Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
“I told you I knew all about you. I wasn’t lying. I’m showing you this now because I need you to understand that I’m not your enemy.”
“No, of course not, you’re just my kidnapper.”
“Damn it, Hellie.” His words come out like a growl as he walks toward me. Menacing, massive. Oozing raw, sexual rage. I back away until I run into the window, staring at him with an open mouth, unable to ignore my body’s keening need.
He’s gorgeous. Every inch of him like a sculpture made just for me. If I were given the ability to carve a perfect man from clay, my masterpiece would look like him.
And that scares me half to death.
“What do you want from me?” I ask, frustration and desire slamming inside my chest. “Am I supposed to thank you for locking me in this room and forcing me to work?”
“Yes,” he says.
“Well, I won’t. If you really cared about me and wanted to protect me, you’d find some way to get me out of this. You know I’m going to work myself to death over the next five days to get this thing finished. If you thought the first time was bad, this is going to be worse.”
I can tell he hates that. His face twists in pain, but he shakes his head. “It isn’t that simple.”
“How? Why’s everything so damn complicated with you?”
“They’ll come after you sooner or later. If I tried to stall, or to hide you, or to simply help you disappear, they’d find out and they’d act. I can’t risk starting a war for you.”
“No, I guess not, which means I’m fucked.”
He snarls, coming close. He pins me against the wall beside the window, showing teeth, his hand wrapping around my wrists and holding them down at my sides. I gasp, wriggling against him, but he’s too big and way too strong.
“You’re right, you are fucked if you keep resisting. I’m doing my best for you. I’m giving you a real chance at surviving this, and all you do is make my life hell for it.”
“You think just because you owned one of my paintings means I should be thanking you for this? That won’t happen.”
“No,” he says, very slowly. “But you should at least think about your assumptions. I haven’t hurt you. I’ve treated you well. I’ve given you all of this and asked only that you don’t get yourself killed.”
“And that I paint for you.”
“Yes, and that you paint. Which won’t last forever. This is how you survive, Hellie. I need you to see it.”
I can see. I’m not blind. I see a big man, a beautiful man, a man used to getting what he wants staring back at me with raw, undeniable want in his expression. I see that he is the only thing standing between me and a couple of psychopaths hell-bent on torturing me to appease their own bruised egos.
And I see myself tumbling down into a hellish nightmare, but unable to stop, and not sure I really want to.
“What are you going to do if I never believe you?” I ask very slowly, daring him.
He stares back. His face is inches from mine. Our lips practically touching. Excitement curls down my spine like a lazy cat stretching. Something dangerous passes over his expression, lust like melting steel.
“I can show you.”
“How?”
“I want you to see, but maybe you need to feel.”
I suck in a breath. “How are you going to make me feel something like that?”
“You need to know you’re protected. You need to know you’re safe. I have ways.”
“Come on, Erick. We both know what you really want.”
“And now you need me to say it out loud? You know what’ll happen.”
“Go ahead. Show me.”
His grip releases on my left wrist and slowly moves up my belly, over my breasts, to my throat. He holds it there, hand around my windpipe. Not squeezing, but pressing.
“I want all of you,” he says.
“This is how you show it?”
“Yes, Hellie, by proving that I could destroy you whenever I want, but never will, because you are mine to protect.”
“Liar. You just want to fuck me.”
His eyes blaze. “Yes. I do.”
“Good. Admit it. No more bullshit about saving me. You just want to fuck me. Go on, stop pretending.”
“You’re right,” he snarls. “I want to fuck you, Hellie. I want to fuck that filthy, bratty mouth of yours. I want to grip your hair and rip my cock into your tight pussy until you scream my name. I want to get you wet, lick your cunt until you moan, let you orgasm against my mouth. I want to punish those beautiful lips with my shaft. You’ve been nothing but a pain, and now I want to take you and show you what it’s like to be all mine.”
I gasp as he bruises my mouth with his, slamming our lips together.