The Danger You Know

by Lily White

  Confused why he would let me go, I crawl back, my hands searching for anything to throw at him even if I know he’ll just dodge it.

  Despite the fight we’ve already fought, Ari looks perfectly put together, so damn beautiful that I’m angry with myself for noticing.

  Eventually, I find the strength to stand up, to back away. The way he stares at me sends a dark shiver down my spine because I know he’s waiting for me to attack.

  I run away instead, my feet slipping over the floor as I round the corner into the hall leading to my room, my shoulder slamming against the wall as I regain my balance and pump my legs to get away.

  He catches me just as I’m going through the door, his arm locking around my waist as my back is tugged against his chest. Hand gripping my chin, he turns my face enough that he can whisper against my ear.

  “Winner takes all, Adeline.”

  Dragging me back, he leads me into his bedroom, spinning me toward the large bed in the center of the room as he slams his door shut with his foot.

  The space is as dark as he is with grey walls and black sheets, the wooden floors near black in color. Curtains block the sunlight from shining through the windows, a single lamp on a bedside table illuminating the space.

  I barely have time to take in all the details of his private domain before I’m being directed to the bed, my body stretched over the mattress as he captures my wrists again and straps them to the headboard.

  My eyes lift to his, my body trembling with both want and fear of a man who is still very much a mystery.

  “Why do I have the feeling you do this often?”

  He laughs softly as the corner of his mouth quirks. Glancing at me, he tilts his head just slightly.

  “Why is it so impossible for you to believe that you’re the only one?”

  Ari walks to a dresser and opens a wooden box on top. He removes the cufflinks from his shirt and drops them in before closing it. Turning back to me, his nimble fingers slowly unbutton his shirt, his grey eyes peering over at me while the shadow around him licks his skin like a lover.

  It’s a fight to keep my eyes on his face when he strips the shirt from his broad shoulders to toss it over the back of a chair near a closet.

  Every inch of his body appears carved from granite, the hard ridges and shadowed valleys just begging for a woman’s fingers to explore them. The golden color to his skin must be natural because I see no tan lines that speak of hours spent beneath the sun.

  Not that I can see Ari that way. He’s a man more comfortable at night.

  Crossing his arms over his chest doesn’t help ease my fascination, the strong pectoral muscles flexing, his biceps bulging from the pose.

  And while I take my time exploring down to where his pants sit just below the definition of his abdomen and oblique muscles, he stares across at me knowingly.

  “You’ve always been a fighter,” he says, drawing my attention back to his face. “Since day one. Awake, in your sleep, it doesn’t matter. You never let someone push you around. Not even Jason, though he tried. But the first time he bruised you, you left him behind. Went to your house. Refused to answer his calls.”

  A bark of laughter shakes my shoulders, the movement tugging my wrists against the restraints.

  “I would have kept refusing his calls if you’d given me the chance.”

  His lips curl. “He would still be alive today if you realized he was a dick long before that and stopped going back to him.”

  It’s chilling how casually he can talk about murder.

  Crossing an ankle over the other, Ari leans back against the dresser. “But this isn’t about him, it’s about you. The why of what I’ve done.”

  I shake my wrists. “We could have this conversation without me being tied up for it.”

  “As if you’d stay still long enough for me to talk. It’s easier for me this way.”

  My hands drop to the mattress above my head.

  “I admired the way you fought. But that was only one point in your favor. Another was that you didn’t give the first fuck about how people saw you. You danced, Adeline, in clubs, at home, wherever you fucking felt like it and you became lost to whatever music you heard. It would be stupid of you to think I was the only one watching. Everybody saw you because the freedom you found in those moments is something very few people ever experience. There is purity in that. You had the ability to give the finger to the world and do what you wanted to do. I admired that, too.”

  His gaze travels down my body, over the t-shirt I wear, along my bare legs. I can feel his stare, like fingertips gently exploring my skin.

