Chapter 20
Shehryar
M ariyah shook and squirmed her hips as I held the vibrating toy as deep as it would go inside her, the bunny ears rapidly tormenting her swollen pink clit.
I glanced up at her thrown-back head from where I lay on my stomach between her legs and angled the toy, pushing it harder against her upper wall.
She arched up higher from the mattress on an agonised groan, and I almost lost the grip I had curled around one of her thighs. With her leg hooked over my shoulder, she kicked her foot against my upper back, pushing down against me like she could move me away. But she’d lost most of her strength to her prior three orgasms, so it quickly grew slack.
Her moans and pants and whines grew louder by the second behind her gag, her body was covered in a thin layer of sweat, and I knew she was going to explode for me again.
Her fourth time from my hands alone.
I watched her, panting from feral excitement myself, the sticky heat of perspiration layered thinly on my back. My wet hair had mostly dried somewhere between her second and third orgasm during the slow torment I’d put her through, swapping the toy with my mouth and vice versa repeatedly until she screamed her climax. Now, I was forcefully tearing it out from her, hard and fast with the toy, and I was growing more delirious from the high just as much as she was.
Fuck, she was a pest, but she was a gorgeous nymph queen of pleasure and seduction, writhing on the silk sheets and letting out the kind of sounds a man could write a song with.
But in the process of torturing her with pleasure, I was torturing myself too. My dick ached almost painfully with need, and every so often I ground myself into the mattress for a bit of relief. I had leaked so much pre-cum, I could feel a wet patch on the silk somewhere near the tip.
Mariyah started shaking her head, her muffled noises sounding pained and pleading. Another hard throb echoed up my erection, pushing a slither of liquid out of me. I groaned a strained sound.
“There you go, beautiful menace. That’s it,” I purred, leaning down to kiss her thigh, marked with several other bites and hickeys I’d given her. “Let yourself come again. Give it to me.” She struggled against me. I growled harshly. “No. Don’t fight it. Don’t fucking fight it, Mariyah.”
Angling my head, I pressed my tongue flat to the apex of her bare sex. I smothered her with extra heat and weight and languid flicks while the rabbit ears kept quivering by the side of my mouth.
Mariyah couldn’t fight her pleasure any longer. Her body went taut, her thighs shook violently, and she released a choked gasp that quickly turned into a silent scream.
Halfway through her climax, my hand stopped buzzing from the vibration of the sex toy. Fuck, no.
I quickly pulled out the dead toy with a squelch and with my mouth already on her sex, latched onto her clit, sucking on it slow and long. I kept her orgasm searing through her until her voice returned. She cried out and kicked at the sensation of being overstimulated.
I pulled back, and the swollen bud slipped from between my lips. “That’s a good girl,” I whispered hoarsely. “You came so hard for me, didn’t you?”
Her laboured breaths were a sweet melody, but it was fucking beautiful the way her cunt convulsed from the aftershocks of her climax. Each quiver echoed proudly down my middle to pull on my dick.
Shit . I wanted to fuck her pink, soaked pussy so badly. The idea, the thought, the possibility had my eyes threatening to roll to the back of my head. I needed to bury myself deep inside her desperately.
Soon. In a minute.
I inhaled her warm, earthy scent deeply, and a rough moan formed in the base of my throat. Forcing myself to uncurl my arm from around her thigh, I licked my wet lips and wiped my palm over my trimmed beard. The low sound of satisfaction trapped in my throat came flooding out as I edged forward over her, taking in her limp, lush form.
Thighs spread wide and slack, there was evidence of her multiple orgasms covering her sex and wetting the bedding underneath. Her chest heaved, her gorgeous hips begged my hands to grip them, and her rose-pink nipples were still puckered tight. I’d covered her pale olive skin all over in red bite marks that would bruise by morning, though I hadn’t left any where they would be seen easily. Her hair was messy from all her squirming, locks of blonde stuck to her damp skin, and her face was so flushed and eyes so glazed and unfocused that she looked like she was going to pass out.
She was stunning, completely painted in delirium like she’d been playing in a sex dungeon.
