The Arrangement 10 (Ferro Family) (3 page)

He nods curtly and heads to the bathroom to turn on the shower. When he returns, he walks toward me like he knows
exactly what he plans to do. Sean’s hands reach for the hem of my shirt, where they pause as he looks up into my eyes. My breath catches in my throat as my heart explodes, racing even faster than before. Not knowing what he’s doing, combined with that look, knocks the breath out of me. I can barely stand as he strips me.

First
, the shirt comes over my head and I fold my arms over my chest. I don’t mean to do it, but I can’t help myself. Sean is intimidating when he has this look in his eyes. It’s like he’s found a mouse to bat around and plans to keep the poor creature in play long enough to take what he wants. There’s a carnal side to him that scares me, because I know what he wants—what he needs. Sean’s taken it from me before and doing that again terrifies me. I wonder exactly what I just gave him permission to do.

Sean’s thumbs
hook into the sides of my panties, as his eyes rake over the swells of my breasts, half hidden by my arms. He slips the fabric over my hips, making me suck in a sharp breath as he tugs them.

Why can’t I tell him no? I can tell Marty no. No. Say it, Avery! Tell him that he can’t have you! But I want him.
And that’s the truth. I want this to be real so badly that I’m willing to pretend, even if it’s for a little while. Maybe I’m not totally mental, I mean stripping isn’t the same as sex and he’s already seen me naked. This body should be old news to him, right?

Based on the look on Sean’s face, this body will never be old news. I like how he makes me feel. Goddess
es would blush if he looked at them like that. Those blue eyes, that wicked smirk, and the way he’s so close but not close enough—Sean Ferro makes me totally crazy.

Sean kneels in front of me as he slowly slips my bottoms down over my thighs. He’s right in front of me, close enough to do all sorts of naughty things with hi
s face right there. I’m utterly still as I shift my weight, foot to foot, and he pulls my panties off. Sean wads them in his hand and lifts them to his face before breathing in deeply. This time when his eyes flash upward, I can’t breathe at all. His look shoots through my body and into my core in a single, hot streak. Dirty thoughts fly through my mind without caution. I hope he grabs my ass hard and pulls the V at the top of my legs to his face, so he can lick me generously, from ass to clit. While he’s still on his knees, I picture him burying his face in my lower lips, licking and sucking my sensitive skin, driving his tongue deeper and deeper inside me, while he pulls my hips down hard, as if he can’t get enough. My entire body is trembling, watching Sean, waiting to see what he’ll do.

But the sexy man
doesn’t do those things. Instead, he rises from the floor and reaches for me, taking my hands from my breasts. His eyes don’t lift from my chest, where my nipples are tightening into hard little nubs. Heart racing, I manage to stand there and let him stare, but the aching in my breasts—the desire to touch and be touched—worsens.

T
he way he’s breathing makes me yearn for his hands on my flesh. My skin is so sensitive, so ready to be felt, but Sean remains still, standing there looking at me like he’s never going to see my body like this again.

His eyes slip over every curve, memorizing all of me
, until his chin tips up. “I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you, and it amazes me that you still try to cover yourself, like you don’t know how desirable and perfect your body truly is. Don’t hide from me, Avery. Not tonight. I won’t touch you. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to.”

I can’t find my voice, so I nod, and get treated to a light smile. His eyes travel up and down my body again, and I wish they were
his hands. Or his lips and that sinful tongue. Long, wet licks sound about right. I’m too tired to think and too lusty to stand there like I’m not. His eyes fixate on my right breast and I wonder if that’s his favorite. The question floating through my mind falls out of my mouth without much thought. “If you could lower your lips to any place on my body, but you only had one kiss, where would you choose?”

Sean looks at me through those dark lashes and
smiles. “May I show you?”

The giddy part of me that’s turned into a
lust ridden siren replies, “Yes.”

I wonder what he’s going to do, because Sean hesitates. His eyes drop to my nipples, one at a time, and then he steps back
, looking me over. Sean circles me once, slowly, making my heart slam into my ribs even harder. The place between my legs is so hot, and throbbing hard. I want him so badly and I’m hoping he picks some place really racy to kiss me. His lips pressed between my thighs would be heaven. That mouth on my breast, sucking and teasing me into oblivion sounds delicious, too.

