Chapter 5 #2
She gritted her teeth over the smarting sensation in her cheeks. It only worsened with a mortified explosion when her gaze collided with the two-way mirror opposite them.
The one everyone else was standing behind.
Watching everything that was going on between her and Dominic.
Oh, fuck no.
Spurred into action by her roiling temper, she tried to charge forward and out of the marquess’s reach. Only to be caged even tighter as he lassoed one arm around her thighs and the other across her belly.
“Dominic, let go,” she snapped, looking back over her shoulder because looking at the screen was singeing the skin from her face.
The horny bastard completely ignored her and dragged the bridge of his nose up the line of her spine as his hands massaged and caressed her body. Sweet tickles broke out over her skin when he inhaled and let out a husky moan that vibrated through her swollen sex.
Did he just fucking sniff me?
She was shaking with a mixture of anger, irritation, and unwanted desire, but having never had any man smell her so obviously before, she had no idea how to even begin raging at him for it.
“Will you not lie with me so that I might hold you while we talk?” he mumbled.
“No.”
“Then will you lie with me after? And permit me a taste of your lips? Perhaps a taste of your skin too?”
He was groping her while asking permission to do other things? How the fuck did that make any sense?
Working on adrenaline-fuelled autopilot, Rayna spat out the first thing on her tongue. “Only if you let go of me.”
The clamp of his arms unlatched from around her, and without a single glance back, she shot forward, putting as much distance between her and the lusty marquess as possible.
Rayna glared holes into the acrylic screen, deeper than the ones Dominic had made with his fists, as she tried to calm her fury with long, slow breaths.
In through the nose, and out through the mouth. In and out. In and…
It wasn’t working.
In fact, each inhale fanned her ire hotter and brighter as her nerves retraced every part of her body Dominic had touched, creating this phantom feeling that he was still bound around her.
It didn’t help that she could feel exactly how wet he’d made her too, her sex whining with hollow need like some brat desperate to be the centre of attention.
It had her on the edge of some manic sort of eruption.
The partially sane side of her brain was trying to conjure up images of Victor soothing her with a mixture of scolding, encouraging, and rule-reminding, while the other majority was formulating ideas on how to mutilate the lord’s rugged face with a toothbrush.
She couldn’t react with violence, though. Not only because he was a Study and it would jeopardise her job, but it wouldn’t be fair after what he’d already been put through. However...
There came a rustle behind her. “Sweetheart?”
Rotating slowly, Rayna let out a low, grated chuckle.
Dominic was still sitting on the edge of the bed, the tent of his erection apparent, but there had appeared a pinch of wary confusion between his brows.
“You,” she started, letting her anger coat each word, “have some fucking nerve thinking that I’d ever let you touch me after you strangled me and then rubbed your dick against my leg like a dog in heat when I bloody told you to let go!”
The marquess’s eyes grew before amusement crinkled his face, and he chuckled a low, dark-chocolate-rich laugh. “My, oh my,” he said huskily. “I do not think I have ever heard such foul words come from such a pretty mouth before.”
A muscle ticked in Rayna’s jaw as she rubbed her teeth together. “Get used to it because I’m not done.”
He straightened his spine and rolled his hand with all the arrogance of a powerful king. “Then please, by all means, continue. I am positively filled with anticipation.”
His taunt poured mercury through her veins, poisoning her blood. She was losing control over her patience and motor ability, her hands fighting to curl into balls and sock him in the fucking face, while she swore filth at him.
“I should have given the signal and let the guards tie you down again,” she ground out.
The corner of her mouth twitched in satisfaction as he visibly stiffened.
All trace of dancing delight vanished from his expression, and his brows slipped low over his eyes. Not quite in a frown, but in a piercing steadiness that was unforgiving and perceptive.
Yet there was a catlike laziness to his movement as he stood from the bed and swaggered towards her. Like a man who knew his silent presence commanded a room just as well as his voice did, without the need to put on a show of fearsome prowess.
Didn’t mean he was incapable of it, though, as she’d already learned.
But if he intended to turn her dumb and meek with his smugness, well…welcome to the future, Mr Marquess.
“So you work for those men, do you?” he asked, towering big and wide in front of her.
She grinned menacingly and gave a single shake of her head. “Wrong way around, I’m afraid.” She tipped her chin high. “They work for me.”
That was an overexaggeration of the truth. The guards were under Victor’s command as he was the case manager. But on her signal, had she given it, they would have burst into the room and restrained Dominic to sedate him, so it wasn’t completely untrue either.
The hairs on the back of Rayna’s neck stood and cheered loudly, creating a buzz over her skin, as Dominic’s eyes darkened.
Cocking her hip, she arched a brow. “And do you want to know the best part?” she practically chirped. His jaw rolled tightly as she jabbed a finger at him. “It’s that you won’t be able to leave this room until I say so.”
Another minor exaggeration, but it wasn’t as if he knew that.
She let her smile drop into a hard stare and stood tall.
“And frankly, considering you groped me when I clearly told you no, I’m not sure I’m in the mood to let you out of here.
” It wasn’t clear if he swayed forward or she did, but her finger just touched his sternum.
“So, unless you want to find yourself stuck in here until you learn to keep your hands to your fucking self, get out of my face and go sit down, so I can actually explain why you’re here. ”
Dominic didn’t blink, didn’t move, didn’t utter a sound. But neither did she as she glared up at him, too stubborn and enraged to back down.
His hand shot out at the speed of light and snagged her around the wrist. She gasped as he hurled her right into him. It was like stumbling into a heated brick wall, but he barely swayed as if he hadn’t felt the collision.
She immediately tried to rip her arm free, but his grip was an unbreakable cuff as he curled his wrist, pressing the back of her hand to the skin between his open linen shirt.
The cool light flashed ominously in his sharp irises as he lowered his face over hers, making him look every bit the wicked pirate king who’d hold a sword to her throat if she crossed him. “I don’t take kindly to being threatened, sweetheart,” he rumbled low and slow.
She jerked closer, squaring up to him. “It wasn’t a threat; it was a warning.”
His gaze skated over her face, lingering on her cheekbones and lips. “Threat or warning, it will not achieve anything. So what say we call a truce and agree not to issue any? And in return, I will refrain from…touching you again.” He raised his brows. “Do we have a deal, Rayna?”
“Depends,” she said, arching her own brows. “Can you actually keep your hands to yourself?”
“I can,” he said calmly before he swallowed and eased the slightest bit back. “But I would like to make it clear that I was unaware my...advances were truly unwanted.”
Her anger waned under the weight of sincerity in his voice, but she couldn’t help sneering in bafflement. “Wasn’t it clear from how many times I told you to let go of me?”
His mouth curled, playful but chagrined, as he loosened his hold on her wrist. “You offer a fair point. However, you never once asked me to stop.” His timbre dropped two notches. “And I clearly recall you agreeing to lie with me.”
Rayna gritted her teeth over the blush that warmed her face.
He wasn’t exactly wrong, but he wasn’t right either.
She twisted her hand, expressing her irritation. “There is more than one way of saying stop, Lord Norland.” She narrowed her eyes sarcastically. “And don’t get your hopes up. I only said that, so you’d let go.”
Dominic’s smile grew, before he dragged his teeth over his bottom lip with a huff of laughter. “You are a curious wonder, sweetheart.”
She stayed silent, doing her best to ignore the puzzled warmth that fluttered over her skin.
He held her under his heavy stare for a few beats longer before nodding. “All right. We shall talk. But no guards. Only you and me. Is that a deal?”
She nodded once. “Deal.”