Page 110 of What Comes Around

“Okay.”

His voice dropped even lower. “Say it back to me.”

“Red means stop. Yellow means slow down.”

“And ‘no’?” he asked.

“Doesn’t mean no.”

“And ‘stop’?”

“Doesn’t mean stop.”

His jaw flexed, like he was barely holding himself together. “Good girl.”

Heat rushed through me.

He leaned in, his lips brushing mine without kissing me. “Now tell me what you want. Clearly.”

I exhaled shakily. “I want you to take control.”

His breath hitched. “More.”

“I want you to pin me down.”

He closed his eyes for a second, like the words hit him hard.

“And?” he whispered.

I held his gaze. “I want to fight. I want you to take.”

When he opened his mismatched eyes again, they were darker than I’d ever seen.

For a moment he didn’t speak. He just held me against him, my legs still wrapped around his waist, his hands gripping me.

Then his voice dropped, low and rough. “You really want that.”

It wasn’t a question. It was a confirmation.

A final check.

“Yes,” I whispered.

Something in him shifted, a subtle tightening of his jaw, a deeper breath, a flicker of something fierce and controlled in his eyes. The kind of look that told me he had just crossed a line in his mind, one he’d been holding back from for weeks.

“Then listen carefully,” he said.

He let me slide down his body, so my feet touched the floor, but he didn’t step away. He stood right in front of me, his chest rising and falling slowly, his eyes never leaving mine.

The air between us felt electric.

“You asked for the game,” he murmured. “So here’s how it starts.”

My breath caught.

He leaned in, his lips brushing my ear. “Run.”

A shiver shot through me. For a heartbeat I didn’t move.