Dollars (Dollar #2)(42)

Elder smiled as I slowed beside him. “We’ll see if you made the right choice soon enough.” His strong arm wrapped around me, the hardness of his bicep pressing against my spine. With the tiniest pressure, he corralled me forward into the glassed area where the lift waited.

His fingers branded me through the fine cotton. My heart suffered its final push, and the landmine exploded with shrapnel. The pieces fed into my bloodstream making every breath, twitch, and awareness of Elder Prest agonising.

Whenever he touched me, it was more than just a touch. It was possession. In every sense of the word. But it was never a threat. And I couldn’t unscramble how he could be one without the other.

Pressing the button to summon the elevator, he murmured, “I haven’t made a fuss of your lack of wardrobe while on Phantom. However, since you’re accompanying me on business, it’s time you grew accustomed to wearing clothes.”

I blanched at the thought of tight clinging material in the Moroccan heat. He’d switched my life upside down—torn everything I’d known into shreds. The air conditioners that’d dried out my skin and kept me chilled no longer existed on his yacht. The heat was dispersed by natural breezes with open balconies and portals.

I’d never stopped to think about why that was.

And just how much Elder had studied me. How did he make my knees tremble when he was close? How did he take a normal touch and turn it so weighty and hot and…dare I admit, delicious and not disgusting?

I tried to read him as he stared into my face, both of us seeking answers to whatever riddles the other caused.

Straightening my spine, I hugged the sheet tighter in delayed answer to his dressing command.

His eyes lingered on my collarbone, dipping to the small amount of visible cleavage. “Do you want to come?”

I narrowed my eyes.

The way his voice feathered over the word come made it a sexual not innocent question.

He already knew I’d go with him. That despite myself, I was excited to see new things and be around people and adventures.

He didn’t need an answer to his question. Especially the sexual connotation.

He only wanted me to respond.

Fine.

Cocking my chin, I sucked on my bottom lip. Two could play at this game.

I think.

His muscles locked as his eyes became obsessed with my mouth.

The power he granted as lust filled his gaze allowed me to step outside my self-imposed rules and nod.

Just once.

Yes, I want to.

He never looked away from the glisten left by my tongue on my lip. “See, replying wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Hard physically? No. Hard psychologically? Yes. A thousand times yes, especially when he looked at me as if he was no longer a man but a ravenous beast with an appetite for mute prisoners...

“I like it when you respond.” His voice was ash and rubble. He swallowed hard. “Let’s try another question. Do you want to come? Or do you want to come?”

That isn’t a yes or no answer.

But I’d keep playing. I’d pretend I was mentally strong enough to flirt, even if the tangled heat he caused couldn’t retrain my brain from withdrawing in horror at the thought of his fingers on my breasts, his hands dropping down my body, his cock pushing inside my—

I gulped, squeezing my eyes against the lewd picture in my head.

I thought I was strong enough.

I’m not.

Not yet.

Elder sighed heavily as I stiffened in his hold. “For a second, I saw someone I wanted—someone capable of withstanding what I need.” He let me go as the lift chimed and opened wide. “Pity she’s gone again.”

His words were visible things. Four words, four fingers swatted across my cheek.

He’d told me I was weak before. He told me I was broken. But that was to earn a reaction from me. This…it was just a statement of truth.

It ripped out my heart and threw it overboard as chum.

“Are you coming?” Elder stepped into the elevator, holding the doors as they tried to close. “Time to dress.”

Whatever heat he’d sparked simmered into smarting discord. I held my chin high and stalked into the lift.

The doors hissed closed, trapping every unsaid animosity and desire tight around us.

Elder exhaled through his nose, his gaze bouncing from the mirrored door to mine.

Don’t say anything.

Let me go to my room without another figurative slap in the face.

My request went unanswered. He lowered his jaw, watching me beneath his brow. The fact the mirror was a third party, linking our eyes while standing side by side didn’t stop the spiralling heat from rekindling and crackling all over again.

He breathed, “Last night was…interesting.”

I swallowed as his gaze dropped to the sheerness of my sheet. “It erased a few of your walls. We should do it again sometime.”

A strange intoxication filled my veins until I swore my blood had turned to wine, filtering through my heart, making it drunk.

My knees locked as he bit his lip, the mirror showing every etch of his face, every shadow of his throat and jaw.

How much longer would I have to stand in this electrifying torture chamber with him?

My nostrils flared as his hand moved to capture a corner of the sheet. He never turned to face me, but his face darkened. “Don’t hate me for what I said before. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”