Page 22 of Bound By Betrayal

No.

Placing my palms on his chest, I pushed him back, and his kisses and counterthrusts slowed.

“Stop. Stop, please.”

“Baby, I stopped. But what’s wrong?”

“We can’t do this.” I got to my feet. “I have to get to bed anyway. I have a long day. Meeting with someone potentially connected to the ambush on the highway.”

I stood, attempting to catch my breath, when he grabbed my elbow and hauled me back.

“Repeat that again.”

“Pretty sure I was clear the first time.”

It was easier to be annoyed with him than resist fucking him, so I’d channel that.

“I heard you loud and clear, but I’m not quite understanding your logic.”

“Would you like me to grab some crayons and draw you a picture?”

His mouth twitched, and he swallowed his irritation. “A man who tried to murder you wants you to meet him tomorrow?”

“I’m glad you’re finally keeping up.”

“Amalia, stop. Enough with the bullshit. You’re not going.”

My laughter made him roll his eyes and sigh. “I think you might have had a little too much to drink because you’re absolutely delirious and out of line.” I poked his chest with my finger. “You don’t tell me what I can or can’t do. I don’t answer to you or anyone. The quicker you get that through that pretty head of yours, the better.”

Again, I attempted to leave, but he tugged me back a second time, my back flush to his chest while his arms locked around me.

“I don’t doubt you’re good at what you do, but you’re not bulletproof. You’re five-foot-nothing; when a man wants to take, he will.”

“Fuck you. Let me go.” I tried to break free, but he squeezed tighter to the point I could barely take a breath.

“All he needs to do is get you in the perfect hold.” His lips grazed my ear. “And you’re done.” I was one second from breaking his nose with the back of my skull, but the following words out of his mouth lit a fire in my belly. “No one touches what’s mine.”

I froze. “I’m not yours. And I can handle myself.”

“I know you can, and it’s sexy as fuck. But that doesn’t mean—”

A loud grunt left his lips when my elbow connected with his abdomen.

“It means everything.”

Kai doubled over, hands on his knees as he attempted to compose himself. “Okay…you got a cheap shot in.” His breaths were ragged. “But that’s not how it always goes down in the real world.”

“Let me apologize for the cheap shots to all the men who have died by my hand in the last decade.”

“You wanna do this?” he questioned, with a wild look in his eyes. As he ripped off his shirt, a grin pulled at the corner of his mouth.

“You like pain?” I asked, tugging my shirt over my head.

His eyes fell to my lacy red bra, and he licked his lips. “Sometimes it’s worth it.”

“It’s always worth it,” I added, then caught him with a right hook to his abdomen.

Kai was ready this time, abs tight, and only a slight grunt escaped. But fuck me if it wasn’t sexy.