Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 104165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
The bed dips behind me, and there’s a warm body at my back. Domhnall lays down, his strong arms coming around to anchor me into his warm chest. He’s got his shirt off again, and with my barely-there nightie, we’re skin to skin.
“Shhh,” he whispers. “It’s alrigh’ now, love. Shhh.”
His voice is so soft and steeped in his brogue. Instinctively my body shifts and softens against all his muscled hardness. I freeze a little when I feel his stiff cock, but he just squeezes me as if to reassure me that his intentions go no further than this.
He just got into bed to… snuggle me.
As if he could somehow sense I was freaking out at being left alone after all that.
Which is what finally has me breaking out in uncontrollable sobs. He only whispers, “Shhh, shhh. It’s alrigh’. Every t’ing’s gonna be alrigh’,” in my ear as he strokes my hair back from my face.
I cry myself to sleep in his arms, knowing it’s totally fucked up even as I allow my captor to comfort me, snuggling deeper into his embrace.
“Such pretty tears,” he whispers as I get drowsier, his fingers still stroking gently through my hair.
THIRTEEN
DOMHNALL
Last night was… unacceptable. I was supposed to be training her. Not— Not… whatever that turned into.
I have to stay in fucking control.
But after we’d gone so far, I knew I couldn’t just leave her. I’ve had plenty of training in being a proper dominant, even if I’ve thrown out all the rest of the rules with Mads. But some things like aftercare were so drilled into me since day one I stepped through the door at Carnal, I couldn’t just leave her there so obviously in shock after our scene last night.
Plus, I’d finally gotten something real out of her. I’ve seen plenty of women fake orgasms around the club, and try to with me, back in the early days.
But a good dom learns to pay attention to each hitch of breath. Every contracting muscle and flutter of a sub’s eyelashes. You learn to watch for the grimace of pain and the twitch of pleasure, and the fascinating contortions a body twists itself into when the two intermingle.
Madison might lie to me, but her body tells me the truth. Her desire was genuine.
It gives me power over her.
Or am I just telling myself that so I can get my mouth on her cunt again as soon as possible?
I drag my hands through my hair and then look at Mads on the screen, sleeping curled up in bed like a kitten. My cock pulses rock hard in my pants. I should’ve known I couldn’t be as cold and calculating as I need to be when it comes to her.
In the back of my head, there was always a twisted root growing inside me that planned what I’d do to either one of them if I ever got ahold of them. I even had a special collar made for her a long time ago, dreaming of just this day, in case I ever got to put my hands around her lovely little throat. I’m doing nothing more than exacting vengeance for the wrongs done to me. She deserves this.
But last night… Fuck. I slam my laptop screen shut. That wasn’t vengeance. That was…
That was my seventeen-year-old self getting what he’d always dreamed of from the girl he’d been obsessed with from the day he noticed her watching him in that Dublin internet cafe. When she finally sidled over to me, I’d been so gobsmacked, I could barely get a word out. But she looked over my shoulder at my code and started up a conversation so easily that eventually I even managed to get out a syllable or two.
She laughed and coyly rolled her hair around a finger like she was the one who was nervous. An act. All an act.
So what if the act’s gotten more sophisticated? She’s still the same old Mads. I won’t be anyone’s toy ever again.
Certainly not today.
Today I’ll be the cold and calculating bastard I’ve been ever since I stepped off the airplane in this new country, hand fisted around my little sister’s wrist so I wouldn’t lose her in the crowds. I was determined to make a better life for us. And just as determined not to be duped again by a pretty face or by anyone else thinking to take my power from me.
A promise I’ve kept to myself.
It’s sure as hell not changing now.
I stomp towards the kitchen and prepare the best breakfast I know how to make, then put a cloche over top the plate to keep it warm. When I get to the elevator, I close my eyes, take a long breath in, and breathe an even longer one out. Several times. When I open my eyes again, I am cool, calm and collected. I push the down button.