My sex dungeon . Tied up like a fucking cum-slut. So pretty and ready to be taken.
A fucking brat who’d been punished by her Daddy. Almost .
“It’s a shame your toy ran out of charge,” I said, picking it up from by her thigh and showing the drenched length to her. “I think you would have screamed so nicely if it’d lasted one more orgasm.”
Tired relief etched itself all over her as her arm and head eased more heavily into the pillow. She’d assumed I’d meant I was done. Cute .
My lips pulled up in one corner as I pressed the bulbous head of the toy to the side of her neck. Her rib cage dipped but didn’t rise immediately, and cautious clarity edged over her irises as her long, dark blonde lashes fluttered higher.
I dragged it across to the central point of her neck, leaving a trail of her wetness against her skin. Throwing it aside on the mattress somewhere, I dipped my head and traced the gleaming liquid with my tongue, lapping it up along with the saltiness of her sweat.
Sucking in a breath, she threw her head back, giving me more access, and I groaned in bliss.
“So fucking good,” I said against the crook of her neck. She gave a whole-body shudder underneath me. “But your punishment isn’t over yet.”
She made an indecipherable sound as her brows rose, then scrunched in apprehension before settling into a defiant glare. Fucking dickhead , I practically heard her expression call me.
I arched a brow. “You’re still giving me attitude?”
She didn’t look away or second-guess her expression. My chest vibrated with a grated chuckle. She was such a damned brat but fuck if it didn’t make my dick throb harder with arousal.
“Suit yourself, menace,” I said, my voice thick, and leaned on one hand to free the other.
Dragging my fingers across her temple, I pushed a lock of her soft, messy hair back. She glared and tried to shake me off, but her movement allowed me to follow the strand to the back of her head and anchor my fingers into her hair. I gave her a little tug, forcing her head back and her chin high before I set my mouth back on her warm, flushed neck.
I kissed and licked all over the sensitive skin of her throat. Going by her heavy breaths and trembling, she loved it, but the venom in her dilated eyes tried to tell me otherwise. She was still fighting me, so I lapped open-mouthed at the spot under her ear until she moaned loudly.
I moved lower. And lower. I lavished her body all over. Every spot I’d already marked, leaving behind several more. I teased her nipples, though it didn’t seem they were very sensitive until I sucked on them harder. I licked the inside of her elbows. I kissed down her soft belly as it contracted and tensed. I rolled my tongue over her pubic bone, across the lines on her thighs, the back of her knees.
The only place I didn’t touch was her cunt. Not directly .
I stroked my fingers around it and down the crevice of her inner thighs. I blew on her sensitive nub and made her back arch up off the mattress. All while she strained and groaned under my teasing.
But I wanted her feverish. I wanted her desperate. I wanted to torment her and drive her mad before I fucked her hard.
So, I bullied her and denied her what I’d given her so much and so hard of for more than an hour.
Until she snapped with a frustrated shriek.
I rose back on my haunches and Mariyah kicked one foot out, almost knocking me right in the groin. Reacting sharply, I snatched the back of her knee, pushing her leg up towards her chest. Before she bent the other to try to land a kick, I clasped the soft flesh of the back of her thigh and pushed her leg out wide, spreading her cunt deliciously.
Trapped, her chest rose and fell angrily, and her ocean-blue eyes glowed with hatred. Oddly, I kind of wanted to grin at her outburst, but I levelled her a stern stare instead.
“Kicking my dick isn’t going to get you what you want,” I warned. She shook her shoulders, fighting the binds around her wrists. I quickly let go of one leg to pin them down. “Stop it, Mariyah. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
She only stopped tugging at her arms because I was weighing her down, but she kept squirming the rest of her body. She really wasn’t fucking happy, and she wanted me to know it.
As much as I wanted to keep her gagged and tied, I didn’t want to push her past her limit. That had never been the aim, nor would it ever be. Limits were boundaries to be respected at all times.
I released her other leg and clasped under her chin to get her to fall still and look at me. She kept struggling until I started pulling out the damp fabric of her underwear in her mouth. Saliva laced from the corners of her lips as it came out. She sucked in breath and swallowed.
