Chapter 41 : Adrian...
A pair of leather handcuffs slip through my fingers when I hear her question.
At a loss of how to approach her sudden curiosity, slowly I turn back to face her. *Is she having second thoughts? Again?* A chill of irritation runs down my spine. *Damn.* I curl my fists as my mood darkens.
“If I say yes, what are you planning to do?” I ask her quietly, trying to figure out how best to keep her mind from straying too far off the right track. I should probably make her busy with something. Her overthinking won't do us any good in a fragile moment like this.
“Um, nothing. I was just asking to kill time.” She mutters and shifts on her feet, her entwined fingers clenched tightly together.
I let out a deep sigh, folding my arms and regard her from a safe distance. She fidgets with nerves on the spot where I left her, near the high table covered with multiple tools not meant for innocent eyes. But I guess, it doesn't matter. She's already seen all this before.
*She's really here…* A smile tugs on the corner of my mouth and I give into my instincts, unable to keep resisting this need to make sure she's here with my own two hands.
I close the distance between us with three steps and position my hands on her slim shoulders. She startles at the contact and tilts her head, as if trying to peek from under the strip.
I stare at her parted lips, trying to remember why I brought her again. It's becoming harder and harder to think straight around her. My hands move of their own accord, sliding over her collar bones, up her neck to cup her flushed cheeks.
“I want to kiss you.” I whisper against her lips with mine just inches away.
“Then do it. Kiss me, Adrian.” Her tongue darts out, wetting her plump lips.
*Where does she get this confidence from, in situations like this?* She's become more daring since the auction night.
I trail my thumb over the seam of her lips then push inside to toy with her tongue. She leans closer, her hands flying up to cling as she presses herself against me. When her lips close around my thumb and suck lightly, I know I have all of her attention. And she has all of mine.
In the next moment I know, my thumb is replaced with my lips, my tongue diving straight in to taste every corner of her mouth, unable to get enough of her. She kisses me back with the same frantic desire to get closer, our tongues locked in a duel. I knock her hands off my arms and slink my hands under her ass, picking her off the floor.
Carrying her to the table in the middle of the room, I swipe the tools off the table. She jolts in my arms as I drop her on the table. Never breaking the kiss, I spread her thighs wider and take my place right between her legs.
“Are you trying to distract me with sex? So you won't have to answer my question?” She breaks away from our kiss, long enough to voice her doubts.
I both admire her outspoken attitude, and detest it at times like this. *Why can't I think straight enough to be honest with her like that?* I know I hate secrets… *then why the hell do I keep them?*
Stopping the frantic kiss, I release a deep breath and plop my head on her delicate shoulder. She stills for a second, then embraces me like she knows how much I need it right now.
“No gonna reply?” She whispers in my hair. “If you're worried your response would scare me off, then let me tell you. I have nowhere to go. You'll be stuck with me despite everything. So why not just tell me and help get over it if I actually get scared. You won't know unless you try.”
“Where are all these wise words coming from, huh?” I squeeze her tighter, breathing in her flowery scent. The scent of roses… wait, when did she apply this cologne?
“Wise? Hardly. It's called being courageous, Mr. Raine. I'm putting everything on line for you. I want you to do the same for me. Yes?”
“If I hadn't been such an ass to you before, would you have accepted me this easily then?” I could have never imagined that it'd ever talk to anyone with such ease. Even with my little brother I can't keep it down to this level. *What the hell is she doing to me?*
“I think so.” She kisses my hair again, leaving a trail from my ear down to the nape of my neck.
I don't like this. “Who gave you the permission to take the lead, Pearl? Hm?” I mumble quietly, a hint of menace layering my smooth voice as I fist her thick strands and snap her head back… Only to find her blindfold around her neck. “You said you could take it off of your eyes?”
Her dark eyes go wide as she stutters out, “I didn't do it on purpose. It just slipped — uff!”
I tug on her strands harder and pour more saliva in my kisses, forcing her mouth to open wider so I can take some more. A moan rumbles in the back of my throat when she goes limp in my arms, barely hanging on to me, struggling to close her thighs as I spread them wider apart.
“Not a minute in here and you're already defying me, Pearl. Such a bad girl...” I whisper in a husky voice, our combined saliva clinging to my lips from her mouth. She gasps for air, her eyes clouded with lust so thick, I'm sure she can't see straight.
Her thighs squeeze my hips, ankles crossed behind my back. I chuckle softly, my hackles rising. The sight of her in such a vulnerable state unravels something deep inside me… something carnal and possessive.
*Shit. Fuck. What am I doing?*
*…I feel like I'm losing it again.*
“Play time's over, sweetheart. Come on, get up.” I use my shirt sleeve to wipe our deeds off her mouth and neck then straighten away from her. Her thighs resist, clutching me harder. I thought she was dazed… but I guess not enough to let go of me… the satisfaction I feel when she whines in my arms, compares to nothing.
Absolutely nothing in this world and the next can make me feel like she does right now.
*I feel so fucking wanted.* No, not just wanted. ***Needed too.***
“Phew, you're driving me insane, woman…” Gritting my teeth, I dig my fingers into the muscles of her thighs, hard enough to make her determination to hold me in place waver and to make her hands run to rescue her poor thighs.
Her pain-streaked groans goad me the wrong way. *This is not how I want her to struggle.* As soon as I find an opening, I release her step back. She tumbles off the table after me, panting hard, scrambling for her wits.
A pang of guilt catches me off guard and I almost reach for her again. But restrain myself at the last moment when she slumps to the floor, slowly coming back to now and whipping her head up to glare at me.
“What did you do to me…? Why — what's wrong with my knees?”
I find her bewilderment amusing as I watch the colour in her cheeks rise. Tentatively, she touches her fingertips to her droopy lips, still wet and slippery from our mouth-fucking and cringes when she realises how sensitive they are now. The dirty looks that follow after, remind me why I should keep my distance...
*…But whatever. I'm going to be the bad guy in the end, no matter what happens in the meanwhile.*
“Hand over the blindfold, Pearl. You don't deserve it anyway.” I order her in a flat tone, my hands slip into my pockets as I stand over her shaking form on the floor. I bet her legs won't be able to support her for a while now.
“Sure, you jerk. Here's your precious blindfold!” With bright but narrowed eyes, she spares me a cold glare then whips off the silk strip I tied over her eyes and flings it in my direction.
It falls short from reaching me, landing inches away from my feet. She watches it fall, then looks up at me, probably thinking I'll pick it up. *Foolish girl.*
“Why the fuck are you smirking?”
Her sharp tongue catches me off guard. “That was pretty harsh, Pearl. Can't I enjoy my handy work?”
I drop my smugness, just for a second, to remind her with my raised eyebrows who's in charge tonight. She hesitates then turns her back on me, struggling to get back on her legs that still refuse to function properly. *Did she realise I was talking about her…?* Ugh, I feel like the villain again.
*If I'm going to be the bad, sadistic bastard anyway, then…*
“I think you didn't understand me, Pearl. I asked you to hand it over,” I tip my chin towards the blindfold for her annoyed eyes to follow when interrupted in the middle of her struggles to get up. “but seeing as you failed to fulfill such a simple command, I think you need to be pushed harder.”
Crouching down, I take out my hands from my pockets and fix her with an unwavering glower. “I'm gonna give you another chance. I want you to pick up that strip with your teeth like a good girl and,” I tap at my lips, “pass it to me like that. Got it?”
*…I should get to have some fun. No?*