“You’re an asshole,” I reply, and he spins me around to lead me to the bathroom.
“Take as long of a shower as you want. You need it,” he says, and I turn around to pinch his side. He catches my wrist and lifts it over my head until my back hits the wall behind us.
“What are you doing?” I ask as his body presses against mine, his breathing heavy as it hits my cheek. Mine mimics his.
“Keeping my sides safe from your vicious pinching,” he says, dragging my other wrist over my head too. Why do I let him? That’s a very good question I have absolutely no answer to.
“You know I’m a trained fighter, right?” I remind him, but my body has turned into putty under his touch.
My clit’s swollen and aching because his body is flush against mine and nothing’s ever felt better. His lips are so close to my mouth, his eyes half-closed, I almost forget how much of a dick he is to me most of the time.
“Then pin me to the ground. If you can,” he adds the last sentence with a challenging tone.
It takes me one well-placed foot to take out one of his before he loses balance and I take advantage of it, bringing him to the floor. I’m on top of him within seconds, his breathing hitching as we hit the ground.
“Bloody hell. I forget how skilled you are,” he says, and I smile down at him, patting his chest once. I settle down completely on top of him, feeling his cock against my ass in response. Fuck me. Oh God. “Chiara,” he breathes out with a strained voice, but I’m frozen in place. He’s so hard against me, it makes my breathing hitch. “God,” he groans as I move a little, sending a wave of pleasure through my core. I barely hold back my moan as I hurry off him and toward the shower.
He’s gorgeous, of course he is, but this is not happening. I won’t let it. I just need to take the edge off, maybe masturbate when I get home tonight. Anything to get rid of how good being on top of him felt.
To ignore the way I felt so safe in his arms when he held me.
* * *
We’re staringat each other from across the table. He finished eating five minutes ago and has been watching me ever since. I place my last spoonful in my mouth two minutes after that, glaring at him like I always do. His face is as serious as it’s been since the day I met him. He’s taunting me with his silence when we both know he wants to discuss this wonderful job opportunity he mentioned earlier. I also expected things to be at least a little awkward after I had his huge, thick cock against my ass earlier, but we’re both ignoring how good it felt. We’re both too fucking stubborn and reserved toward each other to address anything.
“Talk,” I demand, but he merely crosses his arms in front of his chest with amusement sparkling in his eyes.
“Nah, I’m good,” he replies, his eyes still on me. I’d very much like to punch him.
“You love the sound of your own voice. Don’t be shy. Say whatever it is you came up with,” I encourage, my skin on fire from the way he looks at me. God, I hate him for making my body react like this.
“I hate leaving Benz here when I go on my race weekends,” he starts, and I raise both eyebrows.
“Understandable, but I thought we were going to talk about me, not you,” I say, causing a sigh to leave him as he shakes of his head. It also causes him to finally break eye contact and give my skin the chance to breathe.
“You are so very impatient,” he complains, and I bite back a smile.
“Actually, I’m a very patient person. I’ve been waiting twenty years for you to say something nice to me or something intelligent, and neither has happened yet,” I say, earning me the slightest of smiles from him.
“You want to hear something nice? Alright, I think you are a strong, determined woman, who deserves a shot at living her dream. I have organized investor meetings, gotten us invitations to art exhibits where we can get you connections to influential people, and I would like to offer you a job taking care of Benz while I travel the world for races. I will pay you double what you earned in all four of your jobs combined. I will pay for your tickets and hotel rooms so I can take Benz with me and don’t have to miss her as much as I always do. When we’re not traveling, I would like it if you lived with me, at least for the next six months until Graham returns. Is that nice enough for you?” he asks, but I’m absolutely and completely dumbfounded.
“What?” is all I manage to croak out. I reach for my glass of water, trying to lubricate my vocal cords because they’re malfunctioning.
“What part of that speech was too complicated for you?” he asks, his voice teasing.
“All of it, asshole. Why would you want to spend every single second of every day with me?”
Because that is what his proposition would entail. Leonard and I spending all of our time together. Yes, he will be busy during the race weekends when I’d take care of Benz, but we’d still see each other afterward to go to the events he mentioned. We would live together. Be on top of each other for the next six months. He can’t be serious. There is no way he’d voluntarily agree to any of this. We’d make each other miserable beyond belief. I don’t buy it. There has to be another agenda here.
Except…
“When no one gave me a chance, when everything was against me, you were the one poking the man who became my biggest investor in the leg. You stood there, ten years old and determined as hell, and asked him how he could be stupid enough not to give me a chance. You made Ben smile so hard that day, he gave me the chance of a lifetime. I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere if you hadn’t been such a rude child, and I’ve owed a big part of my success to you since then. I’d merely like to repay the favor now,” he says while nostalgia fills my chest.
I did do that, didn't I?
Ben, a tall white man with pitch-black hair and stunning blue eyes, had been at one of Leonard’s karting races. He was a talent scout, at least that’s what Andrew had told me, so I turned to him and started telling him how great of a racer Leonard was. I tried to convince him to give the boy I despised more than anything else a chance, and he did. It’s the only nice thing I’ve ever done for Leonard, but it was perhaps one of the best I could have ever chosen to do.
“So, you want me to travel the world with you while you pay me to take care of Benz?” I ask, and Leonard gives me one, tight nod. “Because you owe me?”
