Graves’s stormy gaze traveled down the rest of her body until he yanked his eyes back up with a clenching of his jaw. His voice kept dropping and now it was a low, seductive rasp. “Just leave, Chlo.”
She rubbed her hands over the goose bumps he’d caused. “I just don’t understand. Are these the kinds of things you guys are into? Do you hit your women, Graves?”
He plunged his hands into his hair and circled around one time in desperation. “Jesus, I don’t hit women!”
“Then you just tie them up and what? Play with them?”
“I can’t do this with you, Chlo. Please. Get out of here. Now,” he hissed through his teeth, then he paced away only to come back and glare at her. “Please, damn you. I beg you.”
But his eyes … there was hunger there. Something primal, calling to something deep and intrinsic inside of her. She shook her head stubbornly, because she couldn’t leave … not so Graves could have another woman. Not when her body was crying out painfully for a measly touch from him. Not when she could see the unleashed power within him coiled in each and every straining muscle in his body. And not when she could see the storm of desire in those thick-lashed, flaming eyes.
Breathing with difficulty, she ran her tongue over lips, her nipples erect and pressing hard against her strapless dress as she kept glancing at the shiny silver handcuffs dangling from his pants pocket.
“Just tell me what you do that’s so wrong that you can’t do it with me,” she croaked out.
A long, thick silence stretched between them, then she watched as his fingers curled into trembling fists at his sides.
“I’m going to ignore you ever said that,” he said in a low, threatening voice that made her pussy even wetter. He grabbed her elbow and escorted her down the hall to the elevator, softly commanding, “All lights on.”
Yes, sir.
Suddenly bathed in an explosion of light, Chloe blinked, yanked her arm free, and whirled around to face him, setting her hands on the muscled wall of his chest.
“I want you, Graves. Please don’t send me away.”
He hissed like she’d burned him with her touch as he grabbed her wrists and lowered her hands, his face twisting with pain. “You don’t know what you’re asking, Chlo.”
“I want you so much I ache when I look at you. I know you want me, too, I see the way you look at me.”
“You think I look at you?” he scoffed angrily, then he curved his hands around her nape and wound his fingers into her hair, pulling her head back so their eyes met. “Maybe I do look—because what you’re wearing just begs me to. But you’re not my type. I don’t do innocent heiresses who dream about weddings. I don’t do my friends’ baby sisters.”
“You seriously plan to stand there and tell me you don’t want me? You can’t even look me in the eye anymore!” Disbelieving anger surged to the surface. “You’re a fucking pussy, Graves.”
“A pussy?” He massaged her scalp almost painfully and leaned in, his teeth clamped. “You’re right. I am. I’m a big wet pussy and I want to lick yours so bad, the need to scares the living daylights out of me. That’s right, Chlo. I want you so much you make me shake in my fucking pants. I’m obsessed with you … with where you are … and what you do … and who the fuck you’re with … I want to bury myself inside you so deep I won’t ever want to pull out.”
Her breath came in gasps, his sensuous words creating havoc in her. She was torn between latching onto those lips so close to hers and climbing him like a tree. She reached shaking hands to his shoulders, her vagina clenching tight. Her voice throbbed. “Please, Graves, I want you. I ache so much.”
“No, Chlo, this can’t happen.” He bit the inside of his cheek so hard, she could see he’d done some damage to himself before he stepped aside.
Chloe shook on unsteady feet as she watched him press a wood panel on the wall and grab her car keys from the compartment that opened. He came back and slapped them into her palm. “Drive safely and call me when you get home.”
A drop of blood from inside his mouth had gathered at the corner of his lips, and Chloe touched his lips on impulse.
“What happened? Why did you do that?” she asked, picking up the drop of blood with her fingertip. Then she did the unthinkable and licked the drop with her tongue. Graves seemed transfixed, and she could see his muscles contract on an indrawn breath, and she would never, ever, forget the lust-filled ecstasy in his eyes.
Heart galloping in her chest, she reached out to pick up another crimson drop.