“Okay. Should I start?” I raise my eyebrows. “Why are you here?”
“You intrigue me, Liv.”
“Sounds like a pathetic excuse for a pick-up line to me.”
“If I was going to use a chat-up line, I know for a fact that wouldn’t work. It’d have to be something dirtier for you.”
I refuse to blush. “Don’t f**k around, Tyler. You’re here for a reason. Now I want to know what it is.”
He studies me for a long moment, his dark eyes flicking across my face and curving over my body. Then he steps forward, once again cupping my jaw, and speaks low. “You’ve driven me crazy ever since you walked into the photoshoot. I never planned to see you again after that f**king amazing night and couldn’t believe you were there. And you were so f**king sexy,” he murmurs, stepping closer to me. “You were so carefree and confident, like you belonged in front of a camera. In front of my camera. Everyone left and you didn’t realize because you were so into what you were doing.”
“It’s not my job to call the end of a shoot. It’s the photographer’s.”
“I know. But there you were, the woman who’d been the reason behind my hard-on for days, and then there you were in Aaron’s apartment. I don’t believe in fate, but that’s a f**king coincidence if I’ve ever seen one.”
“Or a bit of bad luck. Depending how you look at it. Personally, I think it’s Fate’s Big Fuck-Up.”
He smiles, his thumb ghosting over my bottom lip. “Or good luck,” he whispers, leaning in.
I put two fingers over his mouth. “We’re not done talking.”
He pulls my fingers away from his mouth and wraps his hand around the back of my neck, tugging me against him. “I want you, Liv. It’s driving me f**king insane not having you. I thought if we didn’t speak for a few days, if there was no contact whatsoever between us, that I could forget you. But I can’t. I can still taste the sweetness of your kisses on my tongue. I can still f**king feel you clenching around my fingers as you moan into my mouth.”
My heart pounds loudly.
“I want you so f**king much, babe, and I’m not taking no for an answer.”
His lips have barely brushed mine before I push him away. Wants me? No. I don’t do wanting. I don’t—I can’t—want a single person or have them want me.
“Yes, you are, because no is my answer.” I walk around him into my living room, ignoring the desperate coiling of my stomach. “Please leave.”
“Liv.”
“Please. I want you to go.”
Tyler grabs my hand and turns me around to face him. “I spoke to Dayton. She told me you don’t do relationships.”
My lips tug up on one side into a wry smile. “That’s one way to put it.”
“I’m not asking you for a compromise. I’m not asking you to be my f**king girlfriend.” He leans in and runs his nose up my cheek. I breathe in his rich scent as he does and immediately berate myself.
This isn’t what I’m supposed to be doing.
I’m supposed to be pushing his demanding, handsome, British ass away from me.
“Then what are you asking for? Because I don’t understand.” My voice is shaky, betraying the panic tightening my chest.
“I’m asking you for your body.”
“I’m not a f**king booty call.”
“And I won’t treat you as such.” He kisses my jaw, wrapping an arm around my waist. “I don’t generally f**k people more than once. In fact, I don’t think I ever have in my life. But you? Twice isn’t enough. I want to f**k you and know you’ll be there whenever I want you.”
“That’s a booty call,” I snap. “This ridiculous conversation is just going around in circles.” I push him away for the second time and make my way to the front door.
“No strings,” he blurts when I open it.
My eyes cut to him. “What?”
“Shut the door.”
I don’t move.
“Shut the f**king door, Liv.”
I still don’t move. “I refuse to be one of your bitches.”
“You won’t be. You’ll be my only bitch.” He winks, coming up to me. He wrenches the door from my grip and slams it shut. “No strings,” he repeats, turning to me. “An agreement, right now. I want you and I don’t care how I get you. I just have to have you.”
“No strings?” I say slowly. “Just… sex?”
“Yep.”
“Sex can get stringy.”
“Only if there’s bondage involved.”
“Will there be?”
“Do you want there to be?” He raises his eyebrows.
I fold my arms across my chest. “I’m not telling you all my secrets. You’ll have to work them out for yourself.”
He steps into me, pulling my arms from my body. “Is that a yes?”
“That’s an I’m considering it.”
“No strings. No obligations. You won’t have to hang off my arm and look at me with doting eyes. We don’t even tell anyone if that’s what you want. This can be our secret.” He runs his hands down my sides to my hips and pulls me against him. His mouth finds my jaw and travels along it, his next words mumbled against my skin. “You want this, Liv. You want this as much as I do. I can see it in your eyes.”
I do. There’s no denying that I want him. My body reacts to him instantaneously. To his looks, his words, his touches. It’s like he knows exactly how to play me to get me where he wants me.
“There’s a but,” I say softly, resting my hands against his chest. “There’s always, always a but.”
“There’s a very nice butt,” he mutters, his hands curving around mine.
“Tyler.”
He smirks. “Okay, there’s a but. There will be no strings, but you have to do as I say. Always.”
The smirk drops from his face, and I swallow at the intensity his eyes bore into mine with. “In bed?”
“Yes.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“Then you can say no. When it comes to sex, I respect the word no.” He pushes some hair from my face. “I just ask that you try.”
“You want to control me?”
He lowers his face and kisses my jaw again. “No. I want to control your body. I want to make your heart pound and your body hum with pleasure. I want to make you lose your breath. I want to make your pu**y throb, and I want to know it’s all because of me.”