“What? Too much for you?” she asked, reading him perfectly. “Because I’ll remind you I was up on my feet all evening while you were sitting with the Bowens having dinner.”
True. She’d been running all over tending to patrons and still had had the time and energy to visit with the Bowens as they’d been telling him about the freaky news of their lost sister.
Elle studied him for a long second before she spoke again. “You didn’t answer when Cole asked why you were taking my side.”
No, he hadn’t answered and he wouldn’t now. The truth of the matter was he hadn’t liked seeing Elle pushed against the wall. Sassy little thing that she was, the Bowens didn’t understand that she thought too much of them to give them her wrath.
Pity she didn’t have the same issue with Jack.
“You could have gotten rid of me today very easily, yet you didn’t. You like having me around; admit it,” she said with a smirk.
He dodged her statement. “You like pissing me off; admit it.”
“Wrong, Borg. I looove pissing you off.”
It figured.
She pondered for a second, then added, “I think it’s that don’t-fuck-with-me vibe of yours. It makes me, you know, want to fuck with you.”
His cock stood at full attention at the way her eyes danced with laughter and her lips quirked up. Such a tease.
“You don’t want to fuck with me, pet.”
“But I do.”
“You can’t take me on. I like my women tied up. Ball-gagged. Blindfolded. Plug up their asses. Pussy spread open for me to fuck it however I want. If I take the gag off, it’s to fuck their mouths.”
He was going for shock effect, not that he was exaggerating much. That didn’t shock her. She just whistled. “Wow. No wonder you forget they’re in your bed. How do they communicate? What about the safe word? Do you give them a pad and they use their fingertips to Morse it to you?” She imitated Morse-code-like sounds and added, mimicking a robot, “Tap. Taptaptap. Please scratch my nose. Dying here.”
In spite of himself, he smiled. “You are a smart-ass.”
“Thanks, I do my best. You didn’t admit you like having me around,” she pressed on, changing the subject.
“Because I don’t.” He hated having her around. Hated what she did to him, how easily she got his attention. How he couldn’t think straight whenever she was near him. How he couldn’t shock her into compliance.
“You’re a shitty liar, Borg.” In a swift movement, she straddled him. “Hasn’t anyone told you you’re handsome when you smile?”
He curtly shook his head, frozen as he was with sensory overload.
“They are probably distracted by the growls and the ice-cold stares.”
“And you aren’t?”
“They don’t bother me.”
No shit. They rolled off her back. Nothing seemed to faze her.
“I think they’re damn sexy. Can I ask you something?” Before he nodded, she was already talking, her hands flat on his chest. “Why do you kiss me all the time?”
Her sweet mouth was so close to his he could smell the tiramisu gelato she’d been eating. Vanilla with a little kick from the coffee, just like her. Tamping down the need to ravish her lips, he answered matter-of-factly, “To shut you up. And I wouldn’t say it’s all the time. Just when strictly necessary.”
“So all I need to do to get you to kiss me is chatter?”
Actually, all she had to do was look at him. Hell, breathing was enough.
That he kept to himself. It was already bad enough that his dick was jumping up and down from excitement, pounding against the zipper, trying to break through his jeans.
She felt it too, he could tell. It was in the smugness in her eyes. “Not interested,” she said, unstraddling him, a cocky smile on her lips. “I know you think I’m borderline slutty, but I’m not. I’m searching for the one. And you so are not.”
She strode to the TV and turned it on.
Suddenly, Jack jackknifed, and crowding her, turned it off, gripping her waist when she tried to swirl around.
“Really?” he growled in her ear.
“Really what?” she whispered, attempting to hide her surprise.
“You’re not interested? That’s why you sway around me half-naked, your nipples hard as stones? Why you sit on my cock?”
“I’m not the one sneaking into your bed at night. Or kissing you all the time.”
“No, you’re the one jacking off in the shower.” Her intake of breath was loud and sharp. She tried again to turn but he tightened the hold he had on her. “No. Keep still.”
Her voice was husky and so fucking sexy. “Why?”
“Because I say so.” And because his cock was hard enough pressed against her ass. Didn’t need any more visual stimuli.
She snorted, her tone incredulous. “Is that supposed to work on me?”
“Oh, but it works on you,” he said and kissed her throat, feeling her body tremble. “You know what your problem is, pet? You go for men who are used to wearing the pants, but you tell them what pants to wear. They cave in; you win and then lose interest. You can’t tell me which pants to wear. I don’t work that way.”