. And I’ve always made sure you’ve been adequately taken care of in other ways as well.” He reminded me of his meaning by bending at the knees and slowly grinding into my very center. A traitorous moan escaped my lips. “So, why? Give me one good reason.”
How about five? Because it made all this too personal. Because it would be too hard to leave him at the end of the two years. Because it was going to make it too easy to fall in love with him. Because I just couldn’t …
That was the truth. But if I told him any of those things, he’d send me packing and demand a full refund.
“Because you want to,” I said, giving him the fifth reason.
“I want you.” He leaned forward and gently tugged at my bottom lip with his teeth. His hands left the wall and he began to run them up and down my sides desperately. “Why are you torturing me?”
I was torturing him?
“I’m not torturing you, Noah,” I sighed. “Not giving you permission to call me Lanie means that for once in your life, you can’t have something you want. And you only want it because you can’t have it. And it’s killing you because you have no control over it whatsoever. You’re overly privileged and spoiled rotten. And it’s pretty obvious that everything in your life has been handed to you on a silver platter. But this one? This one is personal. You have to earn the right, and only I get to decide when you have adequately done so.”
I could feel the vibrations of his growl against my chest, reminding me of how enticingly close we were. Obviously he didn’t like my answer. “You’re mine. Maybe you forgot. Here, let me remind you.”
His body kept mine pinned against the wall, but his hands yanked my skirt up over my hips before he pulled the front of his underwear down and released the beast within.
I understood perfectly what Noah was doing. I had stripped him of the control he thought he possessed and had made him feel like less of a man. This was his way of regaining it. I expected it, even coveted it. We both knew my body would react. That went without saying. But my mind, my soul … those were mine to give, only when I felt him worthy. And that was never going to happen. This was no fairy tale. This was me, being owned by a man who had paid big money to ensure my physical submission. Nothing more. And I wasn’t about to put myself out there like that, because I could definitely see myself falling for the likes of Noah Crawford, which guaranteed a broken heart for me.
“Do it. Fuck me,” I challenged. “That’s what I’m here for, right?”
He stopped and searched my eyes. Then he leaned in until our lips were barely touching and asked, “Why did you sell your body to me?” His cock was pressed against my entrance, but he didn’t move.
“You were the highest bidder.” The tip of my tongue made brief contact with his lower lip and I arched my back to try to entice him to just put it in already.
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it. Why did you put yourself up for auction? Why did you need the money?”
“Boy, you’re full of questions today, aren’t you?” I ran my hands through his hair teasingly and tried to maneuver my hips so that his head could enter me, but he pulled back enough to thwart my effort.
“Answer the damn question and stop trying to fuck me,” he said forcefully.
“Why? Don’t you want to fuck me?”
He hooked his hands behind my thighs and lifted me off the floor, and then he thrust his cock into me. In one swift move, he was totally submerged inside my body. I gasped and clutched his shoulders.
“You tell me. Does it feel like I want to fuck you?” He rolled his hips to grind into me. “It’s damn near the only thing I think about lately. I’m so fucking addicted to your pussy that I can’t think straight. Now, stop trying to distract me and answer the question.”
He kept his hips still and refused to move any more, even though I was doing my best to get some friction going.
“Noah, please,” I begged like a shameless hussy. I could feel his thickness stretching me and I wanted more.
He leaned forward and his husky voice permeated my ear, sending shivers down my spine. “Answer the question and I promise I’ll give you what you want. Because you want it, too. Don’t you, Delaine? You want to fuck me just as much as I want to fuck you. Goddamnit, just think about it—my thick cock moving inside that tight little cunt of yours. In and out until you feel like you’re going to explode.”
I moaned and slipped my hands under his arms and down his back until I could slide them down his boxer briefs to grab a handful of his ass. Then I rolled my hips the fraction of space allotted to me, desperate to feel the mind-numbing orgasm I knew he could give.
“Yeah, you like the thought of that, don’t you, kitten?” He sucked my earlobe into his mouth and nibbled it teasingly. “All you have to do is answer the question.”