“Is that better?” I asked. “Or do you want to stop entirely?”
She clenched her teeth for several breaths, then spat, “Fuck you.”
I blinked, my mind taking a second to catch up with what I’d heard. Slowly, my mouth twitched and tilted in an irked smile.
Oh, I was pissed with the impudent attitude that flew off her tongue. I should’ve shoved my fingers into her mouth as I warned her exactly where her insolence was going to get her and choked her until tears streamed down her face. I was clearly going too easy on her if she could still mouth off.
But there was something about the way Mariyah butted heads with me so stubbornly even when she was tied up and at my mercy that made me want to laugh in a way that was only likely to encourage her. It was so like her. To hand out mouthfuls of sass even when she was in a vulnerable state.
It was even more pleasing knowing, in our current situation, her brattiness equated to my power over her. The more she misbehaved, the more I could do with her what I pleased. Punish her, spank her, bite her, overwhelm her. Split her in fucking half until she passed out.
Seemingly, that was what she was growing annoyed over too.
Grinning, I rubbed my thumb over her soft, reddened lips. “Is that the problem? That I haven’t fucked you yet? Is that why you feel frustrated?”
Silence. Glaring, feisty, bratty silence.
“You have to tell me, Mariyah.”
Again, nothing.
Stubborn brat. But that was Mariyah. She needed proof or an incentive that she was going to get something in return before she gave me what I wanted.
Letting go of her wrist and face, I sat upright. I watched her follow my hand as I wrapped it around the root of my thick, aching cock in a tight grip. My breath seized, but her chest stilled too. Pleasure from her transfixed stare and from touching myself intertwined in my core. They turned liquid and sweet as I dragged my hand up and down, and up and down, making myself moan and shudder.
“Tell me, Mariyah,” I croaked, pumping my fist slowly. “Do you still have your implant? Or do I fuck your mouth now and find condoms later?”
She didn’t reply. She didn’t even look away from my cock. It preened under her attention, begging me to keep her entertained if it was what she liked. But I needed her to answer, so I held my fist still.
“Mariyah,” I said again, more sternly, settling my free hand on the soft flesh on her inner thigh and squeezing.
Her dilated eyes soared up.
I knew she had an implant, because I’d been the one who had arranged and taken Esmeralda and her to their appointment in Raven with a trusted doctor in a private hospital.
She lifted her chin defiantly and kept her mouth shut.
“Answer me,” I growled, using the hand around my dick to angle the tip forward. Aching bliss knocked my breath away as I rubbed across her pussy. The softness of her tempted me to forget the question entirely. I’d slide into her all the way with the slightest push, that was how wet she was.
Mariyah’s mouth went slack, and her thighs gave a quiver when I nudged her clit. A hiss slipped between my teeth. “Come on, Mariyah.” Bracing my hand by her shoulder, I lowered myself over her and prodded at her entrance. “Can I fuck you raw, or do I use your throat for now instead?”
She hesitated, confliction playing across her features. “Raw,” she rasped. “Now.”
I groaned as I lowered my mouth, too busy fighting the urge to slam straight into her to care about her tone. My lips skated hers, her minty breath mingling with mine. “It wasn’t so hard to tell me what you wanted, was it?”
Intending to kiss her, I angled my head. But just before I moulded my lips around hers, she whipped her face away. My mouth buried into her cheek, having lost its target, and I held still.
Irritation bloomed like a poisonous flower inside me as my cock throbbed excitedly. My lips broke out into a grin against her damp skin. Every intention of softness and ease vanished from me.
Slowly, I rose up to meet her smug stare. A grated chuckle dripped from my bared teeth.
Oh, she’d fucking asked for it now.
I tore away and slipped an arm under her back, swiftly flipping her onto her stomach; the bind of her torn T-shirt around her wrists was loose enough to twist with her. Mariyah gasped, but I already had her lush hips in my tight grasp. Her arse jiggled as I lifted her up onto her knees. She turned her head, trying to lift onto her elbows, but I pressed a hand between her shoulder blades, holding her down.
