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I look up at him. “This is a terrible idea.”

“Probably,” he agrees, and his mouth finds my jaw as I tip my head back against the wood. His hands slide up my sides as he kisses down my neck.

“Ares,” I groan.

He pulls back to look at me, and I hold his gaze because I need to say this before we go any further.

“Since I know more about you now, before we start, I need you to understand that if you use this to get something from me, I will walk away and won’t come back. That is a rule you cannot break.”

Ares goes completely still. I know he likes rules, Vero shared as much on one of his verbal diarrhea days.

“No manipulation,” he says.

His mouth comes back to my jaw, and his hands squeeze my hips. Fuck, he feels so good pressed up against me. He drags his mouth down my neck again, and it’s torture.

My grip on his shirt tightens as I pull his body closer to mine. “You’re doing this on purpose.”

“Doing what?” he asks, and I swear I can feel his lips smirk against my skin.

“Going slow, it’s torture.”

He pulls back, and for the first time, I really see him without his walls up. “Yeah, I am.”

I let go of his shirt and slide my hands up the back of his neck, dragging him down to my mouth. He makes a sound against my lips as he pulls my body flush against his.

“Kayla,” he whispers.

“Don’t stop.”

Ares’s hands tug at my jeans, and mine go to his belt. His mouth finds my throat again, and I drag my nails down his back, causing him to inhale a sharp breath. When he finally gets my jeans down, I make a sound that would have embarrassed me if I had the capacity right now.

“Good?” he asks against my neck as I toe off my shoes.

“If you stop to ask me that again, I will lose my fucking mind.”

He chuckles while I shimmy my pants the rest of the way off, and I almost stop to stare in surprise. This side of Ares is one I’d like to witness, but then his hands move, and I forget what I was going to do.

Ares lifts me, and I wrap my legs around his hips as he slams my back against the door. He isn’t gentle, but I don’t want that right now. Even so, his movements are controlled, which is infuriating and so fucking attractive at the same time. As he yanks my panties out of the way and thrusts inside me, I tip my head back and grab a nearby shelf. Something falls off, but neither of us stop.

“Fuck,” I say as he stretches me as much as I can take.

He moves, fucking me against the door, and I am unable to think about anything else. I match him thrust for thrust. He wants people to need him, and I’m not sure if he realizes just how much I need him right now.

When I come apart, I bite down on his neck. His arm is wrapped tight around me, pulling me in close as I ride out the waves until he joins me, whispering my name against my skin. We catch our breath for a few moments, then I drop my legs from around his waist, and he holds me steady while I find my balance.

As I retrieve my jeans from the floor beside me and pull them up, he reaches past me and picks up whatever dropped on the floor, placing it back on the shelf.

“Do we need to finish the inventory?” I ask him.

“I’ll deal with it tomorrow.”

With a nod, I open the storage room door, and he follows me out. As we walk out of the bar and lock up, I get the weird feeling again, almost as if we are being watched, but when I look, there is no one around. Ares appears unbothered and leads me to where his motorbike is parked, then hands me a helmet. The sound of his bike starting cuts through the silence, so I climb on, wrapping my arms around him and pressing my face against his back.

The ride back to my loft doesn’t take as long at this time of night. When he pulls up to the curb, I want to ask him to come in, but I won’t. I worked so hard to gain my independence, and it was bad enough that I called Clay to check out my apartment.

“Make sure you lock your door and windows.”

I snort. “Yes, Dad.”