28. Tristan
28
TRISTAN
M y heart slams against my ribs as I untie the chain from around the bedpost and lower Elle’s leg back down to the mattress. Then I collapse down on the bed next to her. It creaks underneath my weight.
Fucking hell, it feels as if my entire soul is pulsing with lingering pleasure. I don’t know what it is about her but she somehow makes me feel so alive. So free, in a way that I usually never do. Maybe it’s because I never have to pretend with her. Never have to put on a mask. Because she already knows about both sides of me. The nerd and the ruthless punisher.
Tilting my head to the side, I study her from the corner of my eye. Her chest rises and falls rapidly, as if she’s still trying to catch her breath, and there is a dazed expression on her beautiful face as she stares up into the ceiling.
My gaze slips down her naked body for a second, and my heart jerks yet again. I’ve never seen her naked before. And fucking hell, she’s gorgeous.
Fire sears through my veins again .
I want to draw my hands up her sides. I want to caress every one of her curves. I want to?—
Reality snaps back into me. Vicious as a slap.
Fuck. What am I doing? I shouldn’t have fucked her. Again. I shouldn’t have let her touch me. Because every time she does, I lose my fucking mind. And I can’t?—
Elle shoots upright and scrambles out of bed as if she has just remembered something.
I frown at her, yanked out of my own tangled thoughts.
“I just need to go to the bathroom,” she says, still sounding breathless.
Before I can reply, she hurries towards the door to the bathroom. I shake my head at her and lie back down on the bed.
God damn it, I need to get my head back on straight. I hate Elle and I’m supposed to be ruining her life. That’s what matters. That’s why I kidnapped her and brought her here in the first place. I need to keep my distance from her from now on so that something like this doesn’t happen again.
Across the room, clothes rustle faintly.
Without turning my head, I glance towards the soft sound.
Surprise flits through me.
Elle is crouched by my discarded clothes, and her hands move quickly as she searches through them.
At first, I don’t understand what she’s doing.
Then understanding cracks into me.
Oh. The key. She’s looking for the key to her manacle.
I blink. Then coldness starts spreading through my chest as I follow that thought all the way down. She wanted the key. Is that why she fucked me? Is that the real reason why she touched me and kissed me like that? Because she simply wanted me to take my clothes off so that she could search through them.
The realization makes an unexpected wave of disappointment crash over me.
It’s so intense that I almost forget to breathe.
Was none of it real? The way she gasped and moaned and begged as I made her come? Was it all an act?
Frustration rips through me.
Why do I even care if it was real or not? It doesn’t fucking matter if she was faking it. Doesn’t matter if she only did it to distract me. The only thing that matters is that I have her chained up in my basement, that her life is in my hands, and that I’m going to use this opportunity to finally get her kicked out of Bercester U so that I never have to see her again.
Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I sit up and look straight at Elle.
She starts in surprise, and alarm flickers across her features. Her hands move faster, searching frantically for the key.
“Did you really think that I would be stupid enough to bring it?” I say, raising my eyebrows and giving her a pointed stare.
She fumbles with her hands in the pocket of my pants. “What?”
“The key. Did you really think I would bring it with me?”
Her eyes narrow.
“Go ahead.” I sweep out a hand, motioning towards my scattered clothes. “Search them all.”
She does. Which honestly impresses me a little. She’s nothing if not tenacious and stubborn.
While she finishes checking my t-shirt, I put on my underwear and my pants. Then she even searches my boots. I shake my head at her while grabbing my shirt and pulling it on. Once she’s done with the boots, I put those on as well.
Kneeling on the floor, she looks from side to side, as if there is some piece of clothing that she has overlooked. There isn’t. And when she realizes that, her face falls. Then desperation floods her features as she turns to me.
“You have to let me go,” she says, sounding utterly distressed as she stares at me from halfway across the room.
“I don’t have to do anything.”
“The first exam week is next week! It starts tomorrow.”
“I know.”
She shoots to her feet. My heart does a ridiculous flip as her perfect body once more comes into full view. She’s still completely naked.
