Page 42 of Player
I finally stop moving, my gaze fixed on this man who turns my mind and body inside out. "What do you want from me, Player?"
He stares at me in silence, his gaze locked with mine. I feel all my self-control abandoning me. I no longer want to play games or hide what I'm feeling. I'm tired, and I continue, "Do you want me to tell you that I want you? Is that it? That I admit I've lost?"
It suddenly seems like the best way to put an end to this game he started between us. I approach him, and he lowers his head to maintain eye contact with me. My hand rises withoutme even thinking about it, and my index finger presses against his chest."Yes, I want you."
I swallow with difficulty, my face and body burning. All the frustration that's been building since I met Player expresses itself in this moment. The flood is too powerful to be stopped, and I don't even try to hold anything back.
"What do you want?" Player asks, his voice husky.
As I look at him, a series of images flashes through my mind. In each scenario, Player is ravaging me, like a scene from the dark side of the internet. I bite my lower lip, unable to admit out loud what my body is already expressing.
"Dixie," Player growls, as if reading my thoughts.
The fact that he uses my first name in such a vulnerable moment seems to change everything, because the words escape my lips before I can hold them back:
"I want you to fuck me, in every way you can imagine. There, you won. That's what you wanted to hear from the beginning, right?"
He doesn't answer. A wild gleam shines in his eyes while I feel like I'm approaching spontaneous combustion.
I take a step back, utterly defeated. "You have your victory, you can leave now."
I lower my head so I don't have to look at him. He's won the game, just as he predicted. Checkmate. I'm knocked out, floored by a man with explosive sex appeal and arrogance that's through the roof. I never would have imagined falling for a guy like him, yet the evidence is undeniable: my body burns when Player is around, and even when he's not...
"Dixie, look at me."
His voice is warm when he addresses me, it slides over my skin leaving a trail of shivers behind. I'm angry at myself for feeling this guilty desire. I should reject this guy because herepresents everything I hate in a man. He's insufferable, full of himself, his arrogance is unmatched.
Player moves toward me, and I close my eyes to resist the temptation to devour him with my gaze. I feel his breath on my cheek when he leans in:
"I'm not as cruel as you think."
Without even thinking, my eyelids open, and his brown eyes immediately capture mine.
"I'm going to fuck you so hard your body will remember me for days."
My breath catches in my throat, and I barely hold back a moan.
But who is the girl making this noise, really? I don't even recognize myself anymore. Every word Player utters affects me as much as if he'd touched me, to the point where it becomes unbearable.
I need to pull myself together!
When I respond, my voice betrays my bitterness. "You're talking like you're doing me a favor, but I don't need your pity, Player. We played, I lost. End of story. There was never any question of actually going through with it."
A growl close to a roar escapes Player's throat a brief moment before he lunges at me. His body impacts mine with such violence that I stagger and would fall if it weren’t for his powerful arms, which now surround me. He claws my asscheek with one hand, while with the other, he grasps my neck, immobilizing me against him.
My chest crushes against his torso and I feel the hardness in his pants.
"We're going to fuck, Dixie, now."
"It sounds like a promise when you say it like that."
My voice lacks conviction, and at this moment, I wish I were different. Yes, I wish I were a more mature womanwho doesn't let herself be pushed around, one of those who makes Player hard, capable of shutting him down even in the most intimate situations, but I can't change reality. I'm just Dixie Montgomery, a small-town girl discovering college life, about to cross a line I've never dared cross with any man.
"Stop thinking," Player orders me as if he were following my thoughts.
"I can't help it," I breathe. "It's stronger than me."
"I know what you need."
