Chapter 12
Twelve
A vra
The moment Eli and I walked through the doors of the house after our lunch, a different energy surrounded us. It crackled as if pulsing with residual rage for what the asshole had planned and needing to carry out the retribution he deserved, mixed with this sexual undercurrent that felt as if it burned along my skin.
I wasn’t sure if it was anticipation or my senses warning me.
The fact that I found the violence Eli displayed a far greater turn-on than gifts or trips should qualify me as demented. Then again, a weak man would never hold my interest, and from the moment I met Eli, I knew he was unlike anyone I had encountered before.
“Let me tend to your hand,” I said, not giving him a choice, and moving into the kitchen where I’d placed a medical kit in a drawer.
He followed after me, not saying a word, only watching me. His eyes continued vibrating with the rage and fire of the incident, but the rawness there set my heart racing.
He needed to stop looking at me like that.
First, it confused me, and second, I couldn’t go there.
Those types of emotions weren’t part of the plan.
This marriage was an arrangement, a joining of two families for dual purposes. Our inability to keep our hands off each other was a bonus.
“Go wash your hands, and then sit there. I’ll get everything out.”
He followed my direction, remaining silent, but his focus on me grew in intensity.
The lives Eli and I lived teetered on the boundary of right and wrong. Maybe that was why this skewed view of things made what happened thrilling rather than repulsive.
He possessed the strength to harm me, but he preferred fucking me rough and hard. The darkness inside him called to me in a way I never wanted.
This wasn’t acceptable. Eli was part of a plan, nothing more.
As an intelligent, capable, independent woman, I needed no man. Then what the fuck was this man doing to my brain cells? To have someone come to my defense the way he had, to have someone want to protect me for once, to take care of me…I…I…
I shook the thought from my mind. I couldn’t allow myself any weakness.
Not like this.
Christ, why wasn’t he talking? What was going through his mind? He needed to speak so my thoughts wouldn’t spiral. And why the fuck was my body reacting to him?
My nipples beaded against the fabric of my lace bra, and an ache ignited deep in my core. Biting my lip, I set the things I needed on the table next to us.
The second he set his palm over mine when I offered him my hand, the volatility of his emotions poured over me. As if he were a ticking time bomb restrained and ready to burst free.
It was taking all my will not to show him how this enraged beast side of him spoke to my libido.
Or he already knew since he could read my body’s reactions better than I could.
Slowly, I tended to the wounds on his knuckles and fingers. The more I touched him, the more the arousal coursing through me intensified. My skin burned, and the desire to press my thighs together to gain a small semblance of relief overwhelmed me.
When I neared finishing, Eli closed his hands around mine. “Are you done?”
“Yes.” My breath grew unsteady, and my heartbeat raced out of control .
The primal hunger in his gaze should have scared me, except I willingly offered myself to be his prey.
And he knew it.
“Mine.” He grabbed hold of my throat and jerked me to him, sealing our mouths together.
My arms came around him of their own volition, and I lost myself in the demand of his lips and tongue. His taste exploded over my senses; he was delicious and addictive as always.
Maybe we should have worried about anyone walking in or scandalizing the staff. Still, the carnal need riding us controlled everything.
Fuck, this man had me dickmatized.
“This doesn’t mean anything,” I told him, pulling at the buttons of his shirt.
I couldn’t allow him to become my weakness.
What the fuck was I saying? He already was. I was doomed.
“Of course. Nothing.” Without care for my clothes, he tore the top of my dress, sending buttons and pieces of delicate fabric everywhere, and cupped my breasts through my bra. “I can’t ever trust you.”
Cool air coasted over my hot skin, adding to the ache for his touch all over my body.
“That’s right, and I’ll never trust you. I’m only a prize to you. I’m— Oh, God,” I gasped as he scored his teeth along the column of my neck and then bit.
Lifting me by the waist, he shoved everything off the table and set me on the end before ripping the rest of my dress from my body.
His gaze raked me from head to the juncture of my soaked underwear. Never had a lover craved me the way he had. Goosebumps prickled over my skin, and my pussy quivered as more arousal pooled between my legs.
Eli licked his lips, and I couldn’t help but whimper, knowing what he planned.
“Do I frighten you, Avra?” He leaned forward, cupped my jaw, and rubbed my lower lip with his thumb.
I shook my head. “No.”
“I should. These hands you like so much on you”—he slid his palm down my throat with his mouth licking and sucking as he moved lower—“belong to a killer. I do despicable things and have no plans to stop.”
My eyes fluttered shut, lost in the tease of his stubble-covered jaw as it grazed my skin. How he knew just how to seduce me was an enigma I’d never solve. He coaxed out desires and needs I never realized I coveted.
“Good,” I murmured, allowing my nails to score over his shoulder. “I prefer you the way you are.”
He lifted his head. “Of course you do. Only another predator can satisfy a predator.”
“Don’t read too much into it, Eli.” Pain and longing bloomed in my chest, along with a tiny bit of panic.
“I won’t.” He jerked my thong off and lowered it while simultaneously positioning me so my dripping pussy aligned with his mouth. “This doesn’t mean anything. Isn’t this what you like to say? ”
Before I could respond, he brought me flush against him, and all coherent thought evaporated from my mind.
“Eli,” I cried out and grabbed hold of his hair.
His tongue speared my core, thrusting, licking, tasting, savoring. He feasted on my clit, driving my desire higher and higher.
It was too much and not enough.
Oh God, right there. Everything inside me tightened and trembled. I dug my heels into his back, arching and pushing up.
I couldn’t get enough.
“Eli, don’t make me wait,” I whimpered.
Fuck, what was I doing? I never begged.
“What do you want?” he asked and flicked my clitoral nub, causing me to buck.
“Make me come.”
He nipped the inside of my thigh, the sting of it glorious. “Is that an order?”
“Yes.”
“Too bad. I don’t take orders very well. I give them.” He rose, trailing his wet mouth up my torso, letting the stubble on his jaw brush over me as he moved.
When he caged me with an arm on either side of my head, he said, “Ask.”
I shook my head. This game we liked to play had new rules, and giving him this guaranteed that he held power over me.
Real marriage or not, we were using each other.
He was the enemy I’d chosen to marry—the enemy whose father had murdered Mama and orchestrated Papa’s slaughter.
“I won’t let you come at all unless you ask. I will fuck you and bring you to the point of going over, time and time again, to only leave you hanging.”
“You like making me come.”
He brought his face a hairsbreadth from mine, our lips so close only the barest shift would seal our mouths.
“I do. However, I can restrain this enjoyment if I get what I want.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Are you so sure about that?” he rubbed his jaw against my cheek, the abrasion of his trimmed beard as enticing as his wicked mouth. “You picked me, Avra. Now you deal with the consequence.”