Chapter 9
9
TOMASZ
F uck!
The arctic bite of the water is razor-sharp when I dive deeper into the black depth to pull the girl out. Her hair is floating about her, making it impossible to see her face as I grasp her wrist and pull her up to me. I hold her tightly to my body as I kick to the surface, using my free arm to propel us faster. The cold air burns like a motherfucker when we break through the water. Her loud gasp inflames my irritation as she grasps onto my shoulders and tries to pull away.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” I snap, pulling her body completely flush to mine even though I should hold her under for her insolence. “Are you fucking stupid?”
Breathless, Red holds my stare with that infuriating defiance of hers, gritting her teeth.
“You wanted to play games, didn’t you?”
Her hand twists in my T-shirt as she grinds her fist to my chest. Now that her fight is back, I can’t wait to go a few rounds with it. I’ve never known a person to be so resilient. It’s more than backbone, and until this moment—with the way she’s holding her ground and still giving as good as she gets—I didn’t quite appreciate her value. Breaking her would be wasteful and stupid. In the right hands— my hands —this girl is a formidable weapon. Whether she meant to, Red has given me a reason to keep her. For a while, at least.
“Don’t look at me like that!” she bites at me, her hand releasing my top and grasping my face the same way I like to hold hers. “You can let me out of my cage at your leisure and have me run laps around this place, but I will never be your pet.”
So she speaks, but her body is saying something completely different as it bows to mine. Her chest heaves while she keeps squeezing my jaw and her other hand latches onto the side of my neck as I wade us towards the bank. Full lips gape in a huff turned gasp when I clasp her slender throat, never relinquishing the tether of her eyes as I hoist her higher. My hand at her waist moulds to her ass as I relish the friction of her small body on mine.
“Wha-w-what do you want?” The shiver that wracks through her makes it impossible to ignore the press of her nipples to my chest as she looks down at me.
Hot breath skims over my face, sending a racing current down my spine. Our proximity is exhilarating. Handling Red has a dangerous edge to it, like holding a ticking time bomb. I know she’s going to explode eventually, but the knowledge only serves to knot my insides tighter than ever. And as we stand here, my chest pulses along with hers.
Tick, tick, thrum…
Water droplets drip from her lips onto mine, and like rain in the dry desert, it makes me thirsty. More parched than I have ever been for anything. My mouth dries, and my throat swells. Fuck, my lips burn with the moisture dripping from her skin onto mine.
When I lick over my mouth, barely avoiding that full pout of hers that’s trembling, she sighs. I don’t know if it’s with relief from being so close to land. I can’t discern whether her shivers are from the cold or whether it’s the same uncontainable need that I feel that’s rampaging through her, too.
It’s as infuriating as it is thrilling. A forbidden pull that is so wrong and so dangerous, but oh so fucking sweet. I can smell it in the surrounding air, edging her breath and filling my lungs.
“What do you really want from me, Tomasz?”
The assonance of my name from her lips is a sucker punch I never saw coming. My chest tightens as my heart freezes for that one second where it echoes through me.
Tomasz.
Tomasz.
Tomasz…
Licking over her lips, Red closes her eyes. Her thumbnail rakes over my throat as though she wants to snap my neck as much as I want to bite out her tongue. She lowers her face to mine, and the hand gripping my jaw sweeps into my hair, tangling at my nape at the same time as her eyes flutter open, long lashes flirting with mine.
As I walk us up the rowboat slope, she holds on tighter to me, legs hooking around my thighs.
“You refuse to kill me…” she utters, the tip of her nose brushing mine as I lower her down my body until her groin meets mine. Even through the cool wet fabric of her nightdress and my shorts, the heat of her pussy licks at my cock. “And you’ve had ample opportunities.”
So I have, and yet, here she is alive. More trouble than she might be worth if she doesn’t stop taunting me. The girl is sin personified—lust, wrath, and pride gleam in her eyes, calling to my insatiable greed. The more I hate her, the more I want her. I crave her in ways that I’ve never hungered for a woman.
“Toma—” I silence her with a hard bite to her lip that makes her stiffen in my hold.
My hand clenches tighter around her throat and hers in my hair. It doesn’t matter that she’s my prisoner or that I am her captor. For a split second, she’s just a girl. She knows who I am. She’s seen my rage and felt my violence, and in her silence, she’s begging me for more. Every cell in her body is crying out to mine, silencing the world around us so that it’s the only sound. Beautiful fucking music that I can’t help but dance to with her.
There’s no fear in her gaze as it widens on mine while I lick across the cracked skin of her lip and pull away, dragging my teeth over her flesh. I can’t stop the shudder that rolls through me at the taste of her blood singeing my tongue.
“You know what I want.” Tightening my grip on her arse, I tug her the rest of the way down my body onto her feet as I nod at the ground. “I already told you, and I don’t make a habit of repeating myself.”
“I’ll never submit to you.” Taking a step back, she rolls her lip between her teeth, sucking. Confusion flickers over her face while her hand hovers over her mouth, as though she wants to physically touch the ghost of our contact. Shaking her thoughts away, she swipes her hair from her face before pulling back some more and standing tall. Shoulders pulled back, she levels me with a cocked brow. “The more you try to break me, the stronger I’ll become.”
“Is that so?” Grabbing her hand, I tug her back to me when she spins to walk away.
