Page 77 of The Catch

"I didn't reject you. Please. Ames—"

"You've been so good to me. So generous. Last night you were genuinely kind. Can I ask you for this, too? Please, Saint? It's the last thing I'll ever ask."

The wrinkle between his brows intensifies, and the inner corners pull up in an unhappy gesture.

"It won't take much." I make a gesture to the people dancing around us. "Help me pick. Then tell me what you would want from someone trying to seduce you. What would turn you on, if I were someone else?"

"You have no idea, do you?"

His voice is gravelly, clear to my ears despite the loud music around us.

"I have no idea what I'm doing." I shake my head. "That's why I need your help."

He watches me for a long minute.

He smirks. "Don't ask me to help you pick someone else when I'm right here."

I blink a few times. "What?"

He guides me back, his step certain, slipping past a velvet rope telling us we shouldn't go where he leads me. He doesn't let it stop us, like such rules are not meant for him.

The light on the dance floor is already low, but in the nook under the stairs it's almost nonexistent.

He pushes me against the wall. I gasp.

"Next thing," he says, "you'll tell me I can add it to the rent invoice as consulting services."

He lets out a humorless chuckle. The barest hint of irritation weighs down his voice, in a tone I had never heard coming from him.

He rests his forearms by my side on the wall, hands under my shoulders. It brings him right next to me, and it cages me.

"Saint— I—"

"I won't help you pick. If this is what you want, then I don't trust anyone else to do it. This is what I'm good at, isn't it? What I'm good for."

"What do you mean—"

"I'll show you what I do." He presses on me. "Do you want fun sex? Mind-blowing sex? Short-term sex with no strings attached, so you can walk away when you're done with me? I'll be that for you. I'll be your rebound."

He's hard against me and, with a roll of his hips, he makes sure I know it.

I gasp. I cling to his shoulders. I'm sure my nails must be hurting him, but I can't stop it, and he doesn't complain.

"I'll be such a good boy for you, Ames, you're going to thank me at the end. I'm a ride you won't forget."

I forget how to breathe. His confidence and his promise, and the shock drumming in my chest at his suggestion— an electric current runs through my skin, and every tiny hair in my body stands at attention.

"Is this a good idea?" I finally gasp.

"I doubt it," he rasps, "but isn't that partly why you want this?"

"Do you mean it?" I fist my hands on his satin shirt. "I thought you didn't— want me—"

He lets out a pained, unbelieving laugh, and kisses me.

Chapter 26

Ames