Squeezing my body like an anaconda, Kieran growls in my ear, yanking me from my memories. “I’ve flown a plane for eleven bloody hours, Ava. I’m half satiated as far as nourishment goes, but then I look at you. And I want you more than any sustenance on God’s green earth.”
Sconces dimly light the home, making the area seem more imposing and Kieran more untouchable. I snap, “You can’t have—”
“I ownyou!” Kieran starts up an immaculate staircase. His grip is around my waist with my back against his front. My legs jut outward, slicing through the air. One-foot garners purchase on the intricate railing. Kieran’s biceps crush the life from my spine.
On the second landing, he roundabouts down a wide corridor of crown moldings and canvas paintings. As he passes the threshold of a lavish bedroom with an antique, cedarwood sleigh bed, I wrench my hands back. My fingertips sink into the side of Kieran’s face. I freefall, my ass hydroplaning over marbled flooring, landing near an eggshell settee by the spacious window. My body hasn’t ceased moving when Kieran’s on top of me. He drops a vicious kiss that bruises my mouth, stealing my breath and sanity—not to mention curling my toes. I moan, the cognitive delay taking too much out of me before I utter, “No.”
Hands clamp onto my hair, follicles wrenched. Teeth clamp on my lips, parting them for another stolen kiss. Again, my psyche takes a moment to correct my traitorous body.
“Noooo…”
“Stop saying that! I’m not doing anything.”
“You are!” I gasp. “This is . . . This is . . .”
His heavy body crushes over me, cock grounding my center so hard my spine crunches over the waxed, stone flooring. A dark flame pools my core, running over, thickening the inner and outer folds of my sex as his body melds over mine.
“Get off, Kieran,” I utter his name for the first time in a hoarse tone. I’m disappointed in the physical attraction oozing through every surface of him.
He rolls over, pops a fist onto the ground, and jolts into a standing position. I’m starting to rise when he yanks me up and strips my clothes away from my skin with hot, brutal fingers.
I cling to the strips of my torn shirt, which become futile as he tugs at my jeans. My ass hits the ground again, this time knocking the air from my lungs.
“No. Stop. No!” I shout. Tears sting my eyes as I shield myself from Kieran. But he’s no longer kissing nor laying a calloused finger on my body. Kieran glares down at me.
I tremble out, “You can’t have me!”
A flat aura emits around him. “I already have you, Ava. Look around. You own me too. That what you need to hear?”
Baffled by his statement, I stutter, “Wh-what the hell are you saying?”
Kieran crouches down. His eyes wandering over my body are so intense, it feels like a caress. Seconds later, his fingertip strokes the arch at the side of my breast. Goosebumps ignite over my skin, which I’m not entirely sure weren’t already in position to form, at the hungry look in his eyes. Those intensely dark eyes drop to my lips, lingering there. My mouth parts.
The heat of his gaze has the air in the column of my throat caught, and then it evaporates.Ava, you are fucked!I swat his hand. He brandishes his palm across my face.
“When you hit me, I hit you, Ava.”
No. No. No. No. The word blares along the walls of my brain.
“Youfeckme, little bird, Ifeckyou. You kiss me softly, just as you did a few minutes ago, the same rules apply. Got that?”
I spit the words, “Fuck you!”
He goes for the buckle of his belt.
My hands fly. Kieran shoves me back, wrists held over my head. His muscular V-shaped body becomes the perfect puzzle piece between my thighs. My pulse flutters everywhere I have life. In my heart. At the small patch of skin at my neck where his breath grazes over. Between my thighs where soft air touches at the wet folds. For ages, I’ve felt dead, but his touch revives my heart.
He turns his head and shouts, “Marty!”
The door opens a fraction of a second later. A slender man in a white linen shirt and a gun holster enters.
“Marty, keep your gaze averted. You look, you die, aye?”
“Aye.”
I gasp, folding my face into the sinew area of Kieran’s shoulder and neck. His manly scent calms another anxious moment, which threatens to pull me under.
I pulled in a shaky breath. I was fully naked, body lying flat on a table. Beluga caviar covered my pussy. Smoked salmon canapés adorned my breasts, and expensive tartare garnished my thighs. Powerful men, whose distorted view of women saw my body as nothing more than a tray, filled the room. Thus, a human became nothing.