The instant our hands touch, her fingers lace with mine even as she tells me, “Yes, it is.”
I don’t bother pointing out the fact that her body betrays her at every opportunity. We both know that it’s only a matter of time until her knees bend at my feet.
“You’re sure?”
“Positive,” she breathes back with a hitch to her breath that gives away her self-doubt.
Okay . I nod silently as I start back to the house, guiding her along with my hand on her nape.
We walk in silence as I study her muddied feet for the source of her limp. They’re too dirty for me to see anything, but it’s obvious that she’s hurt herself. When we reach the steps leading up to the back doors, I hoist Lucy up into my arms while Nero skulks behind us. The other dogs have already gone back to running the grounds like they do every night. An extra layer of security, even though you’d need a tank to get through the perimeter walls and anyone attempting to get through the gates would be shot on the spot.
“Put me down.” Red tries to wriggle free of my hold. “I have feet, you know.”
“If you want to keep them,” I tell her, toeing off my running shoes before I step inside, “you’ll let me carry you to your room. My mother is fond of the rugs.”
They’re older than her, a gift from an Iranian oligarch that my great-grandfather befriended when he started the family business. Turns out that caviar is almost as sought after as unlisted firearms.
Red chuckles, quietly enough that it’s the slight quiver of her body that gives her away. Something’s changed. The armour she wears has softened tonight. Although her contempt hasn’t waned, there’s more. If it were fear, I would sense it…smell it on her, even. Whatever it is, it makes her a liability to me and my newfound curiosity.
Is she that deep under your skin?
Niko’s words come to mind again as we reach the bedroom and I walk her through to the bathroom. Flicking the light on, I head straight for the bathtub with the overhanging shower.
“What are you doing?”
Lucy pulls away when I put her down in the tub. The thin straps of what’s left of her nightdress slip off her shoulders. With her hands grasping at the dirty and sodden fabric, she turns away from me.
It’s the first blatant sign of weakness she’s shown until now. Still, there’s no fear. There’s nothing but wariness, which makes me wonder how innocent she might be. Strawberry-tinged hair falls over her shoulder as she peers back at me, leaving me with the untainted view of her back. Golden flecks pepper over her shoulders, dispersing to the odd freckle down her spine. My gaze pauses on the dimples at the base of her back, making the curve of her arse appear more pronounced, along with the flare of her hips.
The ache in my hands is impossible to ignore as my palms skim the curves of her body. With the straps wound around my thumbs, I strip her bare.
“Sit,” I order brusquely, swallowing down the impulse to grab her and fuck her in all the ways my being burns for.
With my control slowly unravelling, I hose her feet while she follows my command. She’s practically pulled her toenail off, but apart from that, her feet, ankles, and legs appear fine. More than fine. Every part of her is slender and shapely. Her muscles are evidently toned beneath her supple flesh, and it makes me want to test her physical strength, to see if it rivals her spirit.
Plugging the bath, I smell the salts on the side. They have that same sickly honeyed scent that the girls at the clubs have. It’s never bothered me before, but every time I smell it on her, it disgusts me. My stomach turns at the smell, and before I can stop myself, I flush the entire jar down the toilet.
“Stay,” I tell Red as she continues hugging her body.
Shivers wrack her body even as the tempered water fills the tub. Before I leave the bathroom, I grab the towel from the heater and drape it on her shoulders.
“How long is this going to last?” she asks, staring up at me with a stoic expression that I can’t read.
“This?”
“Yes, this , To—” I slap my hand to her mouth to silence her, but the action only makes the residue of her taste stronger.
Her blood sings on my tongue like poison searing through my veins. A siren’s call that clouds my judgement and intentions, devastating my senses as she continues eyeing me and my name echoes in the quiet between us.
Tomasz…
Forcing my hand away, I turn to leave, but as I make it to the open doorway, she asks, “How long are you going to be nice to me?”
I want to hurt her so damn much that it’s fucking paining me. Red looks at me like we’re the same. As though we are both monsters. Creatures that can coexist. The reality is, she hasn’t seen the full spectrum of my darkness. I doubt that she’s had a real taste of iniquity.
That will change , I promise her as she glares at me, her jaw clenching with a trembling breath.
It’s you that’s meant to break her… Niko’s remark echoes somewhere beneath the rasp of her breaths.
I will. It doesn’t matter how deep she’s slithered beneath my skin. Eventually, I will have to kill her. Weapon or not, there will come a time where her use will expire, and nothing will save her. Not even me. I can’t save her from myself.
“I don’t like it,” she adds as I glance back at her. “You’re a liar…pretending to want me.”
“And you’re a liar pretending you don’t.”
“I don’t,” she spits at me—audibly swallowing down her conflicted emotions even as they well in her scowl—chasing it with, “I can’t…I won’t.”
Little Red is a little liar.
Her fear betrays her as it cloys the air around us, making my pulse race and my muscles ache to exploit her weakness. In her forthright fight, she’s exposed the chink in her armour. Now the urge to exploit it is too strong to ignore. My body throbs with a demand so strong that I can barely draw breath.
Who knew that her weakness would be something so fleeting as lust?
What a wicked curse to befall such a beautiful creature. A part of me pities her for being innocent enough to fall for the whims of her heart. She’s made our game so much easier for me, and yet, as I force myself to walk away, my gut twists with the certainty that it’s far from over. If anything, the stakes have been raised.