Situated between her spread legs, I gripped my cock with my other hand and growled, “I’m going to wreck your cunt so fucking hard, little menace.”
That was the only warning I gave her.
I slammed into her until my pelvis was flush against her arse.
Her head flew up. My head fell back.
She screamed. I released a feral groan.
Her warm cunt clamped around me. And my cock wept in absolute ecstasy.
Five years of fighting the urge to touch myself thinking about her, and now I was buried balls deep inside her, and I couldn’t wait another second to have her every way I wanted.
I dragged back slowly, then watched my length disappear into her, my head spinning with the intensity of the sensation. The breathy noise she made drove me wilder, so I did it again. Needing to hear her again. And louder. I thrust in harder. Her arse shook and the arch of her spine tightened.
“Fuck, yes,” I moaned through gritted teeth as I dug my fingers into her hips hard enough to drain the pink from her skin. She was going to bruise, and knowing that made me cling on to her harder, plunge into her deeper, faster. Filling her. Taking her. Engulfing her with the pleasure of rough friction.
“Fuck,” she half whined, half groaned. Her fingers clutched desperately onto the ripped T-shirt.
I slammed into her, my balls hitting her pretty, swollen clit. “Do you feel that?” I ground in slow circles as I stroked a hand up her spine and tangled it in the back of her hair. “You feel how deep I am inside you?” I gave a quick, hard pump of my hips and yanked on her hair, pulling her towards me, angling her head up to the ceiling. She cried out and stretched her arms, trying to balance herself on her knees and the tips of her fingers against the pillow.
“Feel how I stretch you?” I growled on another hard thrust. “How fucking big I am in your tight cunt?” Thrust. Thrust. Thrust. “Do you still want to call me a fucking peanut?” Thrust!
She choked on a succession of moans and gasps and cries, each sound pouring thick, sweet syrup down my spine. The pleasure burned in the back of my eyes as they rolled. I shook my head, refusing to lose the mouthwatering vision I had of Mariyah’s body trembling on my bed. Letting go of her hip, I cupped her upturned chin in my palm, allowing me to fuck her even harder and deeper.
“Fu—ck,” Mariyah whined. She squeezed her eyes shut but immediately opened them, blinking rapidly. “You’re—you’re a fucking peanut.”
A gritted smirk spread slowly across my mouth as heady satisfaction and ire washed through me. “Really?” I snapped my hips back and forth viciously, pummelling her denial back into the deepest part of her. “Because you don’t sound like you’re getting fucked by a peanut.” I slipped my thumb over her chin and hooked it into her gaping mouth. “You sound like you’re getting fucked by Daddy.”
The muscles of her cunt squeezed around me, ripping a hole in my lungs and building them anew within a second. A groan poured from my throat, sweat beading at the edges of my hair.
It turned into a low chuckle as I slowed my thrusts, dragging them out long but pushing in hard. “You like that. You like thinking of me as your Daddy.”
“No,” she said, gasping for the air my faster thrusts hadn’t allowed her to get.
Letting my hand slip from her chin, I pressed on her shoulder and used the hand in her hair to force her upper body down with her cheek resting against the pillow. I untangled my hand from her hair and pushed the strands away so I could see her face properly.
“Say it,” I gritted out. “Call me Daddy.”
“Peanut,” she rasped.
I chuckled. “Try again.” I plunged in hard.
She cried out, then spat, “Sheri.”
“No.” I bared my teeth in annoyance. “Fucking say it, Mariyah.”
“Shehryar!”
“You little brat,” I growled and yanked my hips back. My cock slipped out of her dripping cunt with a sloppy pop.
“No,” Mariyah whined, her body rocking back in search of me. I moved my hand to her upper back to hold her still. She threw a glare over her shoulder. “Put it back in now.”
Leaning upright, I lifted my hand and swatted her hard across one full arse cheek. She gasped, her body jerking forward from the harsh impact. Her fingers clawed at the fabric around her wrists.