  “And let’s not forget the thoughts and desires inside that screwed up head of yours. I admired that about you most.”

  I want to argue he has no idea what he’s talking about, but he’s read every journal I wrote. Stole those thoughts. Apparently memorized them.

  His eyes flash with the knowledge of those thoughts, his body pushing away from the dresser to approach the bed.

  “So, let’s talk about them.”

  Knowing what he’s about to do, I realize I’m officially fucked. Literally and figuratively.

  Ari knows it, too, if the way his eyes lock to mine say anything about it.

  The mattress dips at my feet when he sits down, the tip of his finger brushing up the bottom of my foot so softly it makes me flinch.

  “You wanted a man who knew all there was to know about you. That was what you always wrote in one way or another, on every other page it seemed.”

  Brushing his finger up the bottom of my foot again, he doesn’t glance over to look at me when my leg kicks, my knee bending for just a second before straightening again. Tracing the tip of his finger down the top of my foot, he brushes several over my ankle, a subtle warning that he could grip down and hold me still.

  Goosebumps erupt over my skin, the hair on my arms standing on edge from both the threat of him and the way he knows just how to touch me to drive shivers down my spine, to cause heat to bloom between my thighs.

  “You wanted a man who wouldn’t run when he learned just how crazy your thoughts are. What you see in sleep. What turns you on.”

  His mouth stretches at that thought, the beauty of his profile breathtaking. A brow arches above his eye, as he trails two fingertips up the inside of my calf to my knee.

  “I have to admit, I appreciated those thoughts the most. I’m not one for fluffy romance either.”

  His head turns to look at me, so much heat behind that gaze that I feel it in my belly.

  “You wanted a man who will bend your will while making you beg for more. Who is stronger. Someone who appreciates how dirty and broken you are and will want you because of it.”

  My eyes close to hear the words I’d written so many times.

  Ari’s hand creeps high enough up the inside of my thigh that the back of his fingers brush the hem of my shirt. I tremble at the touch, my fingers gripping over the straps as if that could still me in place.

  “You found him,” he says. “Or I guess the truth is that he found you.”

  My shirt slips slowly up my thighs as his hand progresses, the restraints at my wrists becoming tight as I shiver against his touch.

  The bastard is right. Every word he says. Every truth he spills out about the thoughts inside my head and the wishes I’ve made that I never believed could come true.

  Dragging my t-shirt up my body as he moves to prop his body up on an elbow beside me, Ari pushes the material up to just beneath my breasts.

  His gaze focuses on my stomach where he toys the tips of his fingers gently over the skin, soft circles around my navel and beneath the line of my rib cage.

  My arms are shaking and it’s a fight not to move, not to show him how badly I just want him to stop playing around and take what I know he’s after.

  That damn smirk is on his face again. I can’t hide what I’m feeling. He already knows.

  Voice soft, Ari continues teasing my skin, his eyes f
ocused on the path of his fingers.

  “Why fight against the one thing you’ve always wanted?”

  His grey eyes shift to mine. “Why not just enjoy it?”

  Against my better judgment, I give in, my hips rolling in a circle over the mattress as his hand drops down to trace the edge of my panties.

  His lips tug wider, not the rare smile that captivates me each time I see it, but the one grin he’s always worn when he knows he’s won.

  Shifting over the mattress, Ari straddles my body again, careful to keep his weight from crushing me as he lifts that devilish grey gaze to mine with every promise of sin rolling behind it.

  “Would you like me to show you what I do to you when you sleep?”

  My wrists tug at the restraints because what I’d like to do is touch him. He must know it because his eyes flick to the movement, something dark rolling across his expression that drives the air from my lungs.

  Voice a gritty whisper, he says, “Maybe I’ll show you all the things I’ve wanted to do instead. I’d feel bad for leaving marks when you weren’t conscious to enjoy them and know where they came from.”

