In another time I’d have told him off, that he didn’t have any right to decide who I would talk to and who I wouldn’t. But at that moment, I decided to cool him down first.

“I was just talking to him about work. And yes, I do like him. But just as a friend. Nothing else.”

My heart skipped when my back hit the wall and I realized I had no other way to escape with him standing just a hand away from me. I was stuck between him and the wall. Closing the rest of the distance, he put his hands on both sides of my head on the wall, trapping me completely.

Leaning closer, he said, “And it’s better if it remains that way. It’d be good for him.”

I frowned at his warning. “What’s wrong with you? You’re behaving like a caveman!”

My breath hitched as he pulled me against him, resting his forehead against mine. The heady scent of his had me light-headed. “You’re mine, Rosebud. And I can be worse when it comes to you.”

Staring in his stormy grays, I went speechless at the intensity of his words.

“I have been going mad since last night, thinking about what your answer would be. You weren’t picking up my calls or answering my messages.” He sighed, brushing his thumb on my cheek. “I was even outside of your house last night, but seeing the lights of your room off, I left.”

I gasped. “You were outside my house? Why?”

“For your answer.”

Oh!

I averted my eyes from his piercing ones, biting my lip. “I-I can’t go on a date with you just like that.”

“Why?” His tone was somber.

“Because…” I trailed off, not knowing how to give him an answer.

His shoulders tensed as his nostrils flared. “Is it for that boyfriend of yours? That boy is still in your life?”

I remained silent.

With his lips curling into a sneer, his arms tightened around me. “When will you stop denying us? When will you let that sham of your relationship go and accept the truth? The truth that you belong to me?”

When I still didn’t say anything, closing his eyes, he let out a breath. When those gray pools opened again, it wasn’t anger that I witnessed. It was pain and exhaustion.

My heart clenched at being the reason for his pain.

Cupping my cheeks, he grazed his lips at the curve of mine. I let out a shaky breath at the tingling sensation his touch left behind. My heart pounded beneath my chest.

Was going to kiss me again?