Page 29 of Wicked Player

I blinked away the image and before I could repeat my request for him to leave me alone, he spoke.

“I miss you, Lizzie.”

I couldn’t hide my flinch. “You have Mel.”

“I know. And I love Mel. But that doesn’t mean I don’t miss you, what we had.”

He was killing me. How could he not see the pain that admission caused me? Or how inappropriate it was given the circumstances.

“Connor—”

“No, just listen. Please, Lizzie.”

Damn him. He was the only one who’d ever called me that. The only guy I’d ever allowed to call me that. It had seemed too juvenile the first time he’d done it, but at the time, I’d been trussed up with rope and clamps, and he’d been torturing me with a feather of all things. God, who knew something so light, could cause so much pain to overheated skin?“Oh little Lizzie, the things I could do with you right now and you wouldn’t resist, would you?”

I shook my head frantically. I wouldn’t. I didn’t just want this man inside of my body, I wanted him inside my heart.

“Stop.” I lifted my hand. The memories too fresh, the first time they’d come to me in months. Damn him. I thought I was over this. Over him.

What I fool I was.

“Please stop.”

He didn’t stop and he didn’t leave. Leave it to a Dom to do whatever they wanted regardless of the pain inflicted. He stepped closer and placed his hand on mine on the railing. It was warm but gentle.

“I do love Mel, and I know that hurts you, Lizzie. But what we have isn’t what you and I had. I’m missing something and Mel knows it, and I know that what I’m missing is what you and I had.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Mel is…great.” He smiled softly, the true smile of a man in love. I wanted to slap it off his face. How dare he do this to me? Here? Of all nights? “But you, Lizzie…you gave me things she won’t, at Velvet.” For a split second, he looked embarrassed. “She has limits you didn’t, limits I need.”

“Then you shouldn’t have left me and fell in love with her.”

I yanked my hand back, sending the glass of champagne flying. It shattered all over the cement floor and a few small pieces landed on my feet.

I stepped down and a small shard got stuck between the ball of my foot and my shoe.

“Damn it!” I shouted. I lifted my foot but trying to free it made everything worse.

His hands wrapped around my forearms. “Don’t move.”

I didn’t listen. I couldn’t. Not with him touching me so firmly in that sinfully beautiful way of his. I forgot about the pain in my foot. I struggled, stepped all over the glass, it splintering beneath my heels.

“Damn it, Lizzie,” Connor growled and his arms moved to my biceps. He picked me up like I was nothing and set me to the side. Bending down, he met my eyes. “I know what I’m saying is a shock to you, but you have to get it, Lizzie and I don’t want you to hurt yourself because you’re upset with me. Mel is okay with this. She knows where I stand and I should have done this privately but I know you wouldn’t have seen me and you haven’t been to Velvet…”

Oh, how very wrong he was, but I was suddenly thinking of dissolving my membership completely.

“Get off me,” I hissed and pulled like a maniac. “This is shitty. So shitty of you to do to this to me.”

“I know. But I want what I want Lizzie and I think deep down, you still miss what we had, too. Just think about it. Promise me you’ll think about it.”

“I think you should get your hands off her.”

We both froze, heads flipped toward the opened door to the balcony.

My jaw dropped at who stood there.

Gage.

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