“I’m not a possession to be bartered and traded among men,” I scoff.
“I don’t see you that way,” his blue eyes burn down into mine.
“No?” I raise an eyebrow at him. “You took me to get leverage over my father. Then, you accepted his offer to keep me to settle whatever the beef is between you and him. You claim you’re so against human trafficking, which, by definition, is the kidnapping, buying, and selling of human beings, yet that’s exactly what you’ve done to me. You’re no different from him.”
He releases me and steps back from me like I’ve slapped him. His body recoils as if I’ve physically hit him. I push away the stab of remorse that hits me. Damn it, it’s true. He did kidnap me. He did accept me as payment. Like I’m a thing—not a person.
He frowns down at me for a long moment before he finally speaks. “Go get cleaned up,” he motions to the bathroom.
I grit my teeth, balking at the notion of being ordered around like a pet.
The only reason why I turn on my heel and go to obey is because I can’t wait to take a shower and wash his come and all evidence of his touch off my body.
* * *
Gage
I watch her as she stalks to the bathroom, taking all the covers with her. Despite the fact that I feasted on those tits and was nose-deep in her pussy yesterday, she still feels the need to hide her body from me.
I’m completely unsurprised when I hear the loud click of the lock being turned like she snapped it ferociously into place. If I wasn’t so knifed by her brutal comparison of me to her father, I’d be amused.
As if a lock could keep me out. As if anything could keep me from her if I wanted her.
Her accusations sting. I don’t want to see the truth in her words because the real truth is I would never do anything to hurt her. I just want to keep her here with me. I want to take care of her and give her the world. Is that so wrong?
I pinch the bridge of my nose in irritation before stalking over to my closet and pulling on a pair of sweatpants. I pull out another pair with a drawstring and one of my smallest shirts—one of the ones that’s tight on me.
A better man would release her, but I’ve never claimed to be a good man, so I’m keeping Ava. In time, she’ll come to see that I won’t harm her. That I only want to give her pleasure and make her happy.
I pull the knife I from my discarded slacks from last night and make quick work of picking the bathroom lock.
Ava doesn’t even see me when I slip into the bathroom and hang the clothes on the hooks. She’s turned facing away from the door, holding her head up to the spray of the water.
My cock instantly hardens at the sight of her naked body with water drizzling down it. The reality of my fantasies yesterday is even more beautiful in person.
I clench my hands into fists, trying to restrain myself. It would be so easy to slip into the shower with her, come up behind her, grab her around the throat, and sheath myself inside her slick, hot heat. I can already hear the wet slapping of our bodies as I thrust into her and find release, marking her as mine.
And just like that, I feel pre-come moistening the tip of my cock.
With great effort, I back out of the bathroom and close the door behind me. Breathing heavily, I stand behind the closed bathroom door and slowly count to ten, willing my raging hard-on to subside.
I want her to learn to trust me. I want her to want me as badly as I want her. In order to do that, I can’t just take her in the shower—however badly I may want to.
I also still have businesses to run, so as much as I might want to babysit her all day, I know I won’t be able to do that either.
My pretty little bird is going to need a gilded cage.