my cheek, a gentle touch. “If protecting you was wrong, then it is what it is. You were wild, Adeline-“
“Which is why I needed to grow up!”
He blinks at the interruption. “Which is why you needed to be smarter, but you were young. I saw past that. I watched out for you.”
“You stalked me! How can you not see the problem with all of this? What kind of devil are you that you can think any of this is acceptable?”
Grey eyes glimmering, he brushes a thumb over my bottom lip, his gaze locking to it for a moment before lifting to mine again.
Ari’s voice is a deep vibration over my skin when he answers, “I guess that’s the thing with enticing a devil to love. We’ll go to the depths of Hell for you without any concern for whether it’s right or wrong.”
Another brush of the pad of his thumb over my mouth and I shiver at the feel of it, my anger bleeding out while something else takes over. I’m suddenly hyperaware of the feel of his fingers on my wrists, the masculine scent of him that is a balm to my soul. The weight of him against my body, the heat that rolls over my skin from where he leans over me.
I want to hate him. Fear him. Be angry at him for what he’s done.
Ari has always been a presence I wasn’t aware I knew about. A freaking shadow hovering over me, fighting for me, watching out for all the other dangers staring me in the face.
Still, it doesn’t make sense.
“Why me? Why not some other woman?”
A slow blink, dark lashes framing eyes that should be illegal, his mouth pulling into that arrogant smirk that does crazy things to my body.
“Are you kidding me? Give me the name of some other woman like you. You’ve been a pain in my ass, Adeline. For far too fucking long. Don’t play stupid that you don’t know you’re different from the rest. You’ve filled out a hundred journals about it. Your pen shredding paper about finding someone who can see all your crazy thoughts and secrets and want you because of them. You’re fucking nuts. But so am I. So, now you have that man staring you in the face and you want to question him about it? All those parts that Grant wanted to strip from you were the parts I loved. And I’m giving them back. Because you aren’t you without them.”
Tears roll down my cheeks, partly because of the adrenaline still choking me, but also because I shouldn’t feel this way about a man who has done so much wrong.
But I can’t help it. I can’t deny it. Parts of me burn when Ari touches me. The anxiety quiets, and it feels right in a way that is so utterly wrong.
He stares at me silently, his gaze tracing the lines of my face.
“Are you done fighting me now?”
I want to be. But there’s something inside me that won’t stop. Something that keeps telling me this is so insanely wrong that I’d be an idiot to accept it.
“No,” I whisper, both hating and loving how the answer returns the smile to his face.
“Good,” he croons, his voice a seductive purr. “I like it when you fight.”
His mouth brushes mine and I snap my teeth at him. It only makes him smile more. Fingers locking over my jaw to keep me from doing it again, he bites down on my bottom lip, licking the sting before kissing me so deep that I’m helpless to the slide of his seductive tongue against mine.
Ari breaks the kiss and stares down at me, something unsaid curving his lips in a tempting tease. My pulse pounds in my throat, the rush of blood like thunder in my head until he releases my wrists and pushes to his feet.
Confused why he would let me go, I crawl back, my hands searching for anything to throw at him even if I know he’ll just dodge it.
Despite the fight we’ve already fought, Ari looks perfectly put together, so damn beautiful that I’m angry with myself for noticing.
Eventually, I find the strength to stand up, to back away. The way he stares at me sends a dark shiver down my spine because I know he’s waiting for me to attack.
I run away instead, my feet slipping over the floor as I round the corner into the hall leading to my room, my shoulder slamming against the wall