Felicity
“You’ve been watching me,” I say.
It isn’t an accusation, just a statement of fact.
“I have.” He nods shortly. I can’t see his face; the shadow of the tree blocks us from the diamond-like lights in the sky. “I couldn’t have you roaming into the night and getting lost, maybe going to the village and running into somebody . . .”
I step into the light. “Come here, please,” I say.
“I’m fine here.” His voice is tight.
“You don’t want me to see your face,” I note.
“Maybe that’s true.”
“I’m asking you nicely.”
“I know.”
I sigh, throw my hands up. “You left me, Roma, with a stranger.”
“A stranger . . .” He shakes his head and steps into the light. His eyes are so full of emotion I struggle to believe I’m looking at the man I met on the yacht. He looks into my face, his mouth set in a thin line. “What am I, Felicity, if not a stranger to you?”
I step close to him, reach my hand out, meaning to touch his face. He dodges deftly aside.
“You’re not a stranger,” I say, wounded but not showing it. “You know that. I don’t believe you don’t feel what I feel. I don’t believe the kiss, the lap dance, the swim—all of it. I don’t believe it had no effect on you. I think it had as much effect on you as it had on me. I think . . . Tell me why you left, Roma.”
“Maybe I’m not the man you think I am,” he says.
“What do you mean?” I demand, unable to hide the exasperation from my voice. “You saved me from Barinov. I’ve thought about this. If you were really as cold as you first seemed, you would’ve let him—” I swallow dryly. I was about to say rape me. “You would’ve let him do what he wanted to do,” I finish. “But you didn’t. Surely that made your job more difficult.”
“I don’t think the ambassador would be very happy to find out his daughter was—”
“Bullshit,” I say. “That wasn’t why you did it. I saw it in your face. You protected me, Roma. You protected me without hesitating for a second. You killed for me. And now you want to leave me. Please, just tell me why.”
He brings his hands to his face, rubbing his eyes. “I can’t be with you,” he says. “I just can’t.”
“Why?” My voice rings out over the hills, a siren’s song toward the village.
“Because you’re too good for me, Felicity. That’s the truth. You’re way too good for me.”
“You saved me.” I feel like a broken record, but how can I not when he point-blank refuses to see? “You saved me,” I breathe. “Just tell me why you tried to leave.”
“I can’t . . .”
I close the gap between us. My heart thuds. What if he steps away again? I stand close to him, my nose almost touching his chest, and crane my head up and look up into his face. He stares down at me, mouth stern, face impassive except for the crashing emotion in his eyes.
“You can’t what?” I say.
He opens his mouth, looks as though he is going to say something, and then clamps it shut. Then his hands dart out and he grabs my shoulders. I know he’s not grabbing me with even one-tenth of his strength, but I’m still astonished by his power. He could crush me.
“I bought you,” he says, voice husky. “Is that what you want, Felicity? Do you want me to treat you like property?”
Despite the situation, my body comes alive at the vice-like grip of his hands, the deep timber of his voice. Tingles move down my arms and through my body, into all the sweet places where pleasure is born. My pussy aches and my nipples become hard. I bite my lip and I see his expression change, from anger and pain to pure, unrestrained lust.
“Maybe that is what I want,” I sigh, standing on my tiptoes.
His chest trembles, his arms tremble, everything trembles. He’s trying to stop himself but he is just as lost as I am. Maybe he doesn’t want to because he’s my father’s employee, but I doubt it. I think he’s scared of what he feels; I think he fears the power I have over him.
“Fuck.”
One word, breathed, the air warm on my face. He pulls me close to him and leans down.
When our lips touch, everything falls away. The hill, the argument, the uncertainty, the village, the sky, the stars, the moon, the tree, the blades of grass. It’s just us.
His body presses against mine and I tremble with pleasure.