to get yourself off.”
My hips move of their own volition, and it doesn’t take much, not when I open my eyes and look down my body to see his grey stare watching me with complete fascination.
Ari has conquered me, and he is savoring the view of a woman who can’t stop.
The orgasm hits and my head falls back, my fingers gripping tighter over the counter’s edge, my chest arching as he slides a hand up my stomach and over my ribs to take possession of my breast.
Fingers of staggering strength, he adds pain to the pleasure, his punishing grip creating an electric line of sensation between my breast and between my legs.
I’m shaking as stars burst behind my eyes, as the rush of blood through my body becomes white noise inside my head. My body is shattering apart and stitching back together again, sounds crawling up my throat that I’m not sure I’ve ever made before.
And when the aftershocks settle and I’m released from the storm of this man’s pleasure, Ari wraps his hand in the front of my dress, drags me up, locks his other hand behind my head and kisses me with such passion that it steals my breath, his mouth slick against mine from the orgasm he’d forced through me.
Pulling away, he presses his forehead to mine, his fingers tangling in my hair as our stares lock.
“Did you taste that?” he asks, temptation swirling behind eyes of the lightest grey.
Chest heaving with the struggle for air, I ask, “Taste what?”
His lips curl, not into a smile. Not him. But enough to let me know he’s just won this game. “How sweetly you surrender.”
My eyes clench shut and open again as he relaxes his hold on my dress, his fingers sliding down a lock of my hair to pull it over my shoulder. Studying the ends, he shakes his head.
“You’re gorgeous regardless, but I’m not a fan of the new length.” His eyes lift to mine. “Was the cut something you chose, or another demand by your husband?”
The comment stabs through me, anger flaring through my body to extinguish every lingering effect of the orgasm.
He grins as if that was his intent, to stab, to twist the knife as a reminder of why he is here.
Stepping away from me, his wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and straightens his sleeve cuffs, platinum cufflinks glimmering beneath the kitchen light.
“I hate to cut this short, but I have plans tonight, and they don’t include being here. I only showed up because it was surprising that you took no time to reach out.”
He crosses the room to the door, his hand gripping the handle as he turns to look at me.
“Be sure to send me the information for dinner tomorrow night. I’m looking forward to it.”
Hands fisting, I narrow my eyes on him, my body so tense I might snap. “You still plan on investing in my husband’s company?”
Ari sighs, tilts his head. “I plan on hanging around until I get what I want.”
But he just got what he wanted. Maybe not fully, but I hadn’t been the one to stop him. How fucking dare he keep this shit up?
“What do you fucking want?” I seethe.
Another of those enigmatic grins as he opens the door to step into the night.
“For you to stop lying.”
Fear slams into me, a line of ice chasing down my spine. “You want me to tell Grant I cheated on him, don’t you?”
He shakes his head, the evocative gleam of his hair so black that he blends with the shadows around him. All except those eyes. Ari can’t hide those. They glimmer like silver beneath the light that pours through the door.
“I don’t give a damn about what Grant knows.”
“Then what am I lying about?”
He stares at me for a few silent seconds.
“Everything else,” he finally answers before shutting the door and walking off to let the shadows consume him.
The guilt of what I just did sinks in, my thoughts becoming clearer now that his beguiling presence is gone. Jumping off the counter, I run to the door to chase him down and scream, but he’s gone by the time I reach it, nothing but darkness stretching into the expanse.
Tears prick my eyes, both angry and sad, my shoulders withering with defeat because I know he has me cornered.
Giving into the sobs that bubble up my throat, I slide to the ground and press my head against the cool glass of the door.
I’m ruined.
Torn