"You can't tell me what to do, Rowan."
"I sure as hell can." He fought back, glare not wavering.
The audacity of this man.
"As what?" She breathed, feeling as if they were standing on the edge of a cliff. Dangerously close to falling off.
Rowan's eyes went down to her neck slowly, and he brought his hand up there after a bit of hesitation, resting it around her throat. Her breath hitched and her heart beat abnormally fast.
"As your man." He mumbled, leaning his head more into her neck. He stayed there, his lips and nose barely touching her skin but just enough so she would be aware of him and his presence. "Let me be your man, you don't need others." He breathed, his hands starting to softly massage the sides of her neck.
She couldn't breathe properly, shivers went down her spine and she suddenly wanted to feel him everywhere, she wanted to bring him even closer.
"I thought you didn't want me." She forced herself to say, restraining her urge to arch her back and lean into him.
"I never said I didn't want you." He slowly leaned back to look into her eyes yet stayed close to her face. "I said you deserved better, that I have issues. Never that I didn't want you, I've always wanted you." His voice, how close he was, his scent. It all made her mind go fuzzy, she felt hazy and unable to think and she couldn't help but think that that's exactly what he wanted.
"Don't go on that date." It was a demand, firm and sure.
"Did you work on your issues?" She asked back, holding eye contact and arching her neck back so she could be able to look him in the eyes.
"I'm willing to try." Was his only answer. His eyes intensely focused on her neck and his hand around it.
"And what changed now?" She wasn't going to back down.
Rowan was silent for a few moments but eventually sighed, finally out of his trance, and answered. "I fucking hate the idea of you with other men."
She could tell that it was hard for him to admit. His grip was going harder and tighter around her throat by the second and it was getting gradually harder to breathe. Not because of him obstructing her air flow, far from it, his hand was on the sides not in the front. The moment was so intense and intimate that it made her a bit dizzy.
"From day one, I knew that my jealousy was gonna be suffocating. I couldn't sleep because I knew you were spending the night at another man's house, Sera."
"I hated seeing you wearing your friend's shirt, I wanted to rip it off." His voice was getting lower and lower just as his hand was getting tighter.
"Rowan." She breathed, it was subconscious and she didn't realize that she said it until after she did.
"In my head you were already mine. My thoughts scared the fuck out of me and I didn't wanna scare you away. So I took a step back, it was never meant to hurt you." His other hand came up to gently stroke her cheek. His touch was feather-like, gentle, barely there and it made her want to scream.
"Forgive me, baby." He whispered, going in to slowly kiss her cheek. Similar to his touches, his lips barely grazed her skin, he only hovered over her cheek with his lips as if stroking it gently.
It was embarrassing but Sera wanted to moan in frustration.
"Say you forgive me." He said near her ear.
Sera was only able to nod, knowing it was physically impossible for her to form words right now. She did forgive him. After all, that was the whole point of pretending she had a date.
"Say it." He demanded.
"Y-Yes." Her hands finally came up to clutch his shirt, she needed something to hold on to or she was going to melt.
"Don't go on that date."
"I won't." As soon as she said it, Rowan brought his lips closer to her mouth, still hovering over her lips, touching yet not touching.
"You're mine." He whispered before he finally kissed her.