Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
My hand closed into a fist at my side. Opened. Closed again.
It was nonsensical. She was nothing to me, a sacrificial lamb to be slaughtered on the altar of my family’s vanity.
All I wanted was to back her against that piss-green wall and make her look away first.
She wouldn’t. I already knew that.
This whole mess started because of Jameson.
But now it was about her and me.
She backed up a step as I stepped further into the room. “Get out! Get out now before I scream for the guard.”
I shrugged out of my jacket. “Scream all you want. She won’t come until I call her.”
Madison circled around to the far side of the table. “You’re not allowed back here.”
“I’m allowed wherever I damn well please.”
I moved toward her. She retreated, always keeping the table between us.
“What do you want?”
“You,” I announced with a smirk.
She went still.
My attention dropped to the small hand clutching at the silk bow at her throat.
After all the photos of her in that baggy orange jumpsuit, seeing her in normal clothes was always its own punishment. I may have been a heartless bastard by having her arrested, but I had made arrangements for her safety while she was locked up.
Whether or not she realized it, she had been under my protection the entire time.
The cream silk blouse she wore today was just sheer enough to allow a glimpse of white lace underneath, and the A-line skirt swayed around her hips with every step. With the chaste bow at her throat and her hair in a tight, austere bun, she was meant to appear demure. Instead she looked like a naughty librarian begging for someone to punish her. I wanted to push my fingers into her hair and rip out the band, to allow midnight black curls to fall in wild disarray and cascade down her bare back.
I needed this woman in my bed. Now.
“I...I...don’t know what you mean.”
My lips twisted into a cynical smile. “Yes, you do.”
She moved around the table once more. “You’re insane.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “I prefer eccentric.”
“You can’t seriously think...you can’t mean...oh my god, what the hell is happening?”
Her cheeks flushed a charming pink, making her alabaster skin glow.
I closed the distance, openly stalking her around the tiny room. “What’s happening is I own you. Your fate is in my hands. Say yes to me now and I’ll stop the trial.”
She stumbled as she tried to push the only chair in the room between us. She shook her head. “Not if you were the last man alive on Earth.”
I shoved the spindle chair to the side, not caring when it slid across the narrow space and crashed against the wall.
Didn’t she know by now it was dangerous to defy me? “You don’t have the luxury of telling me no. You either come with me or spend the rest of your life in prison.”
She was slightly out of breath from her attempts to evade me. “You won’t get away with this.”
Lunging forward, I slammed her against the wall. Before she could escape my embrace, I braced my hands against the wall on either side of her, caging her in. I leaned in, my lips brushing hers. “Babygirl, I already have.”
“Let me go, and I’ll leave town. You’ll never have to see me again.”
I didn’t even have to think about her offer. Never seeing her again was not an option. “No.”
She shoved against my chest.
I didn’t move.
With a cry, she balled her hands into fists and pounded them against me.
I let her vent her anger. I’d allow her that much.
After a few moments, she grabbed my shirt and collapsed against me. Her tears were warm against my skin where they soaked through the thin fabric. I resisted the urge to fold her into my arms and comfort her. “Court is about to go back into session. I need your answer.”
Her body stiffened. She raised her tearstained face to mine. “Is this the only way you can get a woman? By forcing her?”
I stroked her cheek with the back of my knuckle. “It’s cute you think I’d have to use force to get you to spread your legs for me.”
With a shriek, her arm flew up to strike me.
Catching her around the wrist, I twisted her arm behind her back and used my free hand to tilt her chin up, forcing her to face me.
She spit out, “I hate you!”
I smiled and said, “That’s what makes this so much fun,” before claiming her mouth.
My fingers pressed into her cheeks, forcing her mouth open for my assault.
She did not struggle for long.
I teased her lips with my own, savoring their lush sweetness before pushing inside. The edges of her sharp teeth scraped against the sides of my tongue, bringing forth graphic sensations of what it would feel like if it were my cock thrusting inside.