Page 45 of The Broken Note

“It’s too late for regrets, Cadey.” His eyes are sharp, studying me with calculation. As if every step was predetermined. As if he’d known, before I walked into this room, exactly how he was going to trap me and exactly how I was going to fall for it.

“The only thing I regret is meeting you,” I whisper arrogantly.

He snaps my wrist and pulls my left arm to rest on the back of the sofa. In this position, I’m leaning even deeper into his hip. With the heat of Dutch’s body wedged between my thighs, it feels like my skin is about to melt off.

“I don’t know when it started for me,” Dutch purrs. A hint of his cologne swirls in the air between us and makes my already heightened senses turn delirious. He smellsso good.“I don’t know the exact moment I fell for you, but I know that I did and I know it wasn’t random.” His eyes flash, endless honey. Sharp golden pools. “This is real.”

“You never fell for me. You fell for a fantasy. For someone you thought you could control.”

“Control?” His voice is a violently beautiful husk, like a predator luring his prey in for the kill.

I tremble, even though the sun is draped over my back and the tension in the air is thick enough to start a fire.

He chuckles. “You disobey every one of my orders.”

“Who the hell gave you the right to issue orders?”

Our eyes lock. I narrow mine in anger.

He stays where he is, waiting, holding my gaze. “I don’t want to tame you. Not anymore. But I also want to make myself clear. Whether you keep the ring or not doesn’t matter to me. You were mine, even before the handcuffs.”

“Bastard.” I wield my free hand at him.

He captures it and smiles. “Keep that up and I’ll start confiscating your clothes as punishment.” Dutch leans in close and whispers, “Starting with your panties.”

A flood of heat rushes my body, but I scowl at him, refusing to let him see. “You think I won’t fight?”

“That doesn’t scare me.” His eyes run down the length of my body before returning to my face. “If you weren’t such a fighter, you wouldn’t have lasted this long at Redwood Prep. And you wouldn’t have caught my attention.”

My lips and tongue start to tingle as his gaze caresses my mouth. Dutch releases my hands and returns both of his to my hips. His cocky demeanor, his certainty that I won’t slap him or push away, makes my body tighten with fury. He’s so sure of himself and it pisses me off.

“You still haven’t proven your point, Cadey.” He tuts. “I’m not convinced.”

Fire and anger burn through my veins. I can’t retreat. If I do, it’ll prove that he has a hold on me.

I grip his collar in my tight fingers, desperate to show him that I’m not his pony. I’m not his property. I’m not his to own.

I’m my own person.

And I can take what I want too.

I drag him toward me. “Your words mean nothing, Dutch. Not to me. Not anymore.” I lean forward, but Dutch stops me, gripping my jaw in his tight fingers.

His eyes cut me to my soul. More black than amber. More beast than man.

The full extent of his brutality is rising to the surface, held back with only a thin thread of restraint. If I push him, if I take that next step, he won’t be gentle.

And that excites me rather than terrifies me.

I must really have lost my mind.

“Why are you dragging this out?” I snap. “Shut up and let me prove how much I hate you.” I grind my hips down. “Unless you’re the one who can’t handle it.”

His fingers dig harder into my face. “I don’t have protection.”

It’s scary that I wasn’t even thinking of that. It really didn’t affect me as much as my need to feel his body filling mine.

“Who said I was going to take my clothes off?” I lean in to press my mouth to his.