Page 7 of Scent of Desire
“How would you find me then?” I continued the game, my bare feet stroking the daisies.
“I’d have mercy only on a short field of lilies of the valley. The only place you could possibly be. Easy enough.” A cruel smile slipped free from his lips.
I let out a laugh. “I’m that predictable, am I?”
He didn’t reply, but his stare crept under my skin, lingering over the length of my legs. My dress heaved with the wind that rebelled in a squall, and he seized this opportunity to glimpse at my panties. I held my dress down, leaning forward. This time, his gaze flickered to the valley between my breasts. With a simple glance that had the power to strip me naked, my heart missed a heartbeat. The flowers in my hair blew away in the midst of this tension.
“Inflicting chaos isn’t something I’d want you to do,” I blurted out, the swell bringing to my nostrils his tantalizing smell that nestled me in the comfort of his darkness.
“That’s why I know you won’t escape. You would never want to be responsible for that kind of fate.” He paused. “You’regood.”
I gulped at the harsh way the word “good” escaped from his mouth. Good and bad. Hero and villain. Such black-and-white statements that were so close to each other. The roles could reverse so easily, and a heart could readily blacken.
“Perhaps I’m not that good,” I murmured as Radcliff shifted back in my direction, his interest piqued. “You see my goodness, but you can’t see yours.”
“And which goodness would that be?”
“The way you’re with me,” I affirmed with certainty.
“That’s not goodness. That’s…” He searched for his words before a cunning line twisted his lips. “Possession.”
“Is that what I am to you? Just a possession?” My heart galloped, fleeing from my chest.
Radcliff hid the sun from me again, a knot tightening his jaw. “You’re mine, Lily. That was your decision.”
“Because I want to.” I knitted my brows together, exhaling all the breath I was holding. “Not because I’m a possession.”
I drilled my eyes on him, refusing to be his pretty pet and an obsession he couldn’t get rid of.
“What are you expecting from me exactly, Lily?” He gritted his teeth and cracked his knuckles. “Sweetness? Love? Because I cannot give you any of that.”
Or you’re just afraid to allow yourself to feel like I already made you feel.We had played a winter game, and he had won, but this one, the game of spring, I wouldn’t allow him to win.
Because now, I knew his weakness.
Me.
“Respect. I’m an equal.” My fingers dug into the earth, taking a handful to the point of uprooting the grass to keep my emotions in check. “Your equal.”
Radcliff knelt in front of me, his scent rushing to my senses as I inhaled the delicious inferno that he was. In a threatening tone, he questioned, “Do you feel ready for this ordeal?”
I would be ready to stand by his side as long as he let me in.
My lips parted, but no sound came out. His fingers brushed my throat, feeling my pulse throb. Poker-faced, he gripped it, his blackness testing mine. He wanted me to be at his mercy, scared and uneasy, but I did not move. I let him crane my neck backward, tightening his grip on my throat.
Radcliff would never hurt me. He wasn’t the villain of my story. His thumb then traveled to my lips, stroking their outline.
I parted them and took his thumb inside my mouth. I sucked it and dropped, “Yes.”
Our eyes merged on common ground.
He didn’t respond, but we both knew a new deal had been made.
“You don’t want to join me?” I asked again.
“I should go.” He cleared his throat, his gaze not leaving my mouth. The darkness of his pupils did not conceal the things he not so secretly craved to do to me.
“If you stay, I’ll let you in on a secret.” My voice was playful even though it wasn’t a secret, truly. The aphrodisiac was ready; that was a fact.
