Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 95627 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 383(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95627 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 383(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
"Then let me go. If you care about me at all, you will let me go. You are the thing that I need protection from."
Just like that, my control snapped.
"Never," I growled as I grabbed her by the side of her neck and pulled her body toward mine, slamming my lips down on hers. If she wouldn't believe me when I told her how I felt about her, then I would just have to show her.
CHAPTER 34
ARTEM
"Give in to me, princess," I purred against her ear as her body melted into mine.
After I kissed her in the security office, she was wild.
Tearing at my clothes, trying to take control of the situation.
If I didn't know for a fact that the room was monitored and at least two, if not all, of my family members were in the next room, I would've let her.
Instead, I pulled her hands off of me.
She looked up at me with her enormous eyes gleaming with confusion.
"There are cameras in here. I'm the only man who gets to know what you look like when you come."
I took her hand and led her to my car. We didn't say a word during the short drive from the security cabin back to the lake house.
My cock was aching and if the subtle grinding of her thighs was any indication, she needed me as much as I needed her.
When we got inside the house, I kissed her again, this time slowly. It wasn't about dominating her; it was about showing her what I felt, how I felt about her. I was trying to be affectionate and not controlling.
It was an unfamiliar concept but as her body settled against me, her hands lacing around my back, holding on to me, I thought maybe it was something I could get used to.
We needed to be in the same room I had taken her to the night before.
It was the only one without surveillance.
This time I picked her up and carried her in my arms, her arms wrapped around the back of my neck, her fingers laced into my hair, her lips placing small, sweet kisses on my throat.
This woman was going to be the death of me.
The housekeeper had fixed up the master bedroom, getting rid of any evidence of the more violent coupling from the night before. It was perfect.
The room was dimly lit, only the softest glow of sunlight coming from behind the large, heavy curtains. I set her down on her feet gently, kissing her sweet lips again before running my hands through her thick curls.
Her head tilted up as I tasted the long column of her neck, her heartbeat racing against the flat of my tongue.
Every other time I undressed her, I had destroyed the clothing she was wearing, ripped it from her body.
This time I took my time. Undoing every single button down the front of her shirt, placing kisses on each edge of skin as I exposed it.
Her eyes were wide, her lips barely parted as she watched me.
"Tell me what you want," I said, then placed a kiss on the flat of her stomach.
"My freedom," she gasped, her hands lacing through my hair again.
"Tell me something within my power to give you. I can do many things, princess. Letting you go is simply not one of them."
I sealed my lips over hers again as my hands ran to the strap of lace over her back. One simple pinch had the clasps undone and the lace that kept her beautiful breasts from me tumbling to the floor.
She gasped again, and I slid my tongue in between her teeth, tasted her, explored her and then coaxed her tongue to do the same to me.
"Artem," she gasped as I laid her down on the bed and took my time licking and sucking her beautiful full breasts, ignoring the ache in my cock.
I was always so fucking hard for her. Always ready to bend her over the nearest piece of furniture and fuck her as if my life depended on it.
This wasn't about me taking from her or controlling her, it was about showing her through some kind of intimate bond how I felt about her.
I loved her.
More than anything. But I couldn't tell her, not with words.
If I just said them, she wouldn't believe me.
Hell, I hardly believed it.
I hadn't known I was capable of this kind of affection.
Or worse, she would, and it would make her want to run that much more.
I needed her to want me, not to run from me, and I did my best to pour that into every single touch, every single kiss.
"Princess," I whispered as I broke the kiss and looked into her eyes.
"Artem?" she asked. "Why me?"
"Because I saw you and saw the fire you had. I saw your strength, and I knew you deserved everything. You deserve the world, and I want to be the man who gives it to you."