small room gets very still. “I’m not. You suddenly have a problem with me doing my job?”
He comes up behind me where I’m sitting at the table, his crotch way the hell too close to my face. “Do I need to remind you of the noises you made? How easily my fingers slipped inside you, yet how tight you were when they were knuckle-deep? You don’t deny fire like that. You know as well as I do how rare it is. And for you to just dismiss it like it’s nothing… It fucking pisses me off.”
Damn him, he always knows how to get me. I used to be under the impression that he was clueless. But I’m starting to think he might know me too well.
When he brushes my hair off my shoulder, I spring to my feet and launch myself across the room. I need distance. If he starts touching me, it’s game over.
“Don’t,” I tell him weakly. I can already feel myself slipping. “You don’t understand what this means for me. ‘It’s just sex’ can’t apply to this situation. I’d be putting everything on the line, Ryder.”
His muscles flex, no doubt sensing a chink in my armor. “I would protect you. For Christ’s sake, I wouldn’t put your career in jeopardy like that. Despite what you think, I’m not a complete bastard. I’ve never wanted anything bad for you, Gretchen.”
Now I know how meerkats at the zoo feel. I’m trapped in this tiny room with him and nowhere to go. It’s like an escape room with no clues for how to get out.
He stalks me around the room—predatorily—intentionally keeping himself between me and the door. Determination is tattooed clearly on his ruggedly handsome face. With no options, I end up standing in front of the two-way mirror, my back to Ryder.
Just because I’m going down doesn’t mean I have to stare into the face of my doom.
Banding his arm across my waist, he hauls me back against his chest, his stiff manhood pressing against my ass. “If you keep rejecting me,” he whispers in my ear, “make it about not wanting anything to do with this.” He punctuates his words with a thrust of his hips. “Not because you’re too scared to go after something you want.”
I bristle at the accusation. “I’m not scared. I’m being smart.” For once.
It’s the first time in my life that sensibility has reigned supreme over sex, which is something I’ve never been afraid of before. But everything with Ryder is different. It’s new. It’s—
Okay, yeah, it’s scary.
His hands curl around my arms and squeeze. “You’re being safe. And that’s not the Gretchen I know.”
But how much do you really know?
He eases his grip a bit when I don’t respond. “I know why you’re resisting, duchess. I get it and I respect you for it.” His next words come out shaky. “But I’m fucking dying here. Everything was different before last week. It wasn’t easy, but it was…manageable. Now, it’s not even containable.”
When I squeeze my eyes shut, I wish I could squeeze my ears shut, too. Just block him out. Block out the truth of his words, the graveness of his tone. He practically stole the words right out of my mouth and it infuriates me.
The air between us shifts.
The energy swirling around our bodies becomes highly charged as he awaits my acquiescence…or my retreat.
With every second that ticks by, the steel vault protecting everything inside me that I hold dear—like my unwavering resolve when I’ve made up my mind about something—cracks open a millimeter further. He’s burrowing his way beneath my skin, like the gofer digging holes in your backyard that you can’t get rid of.
Actually, Ryder is more like the bear trap I’m wittingly stepping into.
What the hell kind of person voluntarily steps into a goddamn bear trap?
“If we do this,” I find myself saying without processing the words, “it’s a one-off thing. One time to burn through this, and then we go back to the way things were.”
Every muscle in his body locks up behind me. His hands begin to tremble, though I can’t tell if it’s from excitement or…anger. Why would me offering no-strings sex make him angry? You’d think, as a man, he’d be rejoicing.
“What if once doesn’t cut it?” he bites out.
“It’ll have to.”
“Counterproposal. One night. An entire night to do whatever I want.”
“And what about what I want?”
He takes a deep inhale of my hair. “Consider this the one occasion where I won’t fight you