As if she suddenly realizes that too, she whips her gaze down to her own body. Her cheeks flush. Then she snaps her gaze up and starts looking for her clothes.
Her panties are lying shredded by the bathroom door. But her bra and her dress are still lying at the foot of the bed where she put them earlier. She starts towards them.
And because I fucking can’t help myself, I take two quick strides and put myself between her and the bed, blocking her path to it.
She made me lose my mind and forget my mission, so it’s only right that she suffers for that now. After all, she is the one who started it by taking off her clothes. So if she wants to have this conversation now, she’s going to have to have it naked.
Surprise pulses across her face and she jerks to a halt when she finds me blocking the way. Standing there in front of the bed, I stare her down with hard eyes. She licks her lips.
And my composure almost shatters again .
Fucking hell, does she have to lick her lips like that?
Flexing my hand, I try to dispel the heat that coursed through me at the sight.
Thankfully, Elle doesn’t seem to notice, because she’s too busy trying to calculate whether she can get around me and grab her clothes before I can get to her. She apparently realizes that it won’t work, because she sweeps her glance around the room instead.
Light pulses in her eyes.
I follow her gaze to see what caused it.
My boot knife is lying on the floor by the desk.
“Go for it,” I taunt as I meet Elle’s eyes again. A cruel smile curls my lips. “See what happens.”
For a few seconds, it looks like she’s actually considering it.
But in the end, she just heaves a frustrated sigh and stomps her foot in a way that somehow makes her look both petty and adorable at the same time.
“Exam week starts tomorrow,” she says once more, her voice full of pent-up anger.
“I know,” I repeat. Cocking my head, I flash her another vicious smile. “And what do you think will happen when you miss it?”
Fear and panic pulse across her features. She swallows. “You can’t do this.”
“Of course I can.”
“You son of a bitch!” Lightning flashes in her eyes as she takes an angry step towards me. “I will fucking end you! I will ruin your life so?—”
“You already have,” I cut off, my voice harsh. “Remember?”
She flinches. Regret flits across her features, but it’s quickly drowned out by another wave of anger. “If you don’t release me right now, I will have you arrested for this.”
“This whole thing started because you ratted me out. Do you really think that threatening to do the same thing again is your best move here?”
That shuts her up. Licking her lips, she closes her mouth again and then swallows. She must realize the truth in my words. No matter what she threatens me with right now, it will only make me less inclined to release her.
A truly wicked idea forms in my mind.
“You would have much better luck begging me to release you instead,” I finish.
Her eyes widen.
After holding her gaze, I shoot a pointed look at the floor before my feet. “Crawl up to my feet and beg.”
She sucks in a sharp breath.
“What are you waiting for?” I taunt. “Do you want me to release you or not?”
That makes her lurch into motion. She casts one last glance towards the clothes still out of her reach, and then she lowers herself to her knees. Completely naked, she crawls towards me on her hands and knees.
Her face flushes bright red with every inch closer.
My cock hardens at the sight.
Her life, her body, her mind… utterly at my mercy. Just like it should be.
Once she reaches me, she sits back on her heels. I watch her kneel there naked before my feet.
All sorts of really bad ideas flash through my mind. All sorts of depraved things that I want to do to her until pleasure floods her face and she moans my name.
Fuck. I need to focus .
With great effort, I block out those images and instead raise my eyebrows expectantly.
She draws in a shuddering breath.
“Please,” she whispers.
“You call that begging?”
Desperation pulses in her eyes. “Please, Tristan, let me go. I’m begging you.”
I smile at her.
Relief washes over her features.
Leaning down, I draw a gentle hand along her jaw while I keep that smile on my face.
The hope in her eyes is so bright that it practically illuminates the room.
I caress her cheek and then finally reply, “No.”
She jerks back as if I had slapped her. “What?”
Chuckling, I straighten again.
“But, but,” she stammers, staring up at me in confusion and disbelief. “But you said?—”
My smile twists into a wicked smirk. “I just really like hearing you beg.”