Slamming the fallboard, I stand and watch as she skitters sideways, abandoning the sheet music. “What?” she says, surprised.
“Run.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I need to hunt, and you’re going to let me.”
“No. We’re not doing that. I’m here to help. Tit for tat?”
“Then run, little Alice. Run fast and hard. Don’t let me catch you.”
She pitches, turns, and then slowly spins back around again to look me over. So quiet, as she stands there. No fear in her features. No impulse to run either. She’s just gazing at me, her eyes taking in everything in front of her. “But if I run, how can we go all the way?” My head tilts, amused at her quick come back. “Perhaps we just get the fucking over with, Malachi?” Over with? “I don’t like not far enough. Sounds defeatist. I’m not one for being defeated, and I’ve spent enough time running.”
I watch as she stands there, twirling her little blade about in her fingers. It’s not supposed to be seductive, nor provocative or intriguing, but it is – everything about her is. Sensual curves. Aggressive, yet honest features. Tattoos and colours showing me her disregard for anything conventional. She’s just standing there in her lingerie, one hand on her hip as if this is all too boring for her to comprehend. “Come on then, Malachi. Do your worst. I’m not running. Not anymore. Screw that, right?” I look at all those colours on display for me, watch as the blade continues moving absently in her fingers. “Where would you like me?”
Chapter 9
Ally
Idon’t know what I’m doing, but we might as well fuck. After all, that’s what I came back in here for, isn’t it? I was getting in the car – leaving. It was all there waiting for me. A car journey, plane journey, and then I would have been back to reality. Instead, I folded when he kissed me. I got involved in thoughts of what being with him might feel like, and then I couldn’t get the idea of actually letting him inside me out of my head. So I followed, perhaps towed here by the thought that I might be able to help.
And here we are.
“Let’s stop the games, shall we?” He’s not moving into me. He’s just standing there, as if this ease I’m offering him is too straightforward for him to deal with. Well, that’s what I am. Straightforward. Upfront. Frank. All this pissing around with games and tit for tat and apparent scandalous nature is becoming exasperating. I don’t handle it well. “Or I can go get on with my life away from you. Which would you prefer?”
“Get it over with?” he asks. I don’t think he liked that.
At the moment, I don’t give a damn.
“Yes.”
Perhaps it’s dented his ego. Or maybe he would prefer I fawned and begged and ran and acted like one of the others here. I’m not doing any of it. I would like him to do his worst, though. It’s been a while. And from the brief glimpses that keep reverberating through my thoughts, through my actual body, he felt good on me. Hard, aggressive, controlling.
I walk closer, searching my feelings for those sensations. Mix them in with the actual memories of waking up in his arms, of feeling his body heat on me, and this could be the stupidest idea in the history of mankind. “Do you need me to start, Malachi? Not feeling in control?”
He seems almost alarmed by my actions, as if no one’s ever done this to him. I find it hard to believe. Most women must drop their panties in seconds. I probably would have done if this was the normal world. I even thought about it that first night in my house.
My fingers are at his belt buckle before he’s manages to answer me, the knife back between my teeth. They ratchet the leather quickly, flicking the button soon after with little seduction involved. That isn’t what this is. Although, I like his chest, and his muscles, and my fingers travelling over the shirt, catching and opening more buttons as I go, must show him that.
The hard breadth of him stays perfectly still under my hands, as if he’s unaffected. He isn’t. Just like I’m not. I can hear it in his breath, in the sharp intakes that seem to call to me for reasons I still don’t understand. Regardless, this is what he’s been after since I got here, and if I’m honest, if I dismiss all this crap we’ve been discussing, I have been, too. Just two people. Two people using each other’s bodies for whatever they need. On my part, that’s a damn good fucking and no strings attached. It’s not like he’d be any good at coupledom anyway, and, much as I’m trying to avoid the thought, he is, in fact, married.
A hand suddenly snatches at mine, harsh and unyielding, and turns me away from him. I’m dragged back until I’m on his body, my back and ass flat to his stomach.
“My worst isn’t for reality,” he says, quietly. His breath hits my neck, his rough, stubbled cheek grazing across mine. “You wouldn’t know how to cope with it without the pills, Alice.”
His fingers dig into my hipbone, as hard as he is. I almost wince at the pressure of them. Why should I, though? I’m asking for this, pushing for it, in fact. He can do just about anything now. What does it matter? I’m not falling in love anytime soon, and this can be anything we want it to be.
The knife drops from my teeth, tumbling to the floor beneath me.
“Why don’t you try me?” My head turns towards him, lips catching his until he loosens his grip enough for me to spin in his hold. “Get on with it, Malachi. Prove yourself.”
He’s got my ass in his hands before I manage to fully move, both of them lifting me off the floor. I’m dumped on the piano, my feet hitting the keys. Noise rattles out around us, as he pushes me wherever he wants me. I don’t care about that either. He can push, pull, force or tug me in any direction now. I’m in it, my body plummeting and my thoughts tangled.
The panties get shredded at my side, bra undone and thrown. It’s all so fast I barely recognize it happening in the lust that’s building. Hands, lips, fingers. It’s all I can feel, all I can sense let alone feel. He’s overwhelming on me, nothing but muscle and heat and strength consuming the room.
A bite so severe lands on my chest I do wince, eyes flying to his at the feel of it. It doesn’t stop him, nor does it make his hold any less aggressive. He’s everywhere on me, power and control holding me firmly, as I’m moved somewhere and a loud crash sounds behind me. It makes me yelp and half turn, body squirming under his continued attack. It isn’t until I’m shoved up the piano’s surface that I realise the tops now down, and he’s climbing up onto the surface with me.
“Stupid, Alice,” he mutters, between more bites.
