Page 46 of The Price of Power
“Well, yes,” I quickly amended. “Of course I wanted to, but?—“
“And why did you fuck me?”
Even though I knew it didn’t do anything to dispel his description of me as naive, I couldn’t help wincing at the force with which he said fuck.
“I don’t know,” I huffed. “A momentary lapse in judgment?”
His hands tightened around my hips, drawing me in closer, as his eyes and tone turned stonier than ever. “Tell me the truth, Liv.”
Heaven help me. Why couldn’t I resist his commands? His forceful nature seemed to affect me on animal levels I didn’t even know I had.
I let out a deep sigh before admitting, “Because I wanted to.”
“That’s right,” he agreed with an approving nod. “You really fucking wanted it. I could feel all that built-up desire tangled inside you unraveling with every thrust. And when you came?—“
My brows shot up as my whole face caught fire. “Gabriel!”
“What?” He asked with a dark laugh. “Is it the words you object to or the flames they stoke inside you?”
Both. Neither. Shit, I didn’t know.
“What does any of this have to do with you calling me a doormat?” I demanded.
“Patience, dolcezza,” he teased. “Now tell me why you disappeared afterward.”
“Because I finally came to my senses—Ow!”
I gasped as his open palm came down hard on the curviest part of my ass. It didn’t hurt. Not exactly, but it did shock the hell out of me.
“The truth this time,” he said. “Unless, of course, you want another one.”
I didn’t even want to think about what my honest answer to that might be.
“Because I was afraid of just how much I liked it,” I said without thinking, only realizing after the words were out of my mouth just how true they were. “I felt guilty for enjoying myself when I should have been working on a way to save my family’s business.”
“That was never going to happen no matter how hard you worked.”
“I didn’t know that then.”
“But now you do,” he said, raking his fingers up and down my hips, moving the dress fabric along with his movements. Each time, pulling the shimmering material higher…and higher. “Yet you still keep acting like you’re only here with me because of your family obligations.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I mean…you did threaten to kill my brother if I left,” I reminded him.
“Sure,” he admitted casually, as if that was nothing out of the ordinary. And who knew? Maybe to him, it wasn’t. “But our deal was that you stay with me for three months. Nothing more. I never said anything about submitting to my touch. But that’s exactly what you’ve done. You’ve let me pull you close and slap your ass and touch you in all the places you crave—and you keep doing it.”
As if to prove his point, he cupped his palms even more firmly around my hips and pulled me in another step, right between his parted knees.
“I...I didn’t realize—“ I tried, but he stopped me short.
“Yes, you did.” His voice was firm, though not angry. “Lying to me is one thing, but lying to yourself is unforgivable. You’ve been picking apart every sentence, calling me out on every vague word since I first sat down at your table. You knew, Liv. You just decided to pretend.”
Was that true?
Maybe. I wasn’t sure.
Once Gabriel started talking with deep rumbling voice that travelled right through me, it was hard to tell the difference between what I thought and what I felt.
Still, I needed to be clear on one thing.