“Don’t fucking tell me what to do,” I warned, grazing my blunt nails over her reddened skin, elongating the lingering sting of my slap enough to make her whimper. “Are you going to say it, or do I have to spank your ass until you do?”
“Fuck you,” she spat out without a single breath between my words and hers.
Warm smoke sunk through me and whispered through my leaking cock.
That’s it. Fight me, argue with me. Show me how much of a greedy brat you can be.
“Suit yourself,” I purred and shuffled slightly back on the duvet. I raised my hand.
Slap. She lurched forward on a broken groan. I gave her a moment, but when she didn’t say anything, I lifted my hand again.
Slap. On her other arse cheek. It went pale before it stung bright red again.
Slap. Slap. Her shriek harmonised with my moan as her lush derriere shook so fucking deliciously. I hardly noticed the sting in my palm.
Slap! Slap! Slap!
Her watery cry rang through my ears like the song of a siren. My head pulsed with wild, reckless insanity. I blinked rapidly to clear some of the haze and noticed that Mariyah’s shaking legs were slipping down like she could no longer hold herself up.
“Keep your fucking ass up.” Slap! Slap! Slap!
She let out a wretched sob, the half of her gaze I could see coated in a dazed sheen. “No.” The crack in her voice stopped me from lifting my hand again. “Please—please. No more.”
My quick panting was interrupted by a moan as I eyed the mess I’d made of her. From the blotchy redness licking across her arse to her pulsing, leaking pussy between, and the way her parted lips quivered on every desperate little breath she took.
Fucking perfection .
I inched closer and settled my hands over her arse. She whimpered as I rubbed over her hot, marked skin, soothing her as much as I was taunting the pinches of pain she could still feel. Sliding my hands down her inner thighs, I pressed my thumbs against her slick, swollen skin and pulled gently, spreading her pretty pink pussy lips apart. She choked on a noise, and her cunt fluttered, opening and closing as it drooled on the silk sheets. The sight was a million times better than all my dreams.
“Are you sure?” I rasped with a groan jammed in my throat. “Your weeping pussy seems to think otherwise. She seems to be pleading for more like a greedy whore.”
“No,” Mariyah cried, shaking her head against the pillow.
“Then are you going to say it now?”
She whispered something so quietly that her shuddering breath after stole it away from my ears.
I leaned over her, my chest just touching her back, and brought my face to her cheek. Her mouth opened on a silent sound as my thighs pressed against her heated arse. “What was that?”
Clenching her jaw, she angled her head so I got the full force of her stubborn scowl. She looked like she wanted to claw my eyes out and feed them to me, but reluctantly she bit out, “Daddy.”
The husky, vicious word sunk straight to my dick, and I was so tempted to shove back into her and rut like a beast. But I refused to give Mariyah the satisfaction when she’d been so bloody difficult.
With a slight shake of my head, I tsked in disapproval. A brighter glow filled her already flushed cheeks. “Too late.” I tilted my head, so she was looking right into my eyes. “That’s not good enough anymore.” The panic that flared in her eyes was so fucking fulfilling. “Beg me.”
Her lips parted on a soundless word before frustration set firm over her brows. I sensed the fire about to burst off her tongue, so I leaned my weight on one palm and lowered the other between us. Gripping my cock, I nudged and rubbed the tip against her clit, incentivising her to give in again. A breathless sort of want melted her expression. She dropped her head back against my shoulder, and—
“Please,” she whispered. “Please, Daddy.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. A rush of hot ripples rocked through me. But I shook my head. “Nope. Try again.”
Her side glance was pure hatred. And I loved it. “Daddy, please. Fuck me. Give me your dick.”
“Hmm? Should I?” I couldn’t help the smirk that broke across my mouth as her jaw set firm, but the tightness fell away as I nudged the head of my dick between her pussy lips. “Who’s your Daddy?” I purred. She shuddered adorably. “Come on, Mariyah. Who’s your fucking Daddy?”
“You—you.”
“That’s right,” I groaned and pushed myself up, digging one set of fingers into her reddened arse and holding her still. “I’m your fucking Daddy.” I let go of the root of my cock as I settled an inch inside her wet heat and clutched her hip in the same bruising grip. “And you better not forget it.”
