Page 75 of Surrender
“Do you know why?”
Gareth shakes his head. “I’m sure it has something to do with my mum. Something he’ll never share because he’s a selfish sod.”
I eye him dubiously. “And you’re Mr. Sharer?”
His relaxed face hardens. “I’ve shared more with you than anyone in my life. I’m bloody well sharing right now, aren’t I?”
His tone has me narrowing my eyes. “I know how you are with other people. The press. You give them nothing.”
His body feels like stone beneath me. “I thought you don’t research me.”
“I don’t.”
“Then how do you know I don’t share anything with the press?”
I pause, trying to decide if my reply will give too much away. “My…roommate tells me.”
“Roommate,” he repeats with a mean laugh. “That’s the first I’ve heard of that.” His tone is scathing, his relaxed mood completely vanished.
“What do you mean?” I ask, bracing myself for his response.
“I had no idea you have a fucking roommate because I know nothing about you, Sloan.”
It pisses me off that he called me Sloan. He knows I prefer Treacle when I’m here. I sit up, not giving a shit that my boobs are on full display. There’s nothing sexy about this moment right now. “I’ve shared a lot with you. I freaking shared my entire upbringing with you a couple weeks ago!”
He sits up with me, his eyes dark and angry. Scary even. “But what about your real life?”
“What do you mean?”
“What do you do when you disappear on me for a week?”
“I’m working!”
“Bullshit. You worked today. You’re working tomorrow. I know what your work looks like.”
“What are you insinuating?”
“That I know nothing about you, except for how you like to be fucked! Are you out fucking other guys like this? Asking them to bend over so you can whip them like a sadistic whore?”
I slap him. It wasn’t a conscious decision. It certainly wasn’t something I did to bring him pleasure. It was something I did to make him hurt as much as his words hurt me.
My palm tingles as his cheek erupts with the outline of my hand. “You think I’m a sadist?” I hate the trembling in my voice. I hate that I care what he thinks of me. This isn’t how we are supposed to be.
“I think there’s a reason we fuck the way we do and neither of us are truly owning up to it.”
“I don’t want to own up to it,” I reply, turning and throwing my feet off the side of the bed. “That isn’t what our arrangement is about. We have boundaries for a reason!”
“I get it, Sloan. We have a deal. You’re in control and I’m not.”
“Exactly!” I roar and stand up, turning my angry eyes on him. “I’m in control and you get the freedom to not think. It was a win-win here, Gareth. I thought we were both enjoying this.”
“We were!” he exclaims, thrusting a hand through his hair and making no fucking sense.
“Then what the hell is the problem?” I cry.
“Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I don’t even know how your lips taste!”
His response knocks the wind out of me. He’s deathly serious from his spot on the bed, his bare chest heaving with anger. His muscles tensed in frustration. Veins protruding down his arms like angry lines on a map.
