Chapter Eight #3
Even as his hands pawed at my hips, my instincts gravitated toward him to save me instead of hurt me. To save me from...himself.
A part of me didn’t believe he would do this.
All while the truth slapped me in the face.
His weight proved it. His rutting hips forced me to accept that whatever undercurrents I felt from him, whatever secrets he hid couldn’t redeem him for being exactly what I feared.
“Stop it!” I yanked on his hair.
He groaned and dragged his hand up my ribcage. “Keep fighting and see what happens.”
“Don’t!”
His fingers clamped over my breast, cupping me entirely. I’d always been well endowed for my frame—courtesy of my whorish birth mother, I assumed—but Henri’s large palm swallowed every piece of my flesh.
He groaned and bit me again. “Merde, you feel so good. So fucking good.”
The tangled mess inside me chose that exact moment to let loose.
All his warnings not to fight. All his cryptic words and darkly given promises couldn’t hold back my shattering.
I screamed.
I screeched and lost all sense of self.
I scratched his cheeks. I kicked his legs. I punched his shoulders. I sobbed and begged and—
“Jesus Christ.” He grabbed my jaw and slammed my head into the grass.
Stars danced in my vision as his fingers dug against my teeth.
His furious face gilded with gold dawnlight as his eyes shot black, latching onto my mouth.
“It’s gonna happen eventually. I’m going to have to fuck you eventually.
” He nodded as if convincing himself. “Might as well be now.”
With a grunt, he shifted his hips and fumbled between us. Yanking his belt undone, he struggled with his zipper.
I stiffened.
I ceased fighting.
I did my best to be smart and went as meek and as feeble as a dead mouse. “Please...” I sniffed back tears. “Please...don’t.”
He paused.
The storm clouds in his eyes receded just a little. A splinter of grey in a sea of black as he stared at me and sucked in a breath.
And something happened.
The monstrosity inside him retreated. The hunger in his touch and the ferocity in his veins returned to a hot-blooded male instead of a cold-blooded beast.
Sucking in a heavy breath, he looked up. His throat revealed cords of power as he muttered a curse. “They’re coming.”
I didn’t know why I suddenly felt a kinship with him.
Why, in that moment, it felt like it was us against them.
But I embraced it. I was willing to try anything. “Tell me. Right now.”
He scowled and looked down, pinning me with his stare. “Tell you what?”
“Tell me who you truly are.”
He huffed and shook his head. “I’m exactly who you think I am.” He pressed his cock between my spread and powerless legs. “I’m hard and ever so close to taking everything I’ve ever wanted.”
Prickles darted over my skin, and despite my fear and honest-to-God hatred of him, something horrible heated in my core. Just a flicker. Just a tease. But it did something to me that Sam had never been able to achieve in four years.
He licked his lips as his gaze latched onto my mouth. “Stop looking at me like that.”
I blinked away nonsensical fog. “Like how?”
“Like you might finally be listening to me.” He bent and whispered, “That you might finally see what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
I arched beneath him as his cock twitched against me. “What are you trying to tell me?”
He grabbed a handful of my hair. “That I’m your only chance to survive this.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “But I do know you’ll suffer far worse if you don’t trust me.”
“Trust you?” I scoffed. “How could I ever—”
“You don’t have a choice.” His chin tipped down; he dragged his nose along my cheek to my ear.
“They’re almost here. I let you tell me no on the plane, but that shit stops right now.
You’re in a place where women are toys and men are kings.
You’re probably cursing all your actions since meeting me, but I’m cursing all mine since I learned who I descended from.
” He licked me as if he truly was a beast from a nightmare.
“Something is inside me. Something not normal. Something not nice. While you fight me, it comes out to play. But...if you tug on the part of me that wants to protect you...I might just have the strength not to lose myself entirely.”
I shivered as dew from the grass soaked into my skin. “I don’t understand any of that.”
His eyes flashed up again, and his demeanour slipped into sharp and nasty. “You don’t have to. Play along with me, and hopefully, I’ll have the strength not to snap.”
He didn’t give me a chance to agree.
His hand grabbed my chin, tipped my head back, and then...he kissed me.
His lips smashed over mine.
Fire ignited.
Smoke burned.
Embers sparked.
I gasped as his tongue forced its way into my mouth. I couldn’t move. I’d never been held so cruelly all while his lips bruised mine and his tongue gagged me until I opened wide.
So, so wide.
His fingers dug into the sides of my cheeks, keeping me open, once again proving I had no strength, no control. His domination drenched my system with loathing as well as disgusting, despicable lust. He scrambled me up and choked me with his need.
