Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 103124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
A new wave of lust rolls through my pelvis at the memory of Bella’s lips on mine and the little moans she made as I kissed her.
The way her tongue slid into my mouth and her nipples tightened against my chest.
“We’ll talk tomorrow,” I say.
He gives a casual salute as he disappears through the elevator doors.
Once he’s gone, I loosen my tie and walk down the corridor toward the bedrooms. I knock on Bella’s door, but she doesn’t answer.
I check the handle, and it’s locked.
“Don’t think I won’t break this door down,” I warn through the layers of timber.
The lock unclicks, and the door opens. Not wide, just enough to see Bella’s face.
“What do you want, Nico?” She sighs.
“I thought that was fucking obvious when it was pressed up against you ten minutes ago.”
Her mood is frosty. “That was a mistake.”
“You didn’t kiss me like it was a mistake. In fact, you kissed me like it was very, very right.”
“No, it was very, very wrong. I’m not interested in you that way.” She bites down on her lip, which does nothing to cool the raging lust sweeping through my southern regions. “Or are you going to force that on me too?”
Except that does.
It’s like a water plane dumping an ocean of ice-cold water onto a wildfire.
Anger tightens my jaw, and my teeth clench. I may be a bad man, but I’m not a raping son of a bitch. Rape is for pond scum.
“I might take a lot of things I want, Bella, but I don’t ever take that.” My voice has an edge to it. “When a woman rides my cock, she rides it willingly and with great enthusiasm.”
“Well, I’m not riding anything.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing out on.”
Her eyes flash with heat and hatred. “You forget, I’ve already seen it. In fact, I was the first.”
Foreign emotion soars through my heart at the mention of our past encounter. But I send a missile up after it to destroy it.
“You’d be surprised how much you can master something in ten years, cara mia.”
“Something I don’t care to know about.” Her blue-green eyes narrow. “You’re right, you can master a lot of things in ten years. A decade is a long time to fall out of love with someone and surprisingly easy when that someone let you down.”
Her words gouge through my armor easier than bullets and blades ever could.
I grab onto my loyal friend revenge to respond.
“You can’t run from this,” I say.
“And you can’t keep me locked up in this devil’s den like a prisoner.”
“You’ll learn very quickly that I can do whatever I like,” I say, unable to keep the threat out of my tone. “It would bode well for you to accept that.”
She shakes her head and looks away for a moment, biting down on her lower lip again. “You’re really going to make me do this, aren’t you?”
“Yes, and it would be wise for you to find some way to be happy about it.”
She looks at me through her lashes, her jaw defiant. “How am I supposed to be happy when I’m being forced to marry a monster?”
The disgust in her voice grinds against what little conscience I have.
I grab the door to prevent her from closing it in my face. “I suggest you try very hard because this will break you down a lot quicker than it’ll ever break me.”
I let go of the door, and she closes it without another word.
“Do not try to escape,” I remind her through the closed door. “Or there will be consequences.”
But she doesn’t reply.
As I walk away, I remind myself of all the reasons I’m doing this.
And how those dormant areas of my heart that wake up whenever I’m around her are better off lying dead in the dark corners of my very black heart.
23
Bella
I pace the bedroom, barely holding my tears at bay.
How could I be so stupid and kiss that arrogant, kidnapping caveman?
I’m so mad I want to scream, and for a second, I consider doing it just so Nico will come back, and I can punch him in his smug, arrogant face.
It wouldn’t change my situation. I’d still be a prisoner, and his kiss would still linger on my lips like warm, sweet poison, but it would at least make me feel a hell of a lot better.
It also wouldn’t change the fact that tonight could’ve ended a lot worse if he hadn’t found me in that alleyway with a six-foot bald alien attached to my throat.
And while I’d prefer to set myself on fire than admit he’s right, I know I have to be wiser when it