“We’re not doing that.”

“Come on,” I say, pushing off her panties. “You hate me, don’t you? I’m an awful man who takes whatever he wants without paying. A beast who hurts the good people of the world just because he can. And now you belong to me, and I’m gonna makeyou come again, and I’m gonna make you crave me, and there’s not a goddamned thing you can do about it.”

Chapter Twenty

EDIE

His cock is a steel bar against my mound. I gasp as energy throbs through my pussy, my belly.

He presses his hands to the sides of my hips and guides my panties down. Electricity shivers over me.

“You hate how I make you feel.”

I gasp.

He kneels in front of me, my panties now at my ankles and then off, and touches his finger to the seam of my bare pussy. “Trimmed is fine, but I would ask you to shave yourself before I see you again.”

I huff in protest, but nothing matters anymore because he’s found the ache. He’s touching me there.

It’s not enough for this man that I’m half naked and powerless; he has to take everything.

His fingers are on the outside of my lips, pressing like he’s plumping out my clit.

I stifle a cry as he slides his tongue between my legs and licks, a long, hard, ice-cream-cone lick that nearly turns me inside out.

I grab onto the sink. I vaguely remember something aboutacting bored. I’ve failed miserably, but no way will I let him make me come. I start a recitation of state capitals.

Bangor, Maine, Madison, Wisconsin.

He licks again.

Springfield, Illinois.

I focus on my surroundings. It’s nice as restrooms go, with a rug over dark marble tiles and a candle on a small, low cabinet next to the sink under a photo of an old bridge.

It’s no use. No use. He’s burrowing his tongue into some hidden nerve center deep inside me. He has me, and he’s merciless, and he’s right that I can’t hide from him.

He’s chasing down my orgasm like a lion going after prey.

A few more brutal licks and I can’t stop it—my soul explodes with pleasure. I’m spinning, flying, trying desperately not to show it, but I’m shuddering in spite of myself. He slows his licking, then stops completely.

He presses a kiss over my mound and then my belly as I try desperately to collect myself. I think I have by the time he’s looming over me, so smug and evil.

I try to look blank. I even put on a dazed smile.

“You’ll want to stop doing that. That fake face.”

I furrow my brows like I don’t understand.

“Fine. Go with it, then.” He grabs me by the ass, sets me on the sink, and pushes apart my legs. “Hold yourself open for me. Spread and glistening. Not one centimeter together, you understand?”

I bite my lip. He’s evil, and I shouldn’t want him inside me. “Whatever you say.”

He fits my hands to the sink, urging me to hold on.

Tallahassee, Florida, Carson City, Nevada, I think as I hold my legs apart for him. Behind him, the dry-cleaner bag flaps like a surrender flag.

“You think you can hold yourself apart and above, but it never works. Nobody escapes.” The sound of a zipper.