“Are you trying to replace me?” She stepped back and it was over. The moment was gone.
My desire-tense body relaxed. I ran my hands over my face. There was no denying it now. I’d been caught red-handed. “Yes,” I admitted. “I’m looking for someone else who can help me get some information out of Dimitri.”
“Let me guess. You want someone more aggressive,” she accused me, hitting the nail right on the head.
“I don’t know if that’s necessarily what I want,” I lied to her. “But I feel like you’re hiding things from me,” I finally admitted to her, getting it off my chest. “I feel like there are things you don’t share.”
“You fucking bastard,” she hissed, still stepping away from me. The betrayal written all over her face was painful to see, more painful to know I was the one betraying her. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her. “Dimitri was right about you,” she yelled.
“Whoa, what?” I held up my hands, completely blindsided by her comment.
“He tried to tell me you were just using me, but I didn’t want to believe him.” Tears streamed down her face. She gripped her nightgown as she sobbed and cried out to me.
I wanted to grab her and pull her against me. I wished I could soothe her heartache. I was supposed to be the one trying to seduce her, not trying to stab her in the back, which was exactly what I was doing. There was no denying it.
“I told him he was wrong,” she continued. “I told him he didn’t know what he was talking about. I told myself he was just trying to confuse me. But no. I see now that he was right about you. You’re a monster!”
Her voice started cracking and growing louder. Soon, the neighbors would hear her screaming at me. I didn’t want that. In my line of business, drawing attention of any sort was usually a bad thing, and I didn’t need cops knocking on my door in the middle of the night to figure out the details of a domestic abuse accusation.
I approached her with my hands up, trying to catch her wrists. She started flailing her arms at me, landing a few hits on my shoulders and my chest before I was able to grip her and start pushing her back into the bedroom where we could talk.
“Get off me,” she fussed, almost growling in her rage.
“Julia, please,” I said calmly. “Calm down so we can talk about whatever is bothering you.”
“No. Let. Me. Go.” She pushed against me with her wrists. “I mean it, Gage. I’m done.”
I pushed her into the bedroom and pinned her against the wall.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
“I’m trying to subdue you, Julia. You’re acting crazy. You need to calm down,” I tried to convince her.
“You need to calm down,” she yelled in my face.
Holding her against the wall by her wrists, I pressed myself against her. The fighting and yelling was even turning me on for her. I pushed my body hard against her, holding her against the wall.
Even though she was still growling and spitting at me, when she felt the desire growing for her in my jeans, she spread her legs and rocked her hips against me, moaning as she rubbed herself along my growing erection.
I took both of her petite wrists in one hand above her head and wrapped my fingers under her chin, squeezing her mouth and pulling her to me for a kiss. Our lips met for the first time, and I could feel her body melt against the wall. Our mouths worked together, in unison, as our tongues darted out, furiously tangling and wrestling with each other.
I let go of her hands, and she wrapped her arms around my neck. I grabbed her hips and pulled her against me, really driving myself against her body. She moaned into my mouth. She rocked her hips against me, harder, more furiously.
Then, just as suddenly as it had all started, she shoved me away.
“Stay away from me,” she hissed. “I can’t believe you.”
She pointed a finger at me, holding me in my place as she backed through the doorway and started down the hall to the living room. But I wasn’t about to let her get away from me. I reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her back.
Julia turned and shot me a painful, stabbing look with her fiery eyes.
“I can’t believe you. Dimitri’s right about you. You’re just using me, just like you’re using him. You’re going to kill us both when you’re done.”
I let go and stepped back from her. “What are you talking about? Kill you? Are you out of your mind?”
“No, Gage. I was out of my mind when I agreed to help you, and when I agreed to let you hold me here against my will,” she snapped.