The Dominant's Obsession

Chapter 31

He'd been craving her enough to give up his one principle. It wasn't relevant anymore.

She had changed everything.

She was changing him.

And just when he was on the cusp of a major breakthrough, she was telling him no. Contradicting what her body obviously wanted from his.

What she'd just admitted with her pale pink, eminently kissable lips.

"Then why are you saying no?" he ground out, grinding his arousal against her as he did. Who said he was playing fair?

The stakes were too high for fair.

She was panting for breath. "I don't have to explain myself to you," she gasped.

That's where you're wrong. "Actually, you do. You really, really do," he promised.

She pushed him away. Actually pushed him away, palm flat on his chest.

Rejection after rejection was piling up tonight, and it was really fucking with his head. His chest squeezed.

He didn't like her saying no to him. Not one bit.

"Stop doing that," she gasped.

Her hand was so small on his pectoral, and he realized once again how fucking small she was compared to him. It was sexy as hell, but also reminded him that if he was too aggressive and she wasn't into it, that shit could get bad, fast.

It was a good reminder that despite whatever the fuck he was feeling, he needed to be careful. He needed to mind her boundaries – no matter how fucking much he hated them.

He stepped back and stabbed a hand through his hair. Forced down his raging desire. Strove for calm.

"Tell me what's going on," he demanded.

She bit her full lower lip. Shit, there were tears in her eyes as she met his gaze. His chest did something really uncomfortable.

"You said it would be one time." Her voice wavered.

"I changed my mind."

"Why?" Her blue eyes were light as the sky as they searched his face, looking for answers. Maybe the sky with wispy clouds in it.

Because I can't breathe without you. Because for the first time, I want to wake up next to you. Because I want to get naked in the shower with you and go grocery shopping with you and never have to be apart from you.

But he couldn't say all that sappy shit. That wasn't who he was. That wasn't what he wanted out of life. Or at least, it hadn't been, until she'd walked in and obliterated every notion he'd ever had of what his life was going to be.

He had hesitated too long. She scoffed and looked away, misinterpreting his silence. "That's what I thought," she said, her tone unreadable. "I was a good fuck, and you want more."

His heart dropped like an anchor. Had he completely misread everything? "You don't want more?"

Jesus, the way her haunting blue eyes made his chest tighten and ache. "I don't want to be just another conquest to you," she said softly.

"That doesn't make any sense," he bit out. "Saying no to more makes you into just another conquest."

"Let me rephrase. I don't want to be your sex toy." She crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "I'm not like you."

He'd been about to address the sex toy comment, clarify that that was not what he was proposing, but her insult derailed his entire train of thought. Anger flared, sizzling and swift. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"I thought we were friends, okay?" The words spilled out of her, seemingly without her control. "I thought..." she took a deep breath to steady herself. "For a moment there, I thought we could be friends. That we could be more than two people who can't seem to stop craving each other. More than two people forced to work together.

"And the other night, okay, yeah, I admit it, I couldn't say no. You'd been wearing down my resistance for weeks with all your innocuous touches. You know how you affect me, and you did it all anyway. You knew exactly what you were doing. And yeah, I really wanted to know what it would be like, to be with someone so much more... experienced. But I thought that afterward, we could go back to how we were. Friends.

"But the fact that you want to keep fucking me means..." her voice broke. Her face was destroyed as she looked at him. Tears slipped down her cheeks. "Means that you obviously don't feel the same way about me. Because you don't care about the people you fuck. At all."

The pain in his chest fucking exploded.