“Tempting. Fuck. I can’t. I’m sorry. I’m not screwing over my life for what’s between your legs.”
“Really?” I shrugged, reining in my annoyance, make that my anger. Then I added, quietly, “It’s okay. You’re not the sort of man I’d go for. If I saidmake me, you’d wimp out.”
Why had I said that? Because I wanted to tease the monster. Because I wanted…more.
Emme had been so right. A thrill had blossomed deep inside when he took my poking forefinger and held onto it. That simple act had shaken me and left me aching, waiting for the moment.Thismoment.Say it.
“I see… Is that it, Charity? Was that a challenge? We’re heading for take two on what I just tried.”
“Make me,” I said, even quieter, my voice shaking. Then I ducked and made to run.
“You bitch.” He laughed and grabbed my shoulder in a bruising hold, then hauled me back to him quickly. I tripped on sand, and he caught me and spun me to face him.
That thrill roared in like a peaking tidal wave, and I embraced it. I showed my teeth to him and wriggled as he tried to twist my arm around to my back.Make me.
“Fuck you, little miss. You’re insane, but I like it.”
With my arm locked behind me in a hold that was inescapable and painful, he crushed me to his chest. My straining achieved nothing, and then…then he kissed me, with softness there, for only a frozen whirling second.
He wrenched back my hair and angled in for a more brutal possession. Teeth, tongue, his callused, roving fingers, even the stubble on his jaw assaulted my face and my mouth.
I melted into him, and his leg was again shoved onto my clit. As he abused my mouth, his fist-grip on my hair was screwed, tighter, tighter. My scalp felt caught in a vice.
The pain was a fire I was already addicted to.
Then he ceased to kiss me, took the bridge of my nose in his teeth, and growled before licking his way to my ear. When he released my arm and my hair, I dropped my head to his shoulder, my rough breathing pushing my breasts against his chest.
“You’re too easy to catch. I should make you suck on me anyway…to punish you for being useless at running.”
I bucked again, or tried to and then…
Someone else spoke. “Well, well.” It was a male voice and close by, and so unexpected it took me a few seconds to nail down the speaker.
Dr. Romanus.
Cassius released me, and I stood beside him, wondering what the doctor had heard or seen. Had he seen the phone? The man was leaning on a tree in the shadows.
“It seems you enjoy fucking about with Charity too?”
“Yeah. I had some time on my hands.” He shrugged, as if that were nothing to quibble over.
“And she let you.Hmmm.” The doctor walked out of the thin, beachside forest, taking the path we had. “I heard some of that. I have security cameras that point this way. Inigo noticed a scuffle. Are you okay, Charity?”
This was the most bizarre moment of an entirely bizarre night—him, asking me that.
How much could the camera have shown in such poor lighting?
“Yes.” I was still panting. I gulped and made myself calmer, if not serene. I couldn’t do the impossible.
“I could ask you to leave and not come back, Cassius. Your employer would replace you.” He strode closer and halted. “Beautiful evening. I have a proposal for you, Cassius. I like your style. Would you like a share, to stay here whenever I’m staying, and make use of her as you wish to?”
“A share?”
Both turned to look at me, and I had already taken a step away from them, due to anticipating something like this. The doctor liked to mindfuck, and so, did he actually mean that?
He wanted to share me?
I opened my mouth and left it like that. My mind was a mite scrambled.