I clench my thighs together not wanting him to see the overwhelming affect he has on me.
Because at this moment when he’s all threatening and scary, I don’t see the danger.
I should see the danger.
Instead, I’m searching behind that danger, thirsting to dig my claws in him and rip open the poker face to peek behind it.
I’m almost sure I’ll find a monster, but I still want to see it anyway.
I still want to see what he’s made of. Why he’s made this way.
His hand reaches for my face. I swallow as he traces a sensual finger down my cheek. It’s meant to be soft, but all I see is the darkness lurking beneath the surface.
I crave it. I want him to unleash it.
If he’s sick and I want his sickness, what does it make me?
“Seems that night in the rain did you no good.” His voice is too calm as he pinches my cheek. “I told you, sweetheart. You’re already mine, so stop acting otherwise.”
“I’m not yours.”
“Being mine is a fact, not an option. I don’t give a fuck if you embrace it or fight it in front of me.” He nuzzles his nose over my cheek. “But I’m done giving you freedom. You don’t get to act like you don’t belong to me.”
“Or what?”
He shakes his head. “You don’t want to know that.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Be mine and you become the queen on my board.” He pauses and flicks his tongue to lick my lower lip. “Fight and you’ll remain a pawn.”
Something bubbles to my throat and I can’t swallow past it. He’s fuming.
No. He’s enraged.
To another person, this version of Aiden would appear normal, soft even, but Aiden is the type who hides his anger beneath layers of calmness.
To say I’m not scared would be a lie, but I got past the blinding fear stage. Now, I’m able to see past the fear to his obsession with me. The way he seems so physically intent to possess me. I see the spark.
The want.
Mywant.
The way I react to him is beginning to scare me more than how he reacts to me.
As if all my senses aren’t filled with him already, Aiden squeezes my jaw so I’m glued to the grey storms in his eyes. They’re turbulent, beautiful, and downright terrifying.
Now, I know why storms are named after people.
“Which one will you be?” He drawls. “Queen or pawn?”
“None.”
“None, huh?”
“I’m not a chess piece on your board, Aiden. I’m human with human needs.”
His lips tug with a smirk. “Human needs. Hmm. We can work on that.”
I hit his shoulder. “That’s not what I mean.”
But then his lips claim mine.
When I open with a stunned gasp, he growls into my mouth and devours me. If the earlier kiss was head-turning, this one is animalistic and out of control. Aiden threads his fingers into my hair, tugging the strands loose, and brutalises my mouth.
The kiss is savage.
No.
It’s barbaric like he never kissed before.
Like he’s only discovering what it feels like to kiss.
It’s like he wasn’t kissing me earlier. Like he was holding back.
I’m in that phase where there’s no air and no other thoughts but him and his lips. His firm, yet soft lips.
His brutalising lips.
His body crashes into mine. All his hard lines mould into my soft curves. My hands find refuge on both his sides and I moan into his mouth.
Aiden breaks away, breathing harshly, and grunts against the corner of my mouth.
I had expected him to let go of his anger with the kiss, but it’s worse. His rage is a living, breathing being right now and he doesn’t even bother to mask it.
“If anyone dares to look at you, let alone touch what’s mine, I’ll fucking murder them. Is that clear?”
My lips part, unable to breathe properly, let alone speak.
“Is that clear?” He grits out.
“I’m not your thing, Aiden.” Damn him to the pits of hell. What does he think I am? An object?
He chuckles, the sound is dark and domineering. “Oh, but you are and if you still doubt it…” His lips graze my ear as he whispers in a dark tone, “I’ll fuck you so hard, so deep, you’ll be begging for me to never leave your tight pussy again.”
I clench my thighs at the image he painted inside my head. I try to chase it, but it won’t go away.
Am I defective? Wrong in the head?
Otherwise, how can I react so strongly to his crude words?
Aiden yanks down my jeans before I can form clear thoughts of what’s going on.
“Remove the T-Shirt,” he orders as my jeans reach my knees.
“Aiden…” It’s that breathy voice again.
The needy, damn voice I shouldn’t be using in front of Aiden.
“If I do it, I’ll rip the thing off.” His darkened gaze meets mine in a challenge for dominance or a challenge to make him do it. I don’t know.
A part of me is tempted to let him, but the other part just pulls the shirt over my head and throws it somewhere beside me. I’m lying in front of Aiden in my white bra and underwear.
I should be feeling embarrassed considering that he’s the first to see me this way, but I’m not.
If anything, I’m meeting his challenging gaze with one of my own.
Because he’s not done. He’ll never be done taking things from me. If I give him one, he takes ten.
His heated gaze travels up and down my half-naked body like whips of fire. I try to ignore it and fail miserably.
“Remove the bra,” he orders, meeting my gaze.
This time, I don’t move.
“Last chance, Elsa.” His lips curve into a smirk.
No matter how much I like the sound of my name out of his mouth, I don’t let it sway me.
Instead, I glare at him. Like we’re back to that time where we had glaring battles from afar.
I miss those times.
At least back then, he was simply an arsehole.
Now, he’s an arsehole who knows all the buttons to push in my body.
Aiden reaches to my back and yanks the bra free.
His eyes fill with overwhelming lust. My head turns away. I might not be embarrassed about my body, but the scar is another story.
The scar is my disgrace.
The key to my Pandora’s Box.
Aiden crawls atop of me, supporting himself on his palms and places kisses along my scar. Shock reverberates beneath my skin and tears fill my eyes.
“Stop that!” I don’t like the vulnerability.
Of all people, Aiden doesn’t get to see me bare, both body and soul.
“Too bad you don’t call the shots tonight.” He grins before his mouth goes back to worshipping my scar, his stubble tickling against the skin.
I try to push him. His index and thumb latch around a nipple and squeezes. Hard. I cry out as a zap of intense pleasure and pain pools between my thighs.
Aiden lifts his head with a smirk. “You like that, don’t you?”