Page 42 of Damon

"That's what I thought," he says quietly.

"This doesn't mean I'm yours."

"Then prove it. Leave. Walk out that door. Go back to your room and pretend this never happened."

We stare at each other, and I sense the challenge in his dark eyes. He's calling my bluff, making me prove that I can walk away from him.

The problem is, I don't want to walk away.

"I can't," I whisper.

"Why not?"

"Because it did mean something."

"Not good enough, princess. If you want to stay in this room, if you want to keep playing this game, you need to be honest with me. About why you lied. About what last night really meant to you. About what you want from me."

I take a shaky breath. "I want you to want me again."

"I already do, but you can barely walk."

"Then why are you being such an ass about this?"

"Because you lied to me, and I don't like being lied to. Because if we're going to do this again, we're doing it honestly."

"Do what again?"

"Fuck," he says bluntly.

The crude word makes heat pool low in my belly. "Is that what you want?"

"Among other things. I want to find out what else you haven't done. I want to teach you things. Everything, slowly,taking my time. I want to be the only man who ever touches you."

"That's possessive."

"Yeah, it is."

"I should hate that."

"But you don't," he states with certainty.

"No," I admit. "I don't."

"Good. Because like it or not, Viviana, you're marked as mine now. And I don't share."

The possessiveness in his voice should probably scare me. Instead, it sends a thrill through me that I can't deny.

"So what happens now?" I ask.

"Now you stop lying to me."

"And then?"

His smile is dark, dangerous. "Then I show you what it means to belong to someone like me."

And despite everything, despite the possessiveness, despite the fact that this is probably the most dangerous thing I could do – I want to find out.

I want to belong to him.