“Does this make you feel helpless, my sweet girl?”
“Yes,” I breathe, feeling like easy prey caught in a Venus flytrap.
“Are you wet from sucking me off?”
“You know I am.”
Two fingers run the length of my drenched slit, and I groan.
“Your greedy pussy is begging to come.” He pushes a digit into me, and I arch into his touch with a whimper.
“Hold still,” he says, smacking my ass. “You’re going to take everything I give you.” He slips in and out of me, his fingers wet and warm.
A distant flash of lightning brightens the room for a moment, leaving me in a dream-like state of mind. Warmth gathers low in my stomach, shooting tingles down my thighs. The pressure amps up, and I wish I could clutch the bedding. Keeping my ass raised right where he wants it puts an unbearable strain on my cuffed wrists.
“This pussy’s about to gush for me.” Driving his point home, he crooks a finger inside me, and I cry out as I drip down his hand.
Still, the pressure intensifies. “Please, Liam.”
“Hush,” he murmurs, landing a smack on my ass that’s louder than his command. “You’ll come when I allow it.”
His ministrations continue tortuously slow, each stroke designed to bring me that much closer without allowing a plummet into ecstasy. But the more I beg, the longer he keeps me on the edge.
Except for the occasional flash of lonely lightning—a muted brightness in the distance through the picture window—shadows casts the bedroom in a sense of anonymity. It makes it easier to shed my conscience and unload the burden of my heart as I near climax for the fifth time.
“Let me come,” I gasp. “Please, Liam…I’ll do anything.”
He brushes his slick fingers over my back hole. “Will you give this to me?”
His question hits me like a sucker punch, awakening the ghost of Sebastian in the haunted quarters of my mind. It’s impossible to cast out the memories—not the adoration in his eyes the first time he entered me. Not his careful, patient thrusts that made us one body. Definitely not the way he made it special for me.
Sebastian Stone made himself irreplaceable that night.
“Let me go.” I pull at the belt around my wrists to no avail.
“I won’t let you run from this.”
“Liam, I don’t—”
“You’re a little tied up, my sweet girl.” Slowly and painfully, his thumb presses into my ass. “Powerless to stop me.”
He won’t stop. He told me as much, made it a point to warn me.
And I didn’t listen.
“I mean it,” I say, the tremor in my voice betraying the fear clawing inside me. “Don’t force me into this.”
“I’ll make it feel good. You don’t have to be scared.”
“I’m not scared. I’m heartbroken.”
Withdrawing his thumb, he shifts his weight between my legs, and his sigh rents the air. “Because of Sebastian?”
“Because of him…because of you…because this just doesn’t feel right.” A sob catches in my throat, and I close my eyes against the searing pain in my chest. He doesn’t understand that giving that part of myself to him feels like a betrayal.
To him.
To Sebastian.
Even to myself.
The room falls too quiet as he releases my hands. I scoot to the headboard and fold my arms over my chest, the desire in my bones long gone. In the dark space, I feel his disappointed gaze on me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, though I’m not exactly sure what I’m apologizing for. He kidnapped me, and here I am, cowering on the mattress, naked and at his mercy.
“Don’t apologize.” Climbing off the bed, he grabs his jeans and pulls them on, followed by a T-shirt.
“Where are you going?”
“I need some space.”
Unprepared for his answer, I get to my knees. “Don’t leave.”
For a few seconds, he’s motionless while I drown in a swamp of abandonment. “Dammit, Novalee. Don’t fuck with my heart.”
“I’m sorr—”
“Don’t you dare say those words to me again.” His command booms off of the walls. “As far as I’m concerned, neither of us has anything to apologize for. I shouldn’t have pushed, and you should have said stop when I gave you the chance.”
“But you stopped anyway.”
“Yeah, because I fucking love you.” His shadow prowls toward the bed. “But that doesn’t mean you get to jerk me around.”
Something about the accusatory vibe in his tone digs under my skin. I launch off the bed and confront him, raising my chin to the stubborn set of his jaw. “How dare you put this on me. You kidnapped me. You seduced me in the lagoon knowing how conflicted I’ve been.” With a prod to his heaving chest, I raise my voice. “You made me want you again!”
“You never stopped!” Gripping me by the neck, he slams his mouth on mine, and there’s nothing permissive or careful about his kiss this time. He devours me, his tongue on a quest to silence any protest I might have.