Sean stops in front of me a
nd looks down into my face. Lowering his head slowly he presses his mouth to mine. The heat from his lips bursts into flames when the kiss connects. I want to grab his head with my hands and pull his hair, but I keep my hands plastered to my sides. This is his kiss and I want to see what he does, so I don’t move.

S
ean kisses me again, gently pressing against me. Sean’s bottom lip catches mine and he nips me lightly before sliding his tongue over the seam of my mouth. I part my lips for him, but Sean doesn’t kiss me that way. It’s the most innocent, chaste kiss he’s ever given me. When Sean pulls away I nearly fall over. I rasp, like someone sucker-punched me, and stare at him.

He doesn’t explain what he did or why. Sean simply extends his hand and says, “Come on
, Miss Smith. I need to clean you up and get you to bed.”

I slip my palm into his and follow him into the bathroom. He helps me into the shower, but doesn’t give me a washcloth or soap. “Rinse off and call me when you’re ready.”

“Ready for what?” My voice barely comes out.

S
ean makes an amused sound as he tugs the curtain closed. Uh, I didn’t think I was funny just then, but okay.

I let the water pound my face and my back, but I’m strung so tight that I’ll never sleep, not now. Not with Sean here. After a few moments, I decide against giving myself
a good time. With my luck, he’ll walk in on me and that would be completely mortifying. Doing it in front of someone is different than doing it on camera. There’s separation, and it didn’t feel as dirty. Maybe I should just go to sleep. I do want soap though, and a soft pillow sounds nice, especially if my loins simmer down, so I call him.

Sean returns without his shirt, but he’s still dressed. I can’t hide
my disappointment, but I try. Apparently, I do a shitty job. Sean smiles at me. “Hoping for something else?” I shrug. “I hate it when you do that. Say something. Own it. Tell me what you’re thinking, what you’re hoping for. I want to hear.”

“You don’t like it when I shrug? That’s an old man thing to say. You can’t say stuff like that,” I tease. I figure that I look like a drown
ed rat, but Sean’s gaze says something else. Drowned rats aren’t fuckable and his eyes say that I am. If he gave me a bar of soap I would have dropped it and bent over just to see what he’d do. No wonder he took the soap away.

R
eaching forward, he wets a washcloth before putting soap on it. “Hands,” he says, and I give them to him, holding them out like he’s going to handcuff me. Sean flips them over and washes each one carefully, while he speaks. “I am old. Besides, you know your mind. I wish you weren’t so afraid to speak it.”

I nearly double over with laughter. “You think that’s the problem? That I don’t want to tell you what I think? I can tell you. Believe me, that’s not it.”

“Okay,” he says, as he abandons the washcloth and dumps more shower gel into his hands, “tell me where you wanted me to kiss you before.” His palms land on my upper arms and work the gel into a lather. Oh my God, it feels good.

“I don’t know. I hadn’t decided. Either right breast or, uh—”

“Say it.” His voice is commanding, like he’ll whip me if I don’t confess this second.

“Between my legs?” Why did that sound like a question?

Sean smirks as his hands rub soap over my stomach and up to my ribs. “I can get you to say exactly what you’re thinking without any hesitation at all. I just—”

That makes me laugh. “No you can’t. That’s a bunch of
bullsheeee.” My voice jumps an octave when his fingers wrap around my nipples and squeeze. My chin drops and I squeal as my back arches toward his hands. The touch is pure agony because he keeps his distance on the other side of the tub. I can’t rock my hips against his and there’s no outlet for the torture between my legs.

“What were you saying?
” Sean smiles devilishly as water splashes up onto his bare chest. The only thing I can think about is licking each drop off with my tongue. I have no idea what he was talking about. “Oh, yes, tell me where you wanted my mouth during that kiss.” He rubs his fingers, pressing gently, watching my eyes as he does.

My mouth open
s into a wide O and I squeak. “Between my legs.”

