Vengeance in His Bed

"There is no way in hell I could ever do that," Dorrent instantly growled out, his tone dropping an octave. "I will never have other men feasting their eyes on your bare skin."

Jannah threw her hands up in frustration. "Then where the hell is the difference between a bikini and this dress?!" she yelled back, pointing at the emerald silk on the bed. "It literally shapes my body like a second layer of skin!"

"Of course it shapes your body," Dorrent admitted smoothly, his expression softening slightly back into an arrogant composure. "It highlights your silhouette, but it doesn’t show excessive skin in the wrong places. It is elegant, revealing only what is necessary."

Jannah glared at him, her chest heaving. "Why did you pick this specific dress, Dorrent? What is your actual point?!"

Dorrent stepped right up to the edge of the mattress, towering over her as he looked down into her eyes with a quiet, surprisingly profound intensity.

"Because I want to be proud of you," Dorrent delivered softly, his voice filled with unshakeable sincerity. "I want people to look at us and see how extraordinarily blessed I am to have you by my side. And besides... didn’t you tell me once that you wanted a man who would be proud to walk with you in public? A man who wouldn’t hide you away in the shadows? This is it, Jannah."

Jannah felt a sudden, seismic shift within her chest.

The harsh, defiant words she had prepared to spit at him completely disintegrated on her tongue. Her heart gave a throb, fluttering uncontrollably inside her ribs. She looked up into his striking eyes, searching for a single trace of deceit or arrogant mockery, but all she found was a possessive pride. He truly meant every single word.

The intensity of his gaze made her feel so completely exposed, so intensely seen, that her rebellious wall crumbled into dust. She swallowed hard, her eyes darting away to the side as her cheeks burned with an overwhelming, uncontrollable warmth.

Dorrent noticed her sudden, quiet shift. A soft, knowing smirk touched his lips. "Are you satisfied now, little physician?"

Jannah didn’t reply. She kept her lips firmly pressed together, reaching out with a slightly trembling hand to set the dress quietly onto the nightstand beside her.

Dorrent raised an eyebrow. "Aren’t you going to try it on right now?"

"I’ll do it later," Jannah muttered softly, avoiding his eyes.

"No," Dorrent stated firmly, taking another step closer. "I want you to put it on this minute. We have a schedule to keep."

Jannah snapped her head back up, her defensive instincts rearing their head again. "Fine! But I am going to do it completely alone! I am not having you standing in this room feasting on my body, only to end up making me spread my legs for you again!"

A broad, wicked smirk broke across Dorrent’s handsome face, his eyes flashing with an explicitly playful light. "As much as I would absolutely love to do exactly that right now, little omega..." he purred, raising his hands in a mock gesture of surrender, "...I promise you I won’t touch you like that. But that dress is structurally far too difficult for you to put on alone. You need my help to tie the internal stays and back-strings."

"I don’t need your help!" Jannah fired back instantly, her face burning. "I will do it alone! Or I’ll just have Avana come up and help me put it on!"

Dorrent’s expression went completely flat in a split second. "There is no way in hell Avana is coming anywhere near this room to help you put on that dress."

Jannah blinked, utterly confused by his sudden, icy refusal. "Why the hell not?! She is a woman! She works here!"

"Because Avana likes women," Dorrent delivered flatly, his eyes narrowing into two dangerous slits. "And I will not have another person, female or otherwise, feasting their eyes on your bare body."

Jannah let out an incredulous, dramatic laugh, staring at him as if he had grown a second head. "Are you serious right now?! So what if she likes women?! I don’t like women! Nothing is going to happen between us!"

Dorrent leaned down, placing both of his hands on either side of her hips on the mattress, trapping her within his massive frame as he brought his face mere inches from hers.

"How can you be so sure about that, Jannah?" Dorrent rasped out, his voice thick with a possessive dark aura. "When I am the only man you have ever been intimate with in your entire life? How do I know you won’t suddenly turn out to like women if you get enough stimulation from one?"

Jannah stared at his insanely handsome, dead-serious face, completely baffled by the absurdity of his words. "You are insanely, pathologically insecure!" she yelled, trying to push his shoulders back.

Dorrent suddenly reached out, his hand gently yet firmly cupping her small chin, tilting her face up so her eyes were forced to look straight into his serious irises.

"As handsome as I am, Jannah..." Dorrent delivered, his baritone dropping into a raw, vulnerable frequency that sent a sharp tremor through her chest, "...and as much as I have everything this city can offer... having a remarkably beautiful, stubborn woman like you makes me feel profoundly insecure. The thought that you could be snatched away from me by anyone else... is something I will never, ever stand."

Jannah froze beneath his grip.

The raw, unvarnished sincerity gleaming in his silver eyes hit her like a physical blow. Her breath trapped itself in her throat, her chest heaving as her heart fluttered wildly, beating so hard against her ribs she was terrified he could hear it. A strange, intoxicating warmth bloomed within her soul, melting away her remaining anger.

Dorrent held her gaze for a long, heavy beat before a subtle, wicked glint returned to his eyes. His lips curved into a smug, arrogant grin as he added smoothly:

"But... even if you did somehow end up with Avana, little physician... she could never, ever pleasure you the way I do."

Jannah’s emotional atmosphere instantly shattered. She blinked, her jaw tightening as she stared at him in utter shock. "And why the hell not?!" she demanded, her cheeks flushing crimson.

"Because Avana doesn’t have a dick," Dorrent purred explicitly right against her lips, his voice thick with an arrogant pride. "And you, my sweet little physician... love my dick far too much."

Jannah’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. A wave of intense, boiling embarrassment washed over her entire body, making her feel as though she were on fire. "I DO NOT!" she shrieked, shoving his face away with all her strength. "You are an insufferable, disgusting narcissist!"

"Oh really?" Dorrent chuckled low, his hand sliding down to lightly rest on her hip bone, his thumb caressing her waist through her clothes. "Then why do you always shift your hips so desperately to meet my thrusts whenever I am deep inside you? Why do you cling to my shoulders like you can’t get enough of me? You can lie to the world, Jannah... but you can’t lie to me."

"Shut up! Shut up!" Jannah screamed, her face burning like molten lava as she frantically pulled the blanket over her head, completely mortified by his explicit, painfully accurate accusations. "If you are going to continue spitting absolute nonsense, then get the hell out of my room right now!"

Dorrent’s dark, rumbling laughter echoed loudly through the room. He reached down and firmly pulled the blanket off her head, his eyes gleaming with triumph as he looked down at her flushed and wildly embarrassed face.

"I am not leaving this room, Jannah," Dorrent purred darkly, his thumb gently tracing her hot cheekbone. "Not until you are fully dressed in that dress."