Page 40 of The Prize

“Good.”

“However, I choose to continue with the plan.”

“Excuse me?”

“Leighton, you’re a distraction.”

“You’re impossible.”

Tobias turned and wrapped his fingers around my wrist and pulled me beneath the shower and said with a smile, “Sorry, Zara? What was that? Couldn’t hear you over the water.”

Beneath the downpour he nudged me against the tile and his hand rested on the right side of the wall near my head. “Do you want the truth?” He held me captive with those green irises sparkling with gold flecks. His eyes brimmed with passion.

I gave a wary nod peering up at him from behind soaked eyelashes.

“I seduced you. I brought you into my world. That day when you turned up at The Wilder Museum I tried to send you back to London. What did you do?”

“Refused to leave LA.”

“Exactly. You refused to stop hunting me. You followed me all the way into the flame. Which means I’m responsible for your life now. Your future.”

My hair and clothes were soaked and I squirmed against him. “We were having a nice conversation.”

“We still are.”

“No, this is what you do. You take charge and don’t let me have a say.”

“Have your say.”

“I’ve led them to you.”

He brushed water out of his eyes. “Do you forgive me for being Icon?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s your answer?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe you should go use your own shower.”

“Why?”

“If you stay in here one more second I’ll kiss you hard on the mouth—” His gaze snapped to my lips.

“And then?” My hands reached out to grab his shoulders and I dug my fingernails into toned muscle.

“If you don’t leave right now...”

Fighting this need for him, I turned my face away, refusing to show I was falling...

And falling...

I shoved at his chest because that was the problem—I cared too much and yielding was so, so easy. My eyelids squeezed shut as my entire being yearned for his touch.

“You’re going to have to help me out here.” He stepped aside. “Is that Zara for ‘fuck me hard, please’ or for ‘get out of my way’?”

“I told you,” I snapped. “You don’t get to kiss me.”