  My body shudders just before he tugs my shirt up, easily slipping it over my head and up my arms. Wrapping the fabric over my hands and tying it in place, he lingers as my face is to his chest, my mouth so close to his skin that I know he can feel my breath against it.

  He smells good. He always has. Like something forbidden and mysterious, a scent that captures my senses and reminds me of how dangerous he is. Not because he’s killed. Not because he’s watched me since God knows when. But because he has the power to seduce me even when I fear him.

  Settling back, he hovers over me, his powerful legs still at my sides as he palms my face, uses his thumb to drag my lower lip down and kisses me so violently that our teeth hit and scrape, his tongue sweeping into my mouth to trap mine. I can’t pull away, not with the way he’s holding me, not now that he feels no need to restrain himself.

  Heat blooms between my thighs, my panties soaked so quickly as Ari fucks my mouth with his tongue, his teeth catching my bottom lip as his eyes lock with mine.

  Letting it go, he says, “I plan to punish that lip a lot more in the coming days. Just thought you should know.”

  Bracing a palm on the mattress near my head, he holds himself up while looking down my body.

  “But first, I’ll torture the rest of you for a while.”

  He moves quickly to my feet, locking his hand over the bottom of one to bend my leg and push it out. Running taunting lips over the ankle and up my calf, he takes his time nipping at the skin, his breath so fucking hot that my leg shakes and trembles.

  I hate his patience, only because it drives me mad, the calm control he claims while I’m clinging to sanity, and when he works his way to my inner thigh, he clamps his teeth down on the sensitive skin and sucks.

  I can feel it like an electric shock traveling up and settling at my core. I jerk away on instinct, but his hand locks down, holding me in place as he bruises the skin with a sensual kiss.

  He releases it with a pop, flicks his tongue over the mark and grins against my leg.

  “Number one,” he teases, his voice soft yet gritty.

  “You’re a son of a bitch,” I breathe out, my voice weak as my body shivers.

  Ari laughs, his mouth trailing up the rest of my leg, brushing over my pussy where he breathes me in, the tip of his nose pushing against the wet cotton of my panties, his hands locking on my thighs to shove my legs apart.

  My hips lift on their own, my body no longer connected to thought, just the absolute need I feel for him to fill me, the lust that vibrates beneath my skin, forcing my spine straight as my head rolls over the pillow.

  He works his way down my other leg, another sensual kiss given to my inner thigh, another mark, another bruise, another aggravating, slow torture that forces my hips to move and my back to arch.

  Fuck...

  He warned me about what he would do when he had me to himself, and now I wish for that dark hallway, the rush to drive our bodies together, the lack of patience because there wasn’t time.

  Ari nips my ankle, and I squeak, the zone made erogenous because my entire body is hyperaware, over-sensitive, buzzing with the need for a harder touch, a firmer grip.

  He’s toying with me. Playing my body like an instrument he can use to drive me to insanity.

  “I’m going to kill you when you let me go.”

  With one swift move, he flips me on my stomach, the restraints tighter now that they’re twisted, his body moving as he licks and nips a trail up the back of my thighs.

  Speaking against my skin when he reaches my ass, his breath is a cascade of sinful heat.

  “Good. I’m always up for another fight.”

  His teeth nip the cheek of my ass right where it meets my thigh. “Just remember, winner takes all.”

  And then his teeth lock down harder on the soft flesh of the cheek, his lips closing over and sucking deep as he marks me again. I bury my face in my pillow to muffle the noises coming up my throat, but I know he can hear them anyway.

  His chest shakes with quiet laughter, his body moving again as he kisses a slow trail of the line of my spine, his hands teasing my sides, brushing my breasts where they’re crushed against the mattress.

  When he reaches the nape of my neck, he wraps the length of my hair around his hand and moves it to kiss me on the soft spot just below the hairline.

  I can’t control my body’s reaction, the way I jump at his every touch. It’s almost painful how bad I need him in other places, my thighs sliding together as if that can stop the pulse of my swollen clit.