He shakes his head. “Not good enough.” His fingers clamp down like vices on my tender flesh.

Gasping, I try to pull away from him, but it just makes it worse. Pleasure and pain responses are firing through my brain like a lightning storm. He needs to let go or do more to sate my lust. Sean catches my eye and is watching me closely. I know he likes to see the pain dancing across my face, but he doesn’t take things too far. Not this time.

I’m making noises that will haunt me in daylight, and am close to hopping—what’s that about?—but I don’t answer him the way he wants, so he starts to twist. Oh. My. God.
Suddenly the shower feels like fingers all over my skin and I gasp again and again as he tightens his grip. Coils of heat shoot through my core and my knees buckle, but Sean doesn’t allow me to dip. He holds me in place by my breasts, with his dark eyes on my face, fixated, and expressionless.

“Tell me
,” he commands, as his hands twist both nipples in the same direction while increasing the pressure. I want to say it. I do, but I can’t talk like that when I’m not in the heat of the moment. It’s wrong or something. But my poor tatas are going to be stuck in a corkscrew shape if I don’t talk soon. “Say it.” He commands me again and twists the other way, increasing pressure as he does so.

“Pussy!” I
blurt out. “I wanted you to kiss my pussy and lick me--hard.” The last word catches in my throat. I don’t look up at him. Saying stuff like that, out loud, to Sean, is unthinkable. I’m caught between pleasure and pain, somewhere between heaven and hell, with this beautifully twisted man watching streams of water flow over my body.

Sean doesn’t show any emotion, instead he slowly unt
wists my nipples and eases up on the pressure, but he doesn’t let go. I glance up at him. As if he can read my mind, he explains, “It’ll hurt more if I just let go.”

“More than before?”

He nods and then asks, “Why can’t you just take what you want?”

I can’t shrug because his hands are still on my breasts, holding me.
“Why do you have to manipulate me? Why can’t you just say you want to fuck me?”

“Because I don’t want to fuck you.” He releases more pressure and then let’s go.
Those blue eyes burn like twin flames.

My breast
s ache because of what he did and because he’s gone. “Yeah, you want to own me. I got it and I’m not for sale. Well, I am, but that’s more like renting than buying me.” I have no idea what I’m saying. I’m mad he did that and angry that he got a confession that was so deep, so fast, and then he says he’s not interested.

I lift my hand to slap him in the face. Every single time the man grabs my
wrist and stops me, but not this time. There’s a loud crack when my wet palm lands on his cheek. His sapphire eyes stare at me without remorse as I slip my hand away. “I don’t want to buy you. I don’t want to fuck you. Ask me why, Avery.”

I’m trembling, wondering what came over him. The water is hot,
but I shiver anyway and look away. “No.” I can’t fathom why or what he wants. Not after everything we’ve been through. I want to cry. He doesn’t want me at all anymore? He just wants to cause me pain? I can’t deal with this.

“No?
” He sounds shocked. “You can’t say no.”

“Yes,
I can and I just did.” He’s looking at me like he wants to throw me through the wall. I plaster my arms across my nipples so he can’t make me say anything else I’ll regret.

Sean’s gaze drops for a moment. When he looks back up, his eyes flash. “If that’s the way you want it.”

I’ve won. He’s backing down. Sean turns around and opens the bathroom door. He’s leaving, but then he turns back and grins wolfishly before stepping into the shower with me. I screech as the water sprays everywhere. It streams down his cheeks and plasters his hair to his face, as Sean presses my back into the cold tile wall.

Sucking in a sharp breath, I try to move, but he pins me. “Ask me why.” His eyes search mine and I’m no longer sure what he’s going to say. “Ask me why I don’t want a fuck
, or why I don’t want to buy you. Ask me why I don’t want to share you with Black or anyone else. Ask me why my dick is hard and I’m still wearing pants, pressing my body against the most beautiful woman in existence. Ask me why she’s naked and I’m not. Ask me, Avery. Ask me anything. I’m begging you.” There’s a soft plea in his voice that nearly breaks me, but I can’t bear to hear his answer.