Page 33 of Triple the Secrets
“Iam not an easy man, Scarlett,” he told her harshly, needing her to understand. To see him for who he really was. “I’m dangerous, and you would do well to remember it. The only ones safe from me are women, children, and animals. I have killed men, I have done unthinkable things, and I embrace it. I enjoy it,” he added. She flinched slightly, but didn’t look away. “I have my club, I ride, party, and I fuck when the mood strikes. Those are the only things that matter. They keep me just sane enough that I won’t go off the deep end.
“Except that lately, I can’t do all of those things. I do more riding to your house than I do with my damn club. I don’t party because the only thing I can think of is how I want you and I to have our own little party. As for fucking, well, I haven’t fucked a woman since I laid eyes on you. You have no idea how much that pisses me off. You shouldn’t matter to me. I shouldn’t give a damn about whatever you’re running from or hiding. I should be able to sleep just fine and not give you a second thought. Instead, I come here every damn night, sit outside, and try to figure out what you’re hiding.
“Then I think about what has me falling under your damn spell. You have to be a witch or an angel sent down to tempt the demon, because I shouldn’t want you this much. I shouldn’t get fucking hard every time I look at you or think about you. I jerk off in the shower like a goddamn teenager. So, I need you to tell me whatever the fuck you’re running from so I can stop. So I can finally get you out of my head and move the fuck on to something else.”
“I am not your problem,” she hissed, eyes flashing. It should have amused him, but it just made his hunger for her rise even higher. “It’s not my fault you’re attracted to me. It wasn’t like I set out one day and thought ‘you know what, today seems like a good day to tempt a biker, and drive him fucking insane.’ Do you not understand how crazy that is?”
“Of course it’s fucking crazy,” he growled at her. “They don’t call me Rogue for nothing.”
“Is this your idea of seduction?” she asked abruptly. “Because you need to work on your technique.”
She was pushing him, and the darkness inside him rose at her words. He crowded her even further, until her back was arched against the counter, her breasts pressed against him, and his groin was pressed against her belly. Her eyes widened in shock, and she licked her lips nervously. He felt almost feral, staring down at her. “You are pushing me, Scarlett,” he said silkily. “Do not play with a man like me and push buttons you have no idea what to do with. I am every bit as dangerous in bed as I am out of it.”
“I’m starting to think you’re just trying to brag,” she hissed back. “Now get out of my face before I—”
He was moving before she was able to finish her sentence. She wanted to tempt him? Push him? He was going to let her see just what kind of monster she was toying with.
He grabbed her hips and spun her around so that she was leaning forward over it, his body pressed against her back. She gasped in shock, then in outrage, struggling until he slid his hand up to grip her throat, fingers flexing slightly. She stilled, her breathing loud and heavy in the silence. “What did I say about pushing me, Scarlett?” he whispered in her ear. She didn’t answer, but he felt her swallow under his hand. “I am nothing like any man you’ve ever been with. I will never submit and walk away if you challenge me. I will remind you I am in charge. That I’m in control, and I’m the one that holds your life in my hands when I have you like this.”
“Rogue,” she whispered, body trembling.
He moved his hand higher to cup her chin, turning it so he could see her face. If he was scaring her, maybe this would be enough to get him to leave her the fuck alone. Except it wasn’t fear that he saw. Sure, there was apprehension, but the heat in her eyes had his cock throbbing in his pants, and everything inside him screaming at him to show her every dark part of himself. “You think I can’t see that you’re everything I want but can’t have, Scarlett?” he said in a low, dark voice. “You are the very temptation that I can’t allow myself to have. Because I know the moment I have you, I’m going to never let you go. I’m going to own you. Mind, body, heart, and everything in between. There won’t be a place on this earth you could hide from me.” He squeezed her jaw, watching as her pupils dilated with pleasure and wariness.
“Then why are you still here?” she whispered. “If you know that, then you should stay very far away from me.”
“Because I’ve never been good at denying myself. No matter how much I want to stay away from you, I keep coming back. I see desire in your eyes that calls to me. The kind that only I can give you.”
“And if I don’t want you?”
His lips quirked up in a dark smile. “If you didn’t want me, then why are you letting me do this to you?” he taunted. He ground his dick into her ass. “You think I can’t feel your pounding pulse under my hands? Or see the heat in your eyes? If I put my hand on your pussy right now, I bet you would be soaked. Or maybe that’s what you want? You want to push me to take you so you don’t have to admit that you want me just as much as I want you? That you have a need that only I can sate?”
Her eyes flashed, but the desire in them didn’t lessen. Maybe he had been wrong. Maybe she was as dark in her sexual appetites as he was, and she was just waiting for him to give her what she wanted. Then she hissed, “Fuck you.”
He gave her a cool smile. He moved his hand back down to her throat and gripped it with just enough pressure to have her eyes widening. “Do not wave a red flag at a charging bull, baby,” he mocked. “Or I will give you exactly what you’re begging for.” Then he let her go and stepped away. He needed the space between them before he did something stupid. He had lost his head enough already.
Slowly she turned and stared at him. He could just make out the faint red marks from his hand on her throat, and it filled him with a primal satisfaction. He itched to know what she would do if he did it to her in bed, when she was just about to fly over that edge. Would it heighten the sensations? Would she panic? Something told him it wouldn’t be the latter.
“What are you running from?” he asked her calmly.
She blinked at him, obviously shocked at his abrupt change of subject. Good. Maybe it would throw her off guard enough for her to be honest with him. “Seriously?” she rasped at him. “You went from telling me you wanted to fuck me with your hand around my throat, back to demanding to know what I’m running from?”
“That’s why I’m here,” he said calmly, even if he was feeling anything but. “It’s that or I take you upstairs and fuck you senseless.”
She blinked at him. “I don’t understand you,” she said in exasperation. “Why me, Rogue? Can you at least tell me that? Why do you need to know? Why are you doing any of this when you obviously would rather do anything else?”
“Hell if I know. It started as nothing more than needing to know if you were a danger to the kids or the club. Then I realized you were running from something, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. Then you stood there, running that pretty mouth, and all I could think was that you needed a man to show you the darker side you crave. And I wanted that man to be me.”
He could tell his words shocked her. Hell, they shocked him too. He never planned to be that honest, but it was on the table, and he didn’t want to take it back. Maybe it would get her to open up to him. Only problem was, if she did, what would he do next?
Scarlett moaned and scrubbed her hands over her face in frustration. “Goddamn it. Why did the first man to be interested in me in years have to be you? Why couldn’t it have been a damn accountant or a nice, sweet man who spends his time at the local animal shelter or something?”
He snorted. “You’d have been bored in a week.”
She glared at him. “As opposed to your brand of fun?” she sneered. “I can’t for the life of me understand why you would think I would pick you.”
“That smartass mouth is going to get your ass spanked, Scarlett,” he warned her. His patience was wearing thin.
“I am so sick and tired of men using that as a threat,” she seethed, eyes going dark and dangerous as she moved towards him. Her entire body trembled with her anger, and he knew this was an important moment. He watched her. “You think you’re the first to threaten me with violence? To make me submit?” Her voice is like a whip. “I have faced down worse men than you and they have never broke me. If you think you can, then you’re going to be in for a damn surprise.”
