Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(168)

She needed to take charge or she would make a complete fool of herself. “Look, Weston, you turned down my offer.”

He turned lazily, one hand coming up to balance his head. He looked like a pinup in a women’s magazine—all lean and predatory lines. She could see the write-up in her head. Simon likes tea, Scotch and eating subs for breakfast. His turn-offs include everything that comes out of Chelsea Dennis’s mouth. “Are you talking about your very charming offer to use my body to lose your virginity?”

She hadn’t put it like that. “You don’t want me. I get it. So let’s keep things simple. I hired you. I’m the boss. I’m going to see if I can rent the room next to this one and that can be yours.”

He didn’t move. He didn’t have to. She saw the way his eyes narrowed and then his voice came out, low and in that perfect upper-crust British accent that made her nipples hard. Her nipples were really stupid and she wished they didn’t like him so damn much. “You’re under a grave misapprehension, Chelsea. You are not my boss and you did not hire me. You came to me with a problem and I told you I would solve it. I believe I also mentioned that I was in charge and that was the only way I do this for you. So you will take off your clothes and you will get into this bed and you will sleep beside me tonight. I explained this to you when you signed the bloody contract. Do I need to explain what the word submissive means?”

Tears pricked her eyes. He was so damn unfair. She had to wonder if she would ever find a man who didn’t want to punish her. “You forced me to sign that contract.”

Now he moved, rolling to the side of the bed and getting to his feet with pure predatory grace. “I did nothing of the kind.”

He seemed very willing to revise history. She wasn’t about to let him forget. “If I hadn’t signed your contract, you would have let me die.”

He sighed, a long-suffering sound. “I certainly would not and if you think that’s true then you don’t know me at all. Perhaps I should do exactly what I should have done in the first place, what I would have done if you hadn’t signed the contract.”

That was worse than letting her die. “Please don’t call Ian.”

His shoulders weren’t so straight as he turned and stared at her. “You’re reckless, Chelsea. If I give up even a moment’s control, I’ll lose you and I can’t stand the thought of that. The only way to save you is to be your Master and the only Master you’ll accept is not the kind I want to be.”

“And what kind do you want to be?”

“Indulgent. Loving. Kind. I want a sub who obeys me in the field because she understands I would never let anyone hurt her. I want the play to just be play. I want a sub who trusts me with her body, who wants me and not just some faceless Dom who’ll work her over and then walk away. And I certainly don’t want to be a curiosity.”

She felt embarrassment flash through her system. If she could take back that first night’s utter idiocy she would. She should have known he wouldn’t want her. Not like that. “I get it. I got it when you turned me down the first time. I can get into bed with you because you won’t touch me.”

He was suddenly in her space. He’d moved so quickly she wasn’t sure how he’d gotten there. One minute there was a bed between them and the next she was backing up until she hit the wall because he was stalking her. She’d gone as far as she could go, but he kept coming. He loomed over her, using every one of his six feet two inches. “I’ve tried to be polite about this, but you don’t want that, do you? You don’t want me to be a gentleman about this. You want me to take you because then you’ll bloody well get it over with and you can put me in the same box with all the other men who hurt you and used you and cast you aside. I would be just one more villain who did something to you.”

“I never said that.”

“You don’t have to. I understand you, Chelsea. You can’t comprehend that, but I do. I understand you like no other man will. So I understand that I have to explain certain things to you.” He moved closer until his mouth hovered above hers, his heat sinking into her skin. “I’m going to tell you how this is going to go. We’ll get into that bed and I’m going to put my hands on you and I’m going to put my mouth on you. I’m going to taste you. I swear by the time you get out of that bed in the morning, you’re going to know what it feels like to come against my tongue. That screaming you heard as we walked in, you’re going to make that girl’s orgasm sound like the squeaking of a mouse. But the one thing you won’t get is my cock. You won’t get that because I’m not going to take your virginity because you’re curious. I’ll take it when you can’t think about anything but me. I’ll take it when you cry out my name and tell me there’s no other man you’ll ever love the way you love me. Then and only then will I take what belongs to me. Am I understood?”

She managed to nod.

He took a step back and she immediately missed his heat. His hands went to the buttons on his shirt. “Then take off those bloody clothes and get in bed.”

With shaking hands, she started to undress.