Chapter 36 Chapter 36
They kept dancing but Zarlia’s voice cut through the music. “Why do you keep pushing me away and still expect me to follow you?”. Stetson didn’t answer. He just stared at her, try to resist the urge of raising her dress up and taking her there and then. Silent.
She stopped moving. “That’s what I thought—silence”.
Then she walked off, leaving him in the middle of the dance floor, jaw tight, fists clenched like he was holding himself together by force.
The night dragged on. Stetson managed to finalize the deal with Mr. Easton and set up meetings with a handful of investors—but barely. Every few minutes his eyes drifted back to Zarlia, who was either laughing with someone, downing another drink or dancing like she didn’t remember he existed. She refused to look at him, refused to speak to him, refused to give him anything.
He was talking to Luke when she suddenly vanished with the same man he had chased off during the dance. The second he noticed, something in him snapped. He didn’t even excuse himself—he just went.
Luke caught him mid step, “Let her be, Mr. Damien is waiting”. Stetson tried to step past him but he was blocked again. “Snap out of it Stetson. This could be a huge opportunity for the company and—”
“Get out of my way”. Stetson snapped and when Luke didn’t move, he glared at him which earned a sigh from his assistant.
“She’ll ruin you and the sooner you know that you can’t control her, the better”, Luke stepped aside and Stetson practically jogged off. He knew what Luke said was right but he wasn’t to things like this. Zarlia was the biggest changed he’d ever seen and he was changing too but he wasn’t sure if it was a good thing.
He searched the bathroom, then another hallway, until he found a quiet room with the door half open. And there she was, cornered against the wall, the man leaning too close as he asked if she had a boyfriend.
Stetson stepped in so fast the air shifted. “She does”, he said, voice low and sharp.
“Me”
The man froze. Stetson didn’t even have to raise his voice—the threat was already there, coiled and ready but the man was stubborn.
“Chill dude” the man stepped away from Zarlia. “We were only getting to know each other”. Stetson glared at him but he turned to Zarlia, cupping her cheeks. “Isn’t that right?”
Zarlia nodded with a drunk smile.
Stetson immediately took the man’s hand away from her. “Let me make this fucking CLEAR. She is MY WOMAN. Fucking MINE. And I bloody hate when people touch what’s MINE.” The man had already started shouting in pain as Stetson squeezed his hand with inhuman strength.
“This is just a warning and you are lucky I didn’t rip your hands off your body. So Gentleman, do you still want her?”
The man immediately shook his head, “N…no never. She’s not even my type” and Stetson let him go. “She better not be”
He scurried off with a likely broken wrist, running like he’d seen a ghost.
Zarlia stayed where she was, back against the wall, drunk, furious, eyes hazy but burning. “I don’t have a boyfriend and FYI—I’m everyone’s type”, she muttered and shoved Stetson—though he didn’t move an inch.
“Are you drunk?” he asked, and the annoyance in his tone only made her glare harder. “You don’t get to scold me”, she snapped. “And you have no right to chase away every man that wants me”.
Before she could step around him, he caught her hand. His touch firm, possessive, almost desperate. “Come on” he said, clear resistance in his voice. “I’m taking you home”.
“I’m not going anywhere with you” she tore her wrist off his grip. “You want us to go home? So, you can lock me up for not being an obedient little kitten?” she shoved him hard but it only made him take a step back, his hands forming fists.
“You can’t control everything, definitely not me! If you want my heart, you better just take it now! Just fucking take it,you asshole!!” she kept on slamming her fists against his chest until he couldn’t take it anymore.
He pressed her against the wall, her wrists above her as he lowered his face to meet hers. “Why do you like making things so hard for me Zarlia?!!” he snapped, his grip on her tightening.
“You think it’s easy for me? Huh?” his eyes held a certain kind of fire she couldn’t imagine him having. “You go around testing my patience and wearing this bloody dress that makes me want to fuck you right here and now. You do things to reel me up for no reason and I try to control myself by creating a clear line between us but you go ahead to use that line as a fucking jump rope.”
Zarlia struggled against his tight grip but that only made him come closer, his leg between her thighs. “You are part of those people I never want to lose so I stay away so you won’t run away when you see who I truly am but still you keep pushing me!!”
“What about me? I already know half of those things you’re trying so much to hide yet here I am always begging for your trust and yearning for your love! You’re cruel!!”, she shot back, a bit sober.
“I’m cruel? You’re the one who walked in here like a fucking wet dream. All I can think of is bending you over “heimmediately regretted it as the words left his mouth because Zarlia went silent.
She’d never heard Stetson so honest about how he felt. His emotions weren’t the only thing she felt—“Fuck”, he hissed at the bulge in his pants, pressed against her stomach.
“Mr. West is showing signs of arousal? I never thought I’d see the day” Zarlia mocked and he let her hands go to back away only for her to pull him close with his collar. He could feel his walls collapsing, all the rules, all the boundaries crumbling slowly.
“Where are you going? I need to fix what I caused”, Stetson looked away with restraint and an annoyed grunt, “Zarlia…”
She pressed herself against him earning a groan, “Stop putting up boundaries we clearly want to break. Come on Stetson, you know you want me”, she bit her lips.
“Zarlia…”
“I’m wet—”
“Zarlia!!!” he snapped, slamming her back into the wall which made her gasp. His fist connected with the wall beside her head as he leaned in, his breath hot against her lips. Stetson could hardly control himself anymore and Asher was closer than ever, raging at the back of his mind—no longer a faint whisper—the ring felt useless.
He gritted his teeth, forcing his hand away but they still ended up on her face. In that moment both their breaths caught and he slammed his lips against hers—hungry, yearning, possessive. He kissed her like he never wanted to let her go, like she’d disappear if he let her go.
But the moment he kissed her, he backed away.
“Tell me to stop. Tell me you’re afraid and you don’t want this” he whispered breathlessly, secretly wishing she’d say no.
“The Zarlia I know would never back off till she’s filled up and dripping” Asher’s voice was like a hoars growl in her ear that made a steady pulse between her legs.
“No, no…I want this”, she kissed him and he immediately lost all self-control. He immediately picked her up, grabbing her ass as she wrapped her legs around his waist and her hands around his neck while he feasted on her mouth like a starved man.