Page 12 of Wicked Games
“Do not say my name in a patronizing tone of voice, you smug, son of a thieving whore.”
“You don’t need to insult my mother, Ryder. I assure you she isn’t involved.” I quelled the smile trying to spread across my face. Beneath Ryder’s fury simmered an emotion much stronger and so profound it vibrated off him. I recognized the emotion, and my dick began hardening in response. Lust.
“Fine,” he snarled. “Take me back to your hotel room. Let’s get this over with.”
Ryder said nothing else until we arrived at the hotel. “Really? You’re staying inside a museum? Talk about irony. Do you steal the towels and robes from the luxury hotels before you scurry out of town? Is your urbane polish nothing but a veneer?”
Ryder knew fully well the ways my inner beast and baser needs could make a person forget all about the polish that had initially caught their attention. I’d never felt bad about using my looks, charisma, or my body to get what I wanted until I met Ryder. Then each day became one regret after the other until my life was nothing more than a cold existence. I recognized the same loneliness when I looked into Ryder’s stunning blue eyes. I couldn’t remember a time when I hated myself more.
“Come on,” Ryder said irritably. “I have things I need to do this evening.”
Rage and lust were such a heady combination, and it was all I could do to keep from pushing Ryder up against the lift wall and giving him the reunion we both so badly wanted. I didn’t speak to him, and I kept my hands in my pockets to prevent myself from reaching for him until we arrived at my hotel room.Don’t cross the line again. You’ve caused him enough pain.
“Are we doing this or not?” Ryder challenged when my hesitance became obvious.
I made the mistake of looking at him. Ryder’s rage and lust had the same effect as an explosive orgasm. His face was flushed pink and his blue eyes looked hot enough to scorch me. His bottom lip looked swollen like he’d been chewing on it during our drive. As I stared at Ryder, the tip of his tongue darted out to soothe the offended flesh. Knowing I could be making the biggest mistake of my life, I unlocked the door and gestured for him to precede me into the room.
I locked the door and followed him inside. Ryder stopped when he reached the center of the suite then looked around the room. What did he hope to find? The vessel? Then he turned to face me, and with his eyes locked on mine, Ryder began unbuttoning his suit jacket. He tossed it on the sofa and quirked a brow like he wanted me to do the same.
I took off my black leather jacket and laid it over a piece of modern metal art doubling as a bar stool. I could still convince myself we were only going to talk until Ryder deftly removed his cuff links and carefully placed them on the stained-glass coffee table.
“I’d appreciate it if you don’t steal my cuff links when my back is turned. They were a gift from my grandfather.”
“I didn’t bring you here to fuck you,” I said, walking toward him. “I wanted to—”
Moving faster than I knew he could, Ryder reared back and punched me in the face. I automatically reached for my nose and was shocked when I saw there wasn’t any blood on my hand. My lips throbbed and felt like they would split in two if I so much as twitched them, but it didn’t stop me from roaring, “Fuck!”
The second punch was just as fast and landed in my solar plexus, knocking the wind right out of me. I doubled over, right hand bracing myself on my knee while I wrapped my left arm protectively over my stomach to prevent him from landing another blow. I tilted my head and watched him from beneath my eyelashes. I’d let Ryder have those two shots, but I wouldn’t allow a third to land.
“I would’ve kicked you in the balls, but I have plans for them. I want my pound of flesh, and I want it right-fucking-now, Lucien.”
SEB…LUCIEN LOOKED AT MEthrough narrowed eyes like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It should’ve shamed me how good my throbbing knuckles felt and how disappointed I was I hadn’t bloodied his nose. What kind of animal must I be to get turned on by a liar, a cheater, and a thief? How was it that feeling my hand connect with his flesh in a fit of rage was more intimate than having the waiter’s tight ass clenching my cock the previous night?
I stalked toward Lucien and towered over where he’d remained doubled over to catch his breath. “Stand up,” I ordered. “I haven’t even started with you yet.”
