Page 83 of Bargaining

She ground against me and clawed at the table. “You said I never had to beg you for anything.”

“Orgasms are the exception.” I stilled with my thumb on her clit, pressing lightly. “Admit that you’re mine.”

“Fuck! You’re a maniac. Just get on with it. Anyone could walk in here.”

“That just makes it more exciting, doesn’t it?” I pushed into her again in one long, slow stroke, getting off on her squirming. “Tell me you’re mine. Tell me you’re not faking.”

She slipped her fingers down to her clit, but I held her wrist by her side. “You don’t get to come yet.”

Her eyes widened in shock, and her whole body shook. “You’re not serious?”

“Deadly. Tell me. Say the fucking words,” I instructed.

She frowned. “That’s not what we agreed.”

Her defiance only made me want to pound her into submission. I grabbed her ass, lifting and holding her wide open for me,and drove my cock deep. I punctuated each word with a merciless thrust. “Tell” thrust “me” thrust “you’re” thrust “mine.”

“Oh God,” she moaned.

“God’s not going to help you, Charlotte. Only you can help yourself by saying the words.”

A red flush climbed her neck. She ground against me desperately. The feeling of her tight, hot pussy throbbing around me was going to fucking destroy me. She was giving herself to me, whimpering and shaking. But it wasn’t enough unless I heard her say it.I don’t care about control. I don’t care about anything but you. What will it take to bring you back to me?

“This doesn’t feel fake to me.” I was going to come any second, but I needed the answer. “Does it feel fake to you? Please. Don’t make me fucking beg. Just put me out of my misery and tell me. What is it going to take for you to forgive me, Charlotte?”

She writhed on her back on the paint-stained table, her fingernails digging into the wood. She spoke between desperate gasps of air. “It’s not fair to conduct negotiations with your cock inside me.”

I thrust into her in sharp, rapid strokes, looking down to take in the view as I pounded her. I fucked her like we could fuck the building to the ground around us, like I could fuck her hard enough to make up for all the ways I’d hurt her, and forget everything that had come before.

I rubbed her clit firmly with the pad of my thumb. A series of agonized cries left her lips. Her orgasm face tipped me over the edge with her. We came together, breathing hard and panting. I pulled out and lifted her to face me, perched on the edge of the table. My lips found hers and we kissed in a clash of tongue and desperation. I rested my forehead against hers and tried to slow my breathing. None of it was fake. Not to me. Every moment with her felt like the only thing in my life that truly wasn’t.

Chapter 37

Charlotte

“I hope you’re happy. I’m never going to get this clay out of my hair,” I called through the bathroom door.

I sank deeper into the enormous tub, letting the hot water soothe the ache between my thighs. Cole popped his head around the door. His eyes raked over me, and I covered myself with my hands.

“What are you doing? Get out.”

Slowly, he rolled the sleeves of his pale-blue shirt to the elbows. “Relax. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

I threw a sponge at him. “You can’t just come in here when I’m in the bath. Get out. Shut the door behind you.”

He dodged the sponge, walked to the gigantic tub, and kneeled down at the side of it. “Come here.” He grabbed a jug from the cabinet underneath the sink. “I’ll help you. Sit up.”

I didn’t have the energy to argue after what had happened between us in the pottery studio. Also, I genuinely needed the help, or I’d be picking dried clay out of my hair for days. I did as he commanded and sat upright in the water, covering my breasts.

Lathering his hands with shampoo, he began washing my hair.

“You don’t have to cover yourself.” Carefully, he massaged the shampoo in with perfect pressure. Yes, I did. I’d lost my mind in the pottery studio. Now, I had to scrape back some control. The lush coconut scent filled my nose. Closing my eyes, I surrendered to his touch. The tension left my body, like the hot steam curling from the tub. I couldn’t help my sigh of pleasure.

“Feels good?” His voice was a velvet murmur.

Like you have to ask. He had to know I was wrapped around his little finger. I’d just thrown every one of my inhibitions away and let him have me in such a compromising position. Anyone could have walked in and seen us. That had been the wildest thing I’d ever done, but I’d been powerless to resist. “So good.”

“I’ve been thinking about what you said before.”