So many questions stormed into my mind, it was difficult to find an answer. “I’m not, really. You went through my things?”
He placed the pads of his fingertips on my collarbone and began to skate them down my bare skin where the shirt wasn’t closed. “Yes. I had them brought here.”
The goosebumps he gave me could have been from his words and not just his touch. What was he talking about? “What things?”
His expression was casual. “All of them. I had your dorm room packed up and moved the boxes into another guest room.”
“What?” The invasion of privacy was overwhelming.
Luka blinked slowly and his expression was guarded. “I told you, this is your home now. When you’ve earned it, you can have your things back.”
My mouth hung open, and as my fury built into a crescendo, his gaze hardened.
“Or you can throw a fit about it and I’ll take my shirt back.”
I closed my eyes and forced myself to take in a calming breath. I was smarter than this. I wouldn’t succumb to an emotional reaction, not if I wanted to outplay him. When my eyes fluttered open, I found him scrutinizing me.
“Will you please,” I said, each word deliberate, “untie me now?”
He paused. “Only if you let me tie you up again right after.”
“After?” Dread coated my voice.
He waved a hand toward the bathroom. “I assume you need to use the restroom.”
Luka was right, I did, but . . . “I thought you said I only needed to be tied up so you could get me clothes, which you did.” He’d gotten all of my clothes.
“Do you want to use the bathroom or not?”
I exhaled loudly. “I do.”
“Okay.” He grabbed my wrist and began to undo the knots. “You’ll come right back to the bed when you’re done, and drink this.”
He made me leave the door open as well, which was infuriating. After I finished, I rolled my aching shoulders and returned to him with trepidation. Our time apart had recharged Luka, and he appeared ready to go after me again at full force.
It would be so much harder the second time to lie down on the bed, and as I lingered in the doorway, I considered not doing it. He must have sensed it.
“Come here,” he commanded.
I sat cautiously beside him on the side of the bed, leaving distance between us. He unscrewed the bottle, passed it to me, and I gulped it down until it was gone, taking my time. Stalling, really, but I couldn’t put it off forever. I held the dress shirt closed as I willed my body to lie down on the bed, fidgeting to maximize coverage. Luka took one of my wrists in his hands, and rubbed the rope marks with his thumbs, mesmerized. A darkness flickered in his eyes.
He enjoyed seeing these marks of his control on my skin.
I shuddered.
He spoke as he wound the rope once again around my wrists, binding me to the bed. “Your roommate’s an idiot, but she knows things about you I don’t.”
Normally, that would make sense. I lived with her, after all. But instead I wondered how it could be possible. Avery paid no attention to anyone but herself.
His voice was uncharacteristically soft. “You’re going to Duke after you graduate?”
I opened my mouth to say something, then snapped it shut. Had Avery told him that? The realization came quickly. No, Avery probably hadn’t. If he’d packed up my dorm room as he said, he’d found my acceptance package in the top drawer of my desk.
“I . . . haven’t decided yet.” Duke was expensive. Hell, all of the schools were. I’d be up to my eyeballs in student loans until I was forty.
“Why not?” His tone was almost angry. “That’s a great school.”
“I have others I’m waiting to hear from.” I tried to organize my thoughts. Why were we talking about this? The restraint on me made me feel off-balance and knocked my filter askew. “I don’t know if I can afford it.”
“Your parents?”
A different level of discomfort grew, one which had nothing to do with the situation. “They don’t have a way to help.”
What I really meant was we were struggling. My parents owned three hundred acres of farmland. Some seasons we came out ahead, but most years we merely survived, and it seemed like it had been year after year of bad luck recently.
“Not everyone lives in mansions on golf courses,” I added under my breath.
His expression could almost pass for amusement. “You do . . . now.”
“I don’t live here, Luka.” For effect, I jolted against the knots and the rope went taut. I was captive, surely he knew I would bolt the first opportunity I got.
“This is where you belong,” he said. “I own you.”
His fingertips crept beneath the collar of my shirt, nudging it over, threatening to expose my naked breast. The muscles low in my belly clenched, and I shifted subtly away, but I could only go so far. He could do whatever he wanted.