Self-preservation forms a wall around my heart. “What if I don’t want to stay here and fuck you?” I snap. “Did you think about that? I have a life, you know, and guess what? It doesn’t revolve around you and your personal problems.”
He tears his eyes from his IKEA project to me. After a few tense seconds, he spits the nail out of his mouth and leans back against the desk.
It’s the first time since I stomped into this room that he’s given me all of his attention. I’d forgotten how heavy it feels, how uneasyit always makes me.
“So tell me that, then.”
“What?”
He tightens his cufflinks. “You’re a grown woman, Penelope, and I’m a reasonable man.”Yeah, tell that to Blake’s lifeless body.“So, drop the hypotheticals and tell me what you want.”
Under the heat of his stare, I try not to shrivel. Instead, I steel my jaw and match his indifference.
“I don’t want to stay on this boat and be your fuck toy, Raphael.”
He nods once, jaw taut. “Okay, now tell me that again, but closer this time.”
I frown. “Huh?”
Without breaking eye contact, he unbuckles his belt. Thethawpof leather passing through loops makes me stiffer than the loudestcrackof a hammer ever could.
“Come over here and tell me you don’t want to fuck me,” he says quietly.
Ice freezes my veins. When I glance to the door over Raphael’s broad shoulders, he laughs darkly.
“Silly girl,” he rasps, gaze flashing with molten amusement. “Your eyes always give you away.”
A staggered heartbeat. A strangled moan. Then I kick the half-built bookshelf into his path and make a run for it.
IfI’mbeinghonest,I always knew that if I fucked Penelope, I’d break my rule and fuck her more than once. Knew it long before I found out how tightly her cunt grips my cock.
Ah, well. That rule wasn’t the first thing I broke today; won’t be the last, either.
Dark humor fills me as Penelope slams the door behind herself, making the portholes quiver in her wake. I’m sure she’s expecting me to chase her, but where’s the fun in that? Instead, I down the rest of my vodka, shrug off my jacket and drape it neatly over the backrest of an armchair, tap out a text to delay my flight, then switch over to my security camera app.
That amusement melts into a tight laugh.Silly girl.She flew out of the library and took a left into my private quarters. Each room connects with the next, following the semi-circle shape of the bow. All I have to do is stroll out of this room and take a right, and we’ll bump into each other in the living room or my cabin.
Either will do absolutely fine.
As I slip out of the library and into the meeting room behind it, a reckless thrill racks through me so violently, I can taste it at the back of my throat. In the spirit of being honest, I must admit Iloveplaying games with this girl.
Especially when the loser gets spanked.
The meeting room melts into my study, and as I draw nearer to the connecting door, incoming footsteps and ragged breaths seep out from the gap underneath it.
For pure theatrics, I crack the belt in my hand, and no sooner than thethawppollutes the air does a muffled squeal soak through the door and touch my groin.
Penelope crashes into my chest the moment I yank the door open.
“Going somewhere?”
As always, her eyes answer for her, darting into the study behind me. Suddenly, I understand why she cheats at card games. It’s not because she fancies herself as a swindler, but because she’d never win fair-and-square with a poker face that bad.
I’m half-tempted to fuck an impassive disposition into her before allowing her off the boat.
When her tense stance suggests she’s going to make a break for it, I crack my belt again,hard.The noise flashes in her eyes like a warning sign well-received. She comes to a sudden stop, her gaze sliding south to the leather in my hand.
“What’s that for?”