Her shriek rang through the room as I rammed straight into her, burying myself in deeper and harder and meaner. And I didn’t stop.
I fucked her. Brutally. Only because I knew the luscious brat under me could take it. Her encouraging cries and gasps told me she craved it. We both thrived off the animalistic mating, striving for one goal only—our mutual climax. But I was punching into her so fast I couldn’t rub her clit at the same time without ruining my rhythm.
A last-minute want to see her face properly as she came had me pulling out. I didn’t give her a chance to protest, quickly manoeuvring her onto her back. One harsh tug on the knot I’d made loosened the tie around her wrists. As she pulled her hands free, I pushed back into her.
We both moaned, her head lulling back, my body quaking.
With her knees hooked over my arms, I braced my hands by her shoulders and leaned down, almost bending her in half. “Rub your clit.”
She shook her head. I drove forward. Her hands shot out, anchoring into my shoulders and back, as she gasped. “No, no.”
“Yes.” Thrust . “Rub your clit.” Thrust . “Rub it for Daddy like a good fucking girl.”
“I can’t—I can’t. I can’t come again.”
“I wasn’t fucking asking,” I hissed, picking up pace, filling the room with harsh, erotic sounds of skin hitting skin. “You’re going to rub your clit and come for me again.” She shook her head, small and desperate, and her breaths were just the same. “If you don’t, I’m going to bruise your ass until you learn that when I want an orgasm from you, you’re going to bloody give it to me. ”
I needed her to come. I wanted her to come once more for me before I exploded. But my strings of control were fraying, and there was an animal whining and clawing behind them for release.
“Now,” I roared, puncturing it with a mean drive of my cock.
Mariyah shrieked, but she lurched a hand down between us. The pads of her fingers touched my slick length, and I groaned, my neck straining under the explosive feeling. Her cries renewed as she rubbed them over her clit. I jackhammered my pelvis, seeing the finishing line for both of us.
Come, come, come, I chanted in my head.
Her face crumpled, her nails dug painfully into my shoulder, and, “Fu—ck, ye—” she screamed, throwing her head back, raising her entire spine off the mattress as she came.
White flashed across my vision as her pussy wrung my dick. I wheezed, my lungs collapsing in, but they quickly expanded. All my blood rushed down, my cock thickened, my balls tightened, and I—
I broke apart on a loud, gritted moan. Warm blasts of sensation flashed through my legs and stomach as I spurted in furious jets inside Mariyah. I emptied everything I had in her—five years of denied orgasms and blue balls and cum I’d dreamed of coating every inch of her in. All of it.
We sagged at the same time, gasping and panting in the deafening silence. I tried not to crush her, but my body weighed ten tonnes, and my arms shook with the effort of keeping a slither of space between us. Being on my knees was the only reason I didn’t collapse on top of her.
A trickle of sweat dripped down the side of my face as Mariyah’s shaking hand slipped off my shoulder and plopped against the pillow, palm up. She blinked slow and exhausted, her ocean-blue eyes so gorgeously groggy and heavy-lidded, cheeks awash with colour, faint freckles glowing under the layer of sweat on her skin, and supple lips parted.
Beautiful . She was infuriatingly, undeniably beautiful.
“Are you okay?” I whispered. My words took a moment to register, but she gave a slight nod, her brows not quite furrowing but dipping in confusion maybe. “Are you sure? How are your wrists?”
I glanced across to her hand against the pillow. Untucking my arm from under her leg, I cupped her arm and brushed a thumb across her slightly pinkened skin. My bind hadn’t been tight, but likely her squirming had caused some rubbing. I internally scolded myself for not checking on her hands at any point after I tied them.
I frowned at her wrist. “That’s why I told you not to move so much.”
Her heavy eyes narrowed and sparked. “Like it was my fault.”
“It was.” I eased back from her, sighing as my dick slipped out of her sex. Our mixed cum dripped from the both of us. It was a sight to awe at, but I didn’t look for long. “Don’t move.” My voice left no room for arguing. “I’m going to get a towel and some lotion. Then I’m going to clean you up and rub you down wherever you may be sore. Okay?”
