But when I open my eyes again, hers are red, and water fills them again. With my thumb, I brush away the single drop rolling down her cheek. Then I tuck her beautiful white hair behind her ears, and I lean in to press a kiss to her lips.
It’s agonizingly slow for me, but I know I need to be gentle with her.
For all these years, her body went untouched, and it doesn’t know how to respond to a man like me. Doesn’t know how to yield.
But I’ll show her. With my body, I’ll teach her how to submit.
As I kiss her, she bites my lip, and the bitter, metallic taste of blood enters my mouth. I’m used to it, so I shrug it off and continue. I like a woman with a bit of fight in her.
I press another kiss to her chin and one on her neck, before returning to her mouth.
My kisses are soft but overpowering. My hands are still on her wrists, but I can tell she’s resisting less and less. And after a while, I release her from my grip.
My shaft bursts with arousal as I feel her heated body beneath mine. With every kiss, I crave her more and more to the point I can barely take it anymore.
So I rise and allow her to look at my ample length before grabbing her waist again and flipping her over. I pull her up on her knees, ready to mate.
But she sinks down on the bed and holds out her hand right in front of me. The look in her eyes is serious.
“STOP!”
That sound … it came from her mouth.
I can’t believe it.
She actually spoke.
Accompanying Song: “Elastic Heart” by Sia
Ella
Scream. It was the only thing I could do, the only thing I could think of. And then suddenly it happened.
My voice returned.
I breathe in and out through my mouth, my body shaking from the shock. I can’t believe I almost allowed that to happen.
He leans up away from me for a second, equally surprised by the sound that came from my mouth. I immediately take the opportunity and pull my legs out from underneath him and scramble off the bed, crawling away.
Clutching my dress close to my body, I huddle into a corner. I can’t believe what just happened. The door opened and in came Cage to sweep me off my feet and carry me into this room. This … sex room.
Because that is what it is.
A room with just a closet, a water faucet, and a bed.
Its sole purpose is to connect the glass prisons.
It should’ve dawned on me that this was the reason for the room in between. Why Graham kept me instead of trying to sell me. Why I’m here in the first place.
It’s for him.
Cage.
I’m his prize for winning the fight.
How could anyone offer up a human being as a prize? And why would Cage accept? It’s as if he doesn’t even know any better. I can tell by the way he looks at me as he sits on the bed naked with a full-blown hard-on that he doesn’t have a single clue what’s going on.
I want to rage so badly, but the sounds have disappeared from my throat again. I still can’t believe I actually made a noise around him. It only happened with my parents because I knew them. I trusted them.
But this? This is completely different.
I don’t know Cage.
Yet … I could speak.
I shudder. It couldn’t possibly be because I trusted him. No. Absolutely not.
But then why do I feel this sorrow when I look at him? As if I should feel bad? The worried look on his face doesn’t make it any better either.
I’m not the one who did this.
“Ella?”
The way he speaks my name—in such a guttural tone—brings goose bumps to my skin. It sounds so innocent as if he’s sad and wants to make things right. Even though he’s the one who … who …
I don’t want to feel the way I did when he touched me. I don’t want to have these goose bumps whenever I hear him talk. I don’t want this heat that rushes through my body after he kissed me. I don’t want any of it because it’s wrong.
It’s so damn wrong.
Yet when he looks at me like that—with those hungry yet thoughtful eyes, licking his lips like he’s contemplating what to do next—it makes me weak.
I can’t be weak. Not in here.
Suddenly, he gets up from the bed, and his erection becomes huge in my eyes. Or maybe it was always like that, but I’ve only now gotten the time to actually look at it. And holy shit, I can’t believe that thing was about to go into me.
I swallow away the lump in my throat.
I admit I have seen a man before, on several occasions, but it was mostly on the internet. I know how it works. But this is different. I’ve never actually been with a man in that way.