Page 34 of Dirty Martini
“You seem tense,” I tease, inching closer, internally cheering when he stiffens. “Is everything okay?”
He grits his teeth as he looks at me. I may or may not have worn my favorite shirt today, something tight that hugs all my muscles, wondering if he would react to it the way Knox and other guys usually do. Apparently, it’s having the same effect on him because he averts his gaze a second later.
“You know it’s not.” He takes another angry drag. “Fuck off before I do something you’ll regret.”
“Say it,” I urge, stepping right in front of him, close enough that I can smell the nicotine on his breath and his mint aftershave. “Unless you’re too scared?—”
I’m cut off when I’m violently pushed against the wall. His cigarette drops to the ground as one of his hands wraps around my throat while the other puts a bruising grip on my hip. As he presses his forehead against mine, his nostrils flare, a snarl on his lips. He bends his head low, low enough that our lips are just a hairsbreadth apart. The air is charged with the kind of electric tension before an explosion as he simply rolls his forehead against mine, cursing under his breath.
“Fuck you, Everest,” he whispers, and it sounds almost broken, like a man on the verge.
I decide to press just a bit more. Just for fun. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and tug him down even farther, hitching one leg around his hip. “Don’t you want to?”
Because admitting that he wants me like that would be the ultimate downfall. To want someone he hates. To be unable to resist. It would crush his pride and his ego, wouldn’t it? That’s all this is meant for. Payback. Payback for every despicable thing he’s said to me, for every time he didn’t give me a secondchance at redemption, for every moment he’s spent resenting my presence.
And I can’t wait for how sweet revenge will taste.
“Turn around,” he demands, already moving his hands to my hip to spin me.
He forces my face against the brick wall, and I wince at the dig against my skin. My breaths come out short and choppy, choking back a moan as he drapes the entire length of his body behind mine. I’m taller and bigger than him, but he consumes all the space. It’s like he’s towering over me, making me feel so deliciously vulnerable, yet so powerful.
I gasp when one hand roughly shoves its way down my pants and into my underwear. “Is this what you’re offering? You going to let me have at this ass, Everest?”
My eyes roll to the back of my head as one finger finds its way up and down my crease, pressing insistently against my rim. Even without any lube or spit, the feeling is intoxicating, my hole clenching and unclenching as it greedily tries to suck him in.
I let my head fall back. This might be going a touch too far. I was never going to let him actually fuck me, but he doesn’t need to know that. “Depends. Do you think you know what you’re doing?”
“You’re a real piece of shit,” he says, laughing humorlessly as he continues to play with my rim. “You really think that a tight little shirt is going to make me cave? You think this ass is enough to make me break? Are you that self-absorbed to think that everyone wants you?”
My breath hitches, but I try not to let it show how that stings because that’s not true. I don’t think that, not at all. My mind is getting mixed signals now as one blunt tip slides into me, the burn so perfect, but I can’t enjoy it before Rhys continues.
“You disgust me, Everest,” he spits, moving one hand from my hip to wrap around my throat. “Everything about you isthe absolute worst. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Self-centered, arrogant, and narcissistic. Just a little boy trying to get everyone’s attention because he’s too unsatisfied with himself to not need some sort of validation. Because that’s what you are, right?You’rethe one who’s scared.”
Once again, I’m struck. This isn’t how this was supposed to go. I was just supposed to fuck with him a little, get him back for all the shit he’s said to me, but he’s gone too far. He’s… No, he can’t be right. I’m not any of those things. But when he says it with such conviction, it’s hard not to believe.
“Shit, are you crying now?” Giving my cheek a light slap, he laughs, so cruel it’s unbearable as he snakes his hand out of my pants. “You’re so pretty when you cry. Is it because you know I’m right?”
I don’t say anything but instead turn my head away from him, shrinking into myself as all my insecurities come out into the light of the dim alley. The fact that I’m not good enough, smart enough, loyal enough.
He laughs one more time. This one deep and serious. Ominous. Leaning in close so I can feel his breath against my cheek, his nose drags up the side of my face. “I told you. Ialwayswin.”
And as he walks away, leaving me utterly broken and terrified of myself, I realize he might be right.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Rhys
I may have gonea bit too far.
I haven’t seen Everest in three days. While that should have me over the moon, all it’s done is fill me with a deep sense of guilt and regret. I promised Elton I’d look out for him, and now I don’t even know where his little brother is. He definitely hasn’t been staying in the penthouse, because every time I check his room—day or night—he’s not there.
I fucked up.
But how can I be blamed when that little fucker just keptpushing?
He showed up at my place of work dressed like every other single Miami male, but something about the way he filled out that tight white T-shirt and how his dark jeans hugged his ass took all my concentration. Then in the alley when he was dangling himself in front of me, knowing I was so close to snapping, I couldn’t help myself.
I still remember the feel of his ass. That hot and full bubble butt of his that felt amazing in my hand. His tiny pucker, so sensitive and responsive, that let just the tip of my finger in to feel how soft and warm he was on the inside. I’d never imaginedtouching a man’s ass before, let alone giving them the tip, but with Everest, I was tempted to do so much more.
