Chapter Ten #3
She stiffened. But then her expression became flat and direct. ‘What makes you think you’re so different from him?’
‘I don’t want to own you,’ he said, refusing to acknowledge the surge of possessiveness.
‘Really? You say you know what it is like to be powerless… And yet you have done nothing but take my choices away from me.’
He swore under his breath. Angry that she was right.
‘He would have found you in Zurich and engineered to get you back,’ he countered, but the raised voice couldn’t mask the defensiveness.
‘Not the point. I get to make my own mistakes.’
He glared at her. ‘Yeah, I guess you do. Like throwing your virginity away on a man who didn’t want it.’
Freya tensed. ‘Why are you so hung up about that? Is that why you were sulking all day yesterday?’
Theo’s glare became laser sharp, but she knew she’d hit a bullseye when he growled. ‘I don’t sulk.’
‘Oh, really. So what were you doing yesterday, then? Going for gold in the glowering games or something? You spoke precisely ten words to me during the six-hour drive to get here. I know, because I counted.’
‘I was concentrating on keeping us on the road.’
He stepped closer, no doubt to intimidate her. But she’d done enough backing down in her life. And she was through making adjustments for his ego. She poked her chin up and glared back at him, refusing to retreat an inch.
‘Bullshit!’ she shouted, using a word she had never used before in her entire life. She refused to regret it though, even if she had probably shocked herself more than him. ‘Why does it matter if I was a virgin or not?’ she demanded.
He grasped her arm, tugged her up onto her tiptoes, until they were nose to nose, his blue eyes sparking with fury.
But the deep turquoise blazed with fire, not ice, when he snarled back: ‘Because it gives me a responsibility I don’t want.
And because no woman has ever made me come so hard I saw stars.
Explain that, when you didn’t have a clue what you were doing. ’
‘I… I can’t,’ she said, shocked by the passion in his voice.
He touched his forehead to hers, his breathing ragged. His palm cupped the back of her neck. ‘Yeah, well, neither can I.’
He cradled her jaw, tilted her face up.
‘I apologise for kidnapping you,’ he murmured.
She gasped, shocked not just by the apology but by the sincerity in his voice.
‘But I’m not ready to let you go. Not by a long shot.’ The words were so raw, and his voice so low she almost didn’t hear them. But even so they detonated in her chest—making her feel validated, and also victorious.
His pupils dilated to black, before his mouth found the pulse point in her neck.
‘Tell me you don’t want this, too?’ he murmured.
The hot wave of arousal hit her, as fierce and sweet as her victory.
She clasped his head, dragged him closer. ‘Just kiss me, Theo, and stop talking.’
His lips slanted across hers, not subtle this time, not flirtatious, but harsh and hungry and real.
He devoured her soft sobs, lifting her to place her on the counter. Pushing her thighs wide, he wedged his muscular body between her legs, to press the ridge of his erection against the melting spot at her core.
She thrust her fingers into his hair, tugging his mouth back to hers—and met his thrusting tongue with demands of her own.
He wrenched free of her grip. ‘I want you naked this time. I want to eat you out until you come on my tongue.’
The dirty words should have shocked her, but all they did was feed the fire inside—which was fast becoming an inferno.
Before she had a chance to confirm or deny, he’d scooped her up and was marching along the corridor he’d disappeared through the night before.
She didn’t protest this time, her pulse racing, the journey over before it had begun. He flung her onto the bed, then dragged off his T-shirt, pushed down the sweatpants, to reveal the long, thick erection.
No underwear.
‘Get naked now, Freya!’ he commanded, climbing onto the bed to help as she scrambled out of her yoga pants and T-shirt.
He cupped her hips in urgent hands, then knelt between her spread thighs. She lurched up on her elbows, stunned by the giddy rush of longing, the fierce flow of desire.
Is he really going to kiss me there?
‘Oh… Well!’ She dropped back, reared up again as he licked her already soaked folds.
Yes, he is.
Her thighs quivered, her sex already aching, pounding, as he sucked and kissed and caressed her. Down there!
Vague thoughts drifted through her addled brain.
Should she stop this? They’d been arguing, hadn’t they? And while he’d apologised for kidnapping her, he hadn’t offered to let her go.
But then one thick finger plunged into her sex, twisting, stroking, and she lurched off the bed as he touched a spot that triggered a chain reaction—fluid, furious, so exquisite it hurt.
She moaned, sobbed. Devasted already, her mind scattered and all thoughts of stopping him flew out of the window into the frozen tundra.
He pressed another thick finger inside her, to join the first, stroking, stirring, driving her towards a shocking oblivion.
And then his lips locked on her swollen clit and suckled hard.
She screamed as she flew over, so far and fast she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t feel anything but his tongue, his touch, his body surrounding her, subduing her, shattering her into a million glittering shards of painful pleasure.
And desperation.
As she plunged to earth, he rose over her, dragged her knees up to cradle his hips and ploughed deep. Filling her to bursting and beyond.
She rode the fierce wave as he plunged in and out, forcing her to take the full measure of him, until she could feel him all the way to her throat.
Her heart galloped, her eyes went blind and every part of her exploded into another furious wave of euphoria—even more overwhelming than the first.
He wrenched free to spill thick ropes of come onto her belly and then collapse into her arms—shaking as hard as her.
The golden cloud of afterglow was as vicious as the orgasms. Stripping her bare and making her whole again, but with pieces missing now she was sure she would never get back… No matter how hard she tried.
This time when he rolled off her, though, she felt sore and tender again, but also seen.
Especially when he dragged her into his arms, buried his face into her hair and mumbled, ‘If I give you the code, you need to promise not to leave the house without me. It’s not safe…’
Her heart throbbed heavily against her ribs at the concern in his voice… But even through the glitter of afterglow, even with his arms holding her so securely, she couldn’t give him the reassurance he wanted.
She’d spent her whole life having her freedom curtailed. While she had to admit her escape plan might have failed without Theo’s help, she couldn’t give him control over her safety, no matter how many orgasms he gave her.
‘I can’t do that, Theo. You’ll have to trust me,’ she murmured back.
She listened to his long-suffering sigh and waited, the hope and anticipation making her ribs hurt… Would he trust her? When she suspected he was a man who rarely trusted anyone. And why did it mean so much to her? When she was unlikely to venture out into the winter landscape alone anyway?
‘One eight six five…’
She shifted to glance over her shoulder. And found him watching her, his gaze intense and wary.
‘It’s the code, to override the voice control,’ he murmured.
Relief flooded through her, so intense she felt giddy. She blinked rapidly, to contain the rush of tenderness and affection for this cynical, arrogant man, who, despite his need to control her, had chosen to respect her instead. And that felt huge.
‘Don’t make me regret it,’ he cautioned, his expression tense. ‘Because kidnapping a princess is one thing, letting her freeze to death another!’
The affection surged as she touched her nose to his. ‘Good thing my safety is my responsibility, then, not yours.’
His arms tightened, tugging her naked body flush against his, and making her brutally aware of the still firm erection. Vicious arousal swelled in her tender sex. And made her heart pound harder.
How could she want him again, so soon?
He kissed the sensitive skin under her ear and the longing surged, obliterating coherent thought.
Then he whispered something against her neck that sounded like: ‘Good thing I plan to keep you way too busy to go anywhere, then.’
But she couldn’t be sure, because the blood pounding in her eardrums was deafening and she was already writhing against that thick length—as the giddy exhilaration at her new-found power turned to the desperate yearning to feel him inside her again.