His tongue speared deep, hunting mine, eating me alive.
He groaned as his hand dropped from my jaw to my throat.
I froze as he pressed against my neck, pinning me against the grass and proving, once and for all, that this kiss wasn’t for my enjoyment. It wasn’t what kisses were supposed to be.
No affection.
No devotion.
No care or kindness or worship.
Just hate.
And heat.
And hunger.
I fought him.
I tried to bite.
But my struggle merely provoked whatever animal lived inside him. Wrenching his mouth from mine, he glowered from above. Lips wet and parted, eyes grey and churning, skin tight and shadowed with daybreak.
He was staggeringly gorgeous, the perfect face housing the darkest heart.
His stare tore into mine like his tongue had plunged into my mouth, and we both stopped breathing. “You taste like the worst kind of nightmare.” His hips rocked hard against mine, dragging an unwilling moan from my chest. “A nightmare especially flavoured for me.”
“Get off me.”
His brow furrowed. “Why you? Why did you have to be different?”
I gasped as his hand latched tighter around my throat, his fingers burning with destructing flames. “This is all your fault, little nightmare.”
I couldn’t speak around his crushing palm, but I let my eyes shout fury.
This was his fault!
His.
Not mine.
I hated this man with every cell, yet...everything about him seduced me. He lured me in like a venomous creature, baiting me, coaxing me, and like the stupid prey I was, my body answered.
I felt it deep within. A heaviness. A pounding. A horrible kind of heat.
His eyes dropped to my mouth again. “I can’t. I’m not strong enough. I shouldn’t...fuck.” A savage groan tumbled from him as his elbow buckled, and he kissed me again.
The moment our mouths met, the world burned.
Ruthless and devouring, he claimed all my righteous loathing and all my toxic desire.
I jerked beneath him as his tongue licked mine, harsh and firm. He scrambled my mind, and tears sprang to my eyes as he somehow bribed my body to liquify with pleasure.
I didn’t want it. I squirmed to get away from it. But the more I wriggled beneath him, the deeper the kiss got.
Our lips slid and wounded each other. Our teeth clacked. Our tongues knotted.
Everything about him stoked my rage with a demented thread of greed.
I pushed his chest. I kicked my legs. I did whatever it took to keep him from stealing everything.
With a feral moan, he—
“I appreciate your eagerness to start fucking your way through all your fantasies, Ward, but perhaps you could wait until we get inside the building?” Victor’s amused voice cut through the utter destruction of Henri’s kiss.
His mouth tore from mine as he looked up. Two pairs of legs stood over us.
I cringed as Roland clapped and winked. “You can keep going, Henri, I don’t mind. A show’s a show.”
“He’s to wait,” Victor snapped. “He might be willing to play with his sexual health, but I’m not. This is my establishment, and I pride myself on clean partners. No condom. No fucking. Not until they’re both tested.”
Henri shifted to his elbows, still trapping me against the grass. He tried to get his harsh breathing under control. “I figured she deserved a quick lesson.”
“Oh?” Victor raised an eyebrow. “And how’s that going?”
“You tell me.” Henri pushed off me, his legs bunching beneath his trousers as he stood and grabbed his open waistband. “She knows running is pointless. She knows it only makes me hard.”
“Yeah, we can see that.” Roland snickered.
I flinched as all eyes zeroed in on Henri’s angry erection sticking out the top of his tight navy boxers.
“My, my.” Victor chuckled. “Someone is definitely in the mood.”
“Fuck.” Twisting his hips, Henri shoved his cock back inside, then yanked up his zipper. His hands shook a little as he lashed his belt into place. “You promised she was mine for the weekend,” he muttered. “I can do whatever I want to her in that time-frame.”
“She is and you can.” Victor held out a black box. “But you can wait a few hours to get everything sorted. She’s not going anywhere. For now...here.”
I scrambled to my feet, pushing my flimsy rose-gold skirt back into position and making sure my top covered my traitorous hard nipples. Goosebumps covered my arms. I didn’t know if it was from Henri’s barbaric kiss or the dampness of the dew.
“What is it?” Henri asked, accepting the box.
Victor swayed toward me, brushing a couple of wildflowers from my grass-smudged hair.
I fought my shudder at having him touch me.
“Open it. It’s for Ily. I usually reserve the right to do this part myself but...I’m finding you both rather entertaining. The unwilling Master slowly breaking and the unbroken slave slowly wanting.”
I gasped as his hand suddenly dropped from my hair and cupped my breast. “You’re in heat, my pet. I can see that fire as plain as day in your eyes.”