Some unreadable emotion coasted back and forth over her bright irises as she blinked, but I took her silence as agreement and edged off the bed.
I should’ve known better.
I staggered towards the ensuite opposite, my knees giving a quake on the first few steps.
Fuck, I’d come ridiculously hard. And with Mariyah of all women.
I supposed it made sense. All those years of tension had built up to this moment, and on top of that, I hadn’t had sex in more than a year. It was dynamite just waiting to go off.
But fuck, I had actually had sex with the menace after all that time of swearing I’d never touch her.
The oddest thing was that I didn’t regret it. In fact, I wanted to do it again.
That wasn’t to say the repercussions weren’t suddenly making themselves known in my head like a game of Whac-A-Mole. I’d bloody damn gone and fucked Esmeralda’s best friend and crossed a line I swore I never would—one I’d drawn myself. But a wish to turn back time and change that didn’t form a part of any of my thoughts.
I gave my head a little shake as I entered the bathroom. Pushing all what-nows to the back of my mind to consider later, I switched the light on.
My priority was cleaning Mariyah up and making sure she was okay. Our animosity didn’t matter, she deserved the proper care after I’d fucked her hard and long. I’d even hold her if that was what she wanted, though I had my doubts; she’d probably prefer it if I served her grapes on my knees while she relaxed in a hot bath.
I opened the long, single-doored cupboard by the white sink in the bright, gold and white, regal ensuite. I took out a bottle of lotion plus two smaller white towels. When I moved across to the sink to wet one towel, I caught a glimpse of myself in the square mirror and did a double take.
Fucking Neves. I looked like a sex maniac.
My hair wasn’t so dishevelled as it was damp with sweat around my face and the back of my neck. My ears and cheeks were flushed a bright pink. I had never in my life seen my pupils so blown, making me look possessed, and there were faint pink scratches all over my shoulders.
I set everything down and opted to wash my face with cold water first. Then I wiped myself quickly, including my nether regions, dumped the towel in the wash basket, and dampened the other one. I heard a string of three different clicking noises and frowned. What was that? Unsure, I grabbed the two things and headed back through the ajar door.
My feet stopped abruptly.
What the fuck? Mariyah was gone.
All that was left were the torn remnants of her T-shirt.
Fucking Neves, had she run out naked?
Confused, concerned, and exasperated, I dropped everything in my hand on the chaise and headed into the dressing room to grab some bottoms and make myself decent enough to step outside.
The light was already on in the corridor as I exited my room. Three long strides had me standing in front of Mariyah’s bedroom. I tested the door handle, and the door clacked against the frame. Locked , for fuck’s sake. But she was definitely inside.
Gritting my teeth, I banged my fist on the door. “Mariyah. Mariyah! Open the door now.”
Silence. I raised my hand to knock again, but—
“Why?” she called from inside.
I glared at the wood. “What do you mean ‘ why’ ? Open the door.”
“Why?”
So I can wring your fucking neck. “Because I need to make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m perfectly fine, so piss off.”
“Are you being serious? Open up now,” I rumbled, banging on the door. “I was—” Remembering where I was standing, I cut myself off and lowered my voice. “I was rough with you, Mariyah. You need to let me check you’re not hurt. And we need to talk.”
“Oh, fuck off.” I could practically hear her rolling her eyes. “You’re not the first guy who’s been rough with me, so stop acting like I need you to piece me back together; I’m not bloody breakable.” I didn’t like that she’d brought up past men. In fact, I hated it. “I’m going to shower and sleep. Go do the same and stop bloody banging on my door.”
I was going to kill her. I was actually going to throttle her mouthy fucking arse.
Livid to an unmeasurable degree, I moved closer to the door and hissed, “I don’t know what made you think it was okay to get up and leave when I told you to stay put, but if you’re running from me like a fucking coward, don’t make the mistake of thinking I will let you.
“You can have your space tonight, but we’re going to talk about this, Mariyah. One way or another.”