Page 184 of Primal

A few steps more and I turn—

—we’re inches apart and she’s trembling as if I touched her, said the things I won’t say. As if she were fucking mine.

Her lips part, but she stays silent.

“Say it,” I grind out.

She blinks. “Say what?”

“That it didn’t mean anything to you.”

She swallows. “I didn’t say that.”

“No. But you sure as hell made it feel that way.” A deep breath. “What do you need, Payton? An apology? A goddamn thank you? Would that get you out the door?”

She lifts her chin. “Do you really want me gone?”

Fuck it.

I take her hand. Drag it across the front of my sweatpants. My cock hardens even more—a savage pulse of yes, this, finally, mine.

“That answer your question?”

She jerks, tries to pull away, but I keep her hand right where it is—pressed against the proof I can’t hide.

Her chest heaves, those green eyes dark, furious, glistening.

I step into her, stroking the inside of her wrist with my thumb.

“Didn’t take you for the clingy type.” Either I’m an asshole—or too high off this war, this wreckage.

I expect a slap. Or at least one of her sassy comebacks.

Her fingers wrap around my cock. “Fuck you.”

I back her into the wall. Brace one hand beside her head, the other wrapped around her wrist, pulse kicking under my thumb.

“Is that what you want?” I drag my mouth from her neck to her ear. “One last fuck to get me out of your system?”

Her breathy laugh goes straight to my dick. She sags back, eyelids heavy, gaze still burning. “I came to return your shitty cameras.”

“Don’t lie to me, little fox.”

Something flickers in her eyes. Her bottom lip trembles.

My mouth hovers near hers—not enough to count as a kiss.

Her breath shakes. She drags me down to her—

My hands drop to her waist. Hold her still. “I’m not touching you unless you tell me what you want.”

“Fuck you.”

“Keep that up and I’ll have you begging with your mouth full.”

She shudders. Buries her face in my neck, fingers digging into my hips.

My heart’s punching bone, but my hands don’t move.