  Using my hair to tug my head to the side, he presses his mouth to my ear.

  “I bet if I splay your legs open right now and slide my fingers inside your pretty cunt, I’ll discover it’s not fighting you want.”

  I whimper, fucking whimper, at the need he’s driving through me.

  “I bet I’ll find that all those dirty thoughts you had when you were younger were meant just for me.”

  Fingertips trace down my spine, slipping beneath my panties and along the crease of my butt. He dips his fingers down lower to find I’m practically dripping, and his lips stretch into a grin.

  Gently teasing my slit, he refuses to push his fingers inside, my hips bucking against the mattress as if to force him.

  “I happen to love how much of a slut you are. How much you love to be ridden hard.”

  Two fingers slide inside me, and I cry out, my muscles clenching over them, demanding he pump his hand and find that spot inside me that drives me mad.

  When his hands start pumping, he keeps talking, his voice as slow and sensual as his touch.

  “You have no inhibitions when you sleep. No concern for what I see, or touch or taste. I hope you know that. You spread your legs so fucking wide just begging to be filled. I’ve never seen something so pretty.”

  His fingers push deeper, and I’m riding them, not caring how wet it sounds, not giving a damn at all about Ari knowing how wild he makes me.

  “If I get you off now, will you spread the same for me while awake?”

  I nod my head, my eyes clenched shut because he’s intentionally teasing my pussy with his fingers without pushing deep enough.

  And I can feel it, that smile. The bastard only feels joy when torturing me, apparently.

  A sensual whisper. “Do you promise to behave?”

  Another nod. “Please, Ari. Just...please.”

  “Please what?”

  “Make me come,” I beg, no longer concerned for what he’s done. I just need this, need him, need that push over the edge he’s been teasing for what feels like hours.

  “My pleasure.”

  His fingers pull out to slip down and circle my clit, to pinch, to tease before sliding back to pump inside me and find that spot that shoves me over the precipice of control.

  His body presses to mine, the hard ridge o
f his erection against my hip as he torments me with a hard thrust of his fingers, stretching them apart to widen me before thrusting them inside deeper.

  Moans fall over my lips as my body jerks with such a violent orgasm that I bounce over his hand, riding his fingers as I chase it like a wanton whore.

  I can feel the slickness of his fingers, know I’ve made a mess, but I can’t speak through the tremors, can’t see anything but the stars bursting behind my eyelids.

  He continues pumping his hand until my body relaxes, until I’m so out of breath I’m panting over the pillow.

  Teeth lightly nip my ear, and he pulls his hand from my panties to lift them to his mouth.

  After sucking his fingers clean, he moves again, flips me to my back and runs a possessive eye up my body.

  “Take off your pants,” I beg, my voice shaky, my eyes capturing him with the desperation I feel to see all of him. Every part.

  He grins. “I was getting to that. I didn’t take you as the impatient type.”

  “You’re torturing me on purpose.”

  “Observant, too,” he says as he drags the panties from my legs, stepping off the bed while he pulls them from my ankles.

  “Show me how good you can be.”

  When my knees lock together, he cocks his head to the side and lifts a brow.

  I shove my legs apart and his gaze dips down. “Wider.”

  Rolling my eyes, I suck in a raspy breath and push wider, the air crashing against my pussy so cold that it makes me realize how wet I am.

  “Beautiful,” he comments while unbuckling his belt.

  I watch as he slides the leather from his pants in a snapping sound as he pulls it free and then loops it in his hand.

  Eyes rounding at what he intends to do with it, I squirm over the mattress.

  His eyes flash with an idea. “I think you’d like this, wouldn’t you?”

  He drops it on the bed, leaving it there as a taunt while he unbuttons his pants and steps out of them. His erection pushes heavy against his black boxer briefs, popping free when he shoves them off and turns to toss them over the back of the chair where his shirt is.