Lucien did as I demanded. There wasn’t an ounce of apprehension on his face when he licked his lips hungrily. He stood his ground when I lunged forward, gripped his shirt, and yanked it, rending the fabric and sending buttons scattering across the floor. The green and blue scales on the dragon tattoo covering his chest were as vibrant as I recalled. The art stretched from one delicious pectoral to the other with the dragon’s long, forked tongue curling around one nipple, and its barbed tail curled around the other. I’d traced every inch of Lucien’s tattoo with my tongue many times; of course I hadn’t imagined its detail and vibrancy.
Leaning forward, I sank my teeth into the dragon’s head, eliciting a grunt and a hiss of pain which turned into a lusty moan when I bit down harder. I relaxed my jaw and released his flesh then stood up straight. Lucien’s skin was a purplish-red where blood had risen to the surface, but I hadn’t broken the skin. I ran my thumb over the angry grooves my teeth left behind. It would leave a mark for several days, and knowing that made my dick harder.
Looking into Lucien’s eyes, the guilt and remorse from before were gone; I only saw lust. “You want to punish me?” he asked. “Then do it. Take what you need.” I could tell he wanted to say more but wisely kept his mouth shut. Did he think we could move on from here and be what? Friends? Lovers? Friends who are sometimes lovers?
“Fuck you,Lucien.”
“I wish you would,” he quipped. Damn, his uppity British tone had always been such a turn-on, but I found no semblance of the cocky man I’d first met. “Or are you going to punish me by giving me the biggest pair of blue balls mankind has ever seen?”
Taking Lucien by force wasn’t part of my game plan, but I hadn’t expected him to challenge me. Lucien’s raised, proud chin and glittery dark gaze said, “Do your worst.”
I shoved him, and he fell back on the sofa. Lucien looked up at me with hungry eyes as I slowly loosened my tie and removed it. I looked at the expensive silk in my hand then back at him as an idea occurred to me. I placed one knee between Lucien’s spread legs and the other on the outside of his right thigh. A cocky grin slowly spread across his face when I held the tie in front of him. I slid the silk between his lips then tied it firmly at the back of his head while trying to ignore the way Lucien rubbed his erection against my leg.
“Oh, how the tables have turned. I used to be the one begging for you like a bitch in heat,” I whispered in his ear. “I gagged you so we wouldn’t disturb the neighbors.” While true, it wasn’t the only reason. I needed the barrier so I couldn’t kiss his full, lush mouth. I had every intention of burying my cock deep inside his willing ass, but kissing was different. My days of long, intimate kisses with this man were over.
Lucien lifted his hands to touch me, but I knocked them away. “You lost the right to touch me.” He blinked a few times as if my words packed a harder punch than my actual fists. “This isn’t about two halves of a soul reconnecting, Lucien. This is me fucking you out of my system. When I’m done; I’m walking away. I never want to see you again. Am I clear?” Lucien nodded, but in his eyes, I saw how much he wanted to argue the last point.
I stood up from the sofa and slowly began undressing. I shouldn’t have liked the hungry way his eyes roamed over every new inch I uncovered, but I reveled in it. Did he notice the changes in my body and recognize I spent far too much of my free time in the gym? I wasn’t the only one because his body looked harder and leaner too. My dick was leaking by the time I kicked off my shoes and stepped out of my pants and briefs. Lucien moaned when I fisted my hard-on and started stroking it.
“I’m not sure you want me as badly as your eyes indicate. I am so fucking angry right now, and I can’t promise I’ll be able to contain it. I hate you, Lucien, but I’m not the kind of man who brutalizes others. Are you sure this is what you want?”Stroke up, rotate wrist, and stroke down. Repeat.Lucien nodded eagerly. “I won’t be easy, and you will feel me for days.”
Lucien briefly closed his eyes and whimpered then he crooked two fingers as if to say, “Bring it on.”