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She frowns at my sharp tone. “I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

“Does it have anything to do with that email you were reading just now?”

She tries to jerk out of my hold, but I don’t let her. “What is with you and prying?” she snarls, but the edge of her voice quivers again.

That barely detectable echo opens a fissure inside me, and emotion I recognize as concern fizzles outward. It’s unsettling enough to make me growl, “Answer me, Keely.”

“Why?”

“Because—” I stop when the woman being double penetrated on the lounger across the bar starts squealing like an overeager porn star. “Dammit, let’s get the hell out of here.”

I pull her to my side and clamp my arm around her, prepared to frog march her out of there if necessary. To her credit, she comes along willingly.

I don’t stop until we reach the elevator. The moment it shuts behind us, she glares at me. “What did you see?” she demands.

Keeping her locked to my side, I press her against the wall. “Why? What does it matter?” I toss back.

“It matters a great deal that you’re reading my personal correspondence! It’s a huge invasion of privacy.”

“Are you sure you want to talk about invasion of privacy?” I ask softly.

Her eyes widen, then cloud over as she stares up at me. “You know.”

“About you standing outside the cinema room in my house at three in the morning on Sunday? Yes, I know.”

I say nothing else, and questions fill her eyes. I have her on the back foot and I can’t help it. I press home my advantage.

“We can talk about you invading my privacy. We can talk about what I did or didn’t see on your phone. Or we can talk about you coming back to my suite to open your present. Those are your only choices, and I think you’ll choose option three. You know why?”

“Enlighten me.”

“Because I don’t think you want this thing between us to be over. Not just yet. You enjoyed what we did too much to walk away, despite how I left things. Your feminine pride wants to make me suffer for that. Consider your punishment fulfilled.” I pull her hand over my rock-hard crotch so she feels her power over me. “I’ve lived with this for four days, Keely. I need you to take care of it. In return, I’ll give you what you need.”

Her hand slowly closes over me, and stars explode across my vision. “And what exactly do you think I need?” she asks huskily.

“You need a man to own you. Completely. To make you forget whatever is on that email that you want to forget. And you want to forget, don’t you, baby?”

Her eyelids flutter, and she looks away from me, but her hand keeps its grip on me. “Maybe, but?—”

“Let me be that guy. I’ll do an exemplary job.”

The elevator door opens. We both ignore it as she lets out a slightly strained laugh. “Wow. Is this where I fall at your feet like you predicted?” Her head tilts to one side. “You probably won’t believe me, but I’m falling at your feet right now… in my head. Now if only I could get my body to actually follow through?—”

“It’s where you stop being a smart ass for a second so we can work this out.”

Her chin lifts and Titanium Keely is back. “Work it out? Why would I want to do that? Whatever it is you think I want from a man, I’ll be a fool to consider you for the job. Even if I were under any illusions, your little note made things more than clear.”

I lean in closer until her hand is squashed between my crotch and her pelvis. The friction is a little too much to bear. I breathe deep and try to focus. “Shut the hell up for a minute and think about what you saw in that room, Keely. Did you really expect me to carry on blithely after that?” I ask, my voice a hard bite intended to impart that the subject is only a point-making one, and not an invitation to discuss.

Her face twists with a mixture of understanding and anger. “No, but I didn’t expect to be thrown out on my ass, either.”

I fist her hair and make sure she’s fully focused on me when I deliver the next statement. “Stop expecting me to behave like every other guy you’ve known. You know I’m not. Just as you’re nothing like any other woman I’ve known. Accept me for who I’m not and for what I cannot be for you, and take what I can be.”

“A Fuck God, come to rescue poor Keely from a path of sexless desolation?”

I trail my fingers over her racing pulse and her collarbone until I reach her erect nipple. I flick it with my nail and absorb her shudder. “A sexual dominant, who can make you forget whatever it is you’re running from. At least for a while.”

Her hand clenches around her phone, and for a moment, her face creases with utter fear and devastation. I bite my tongue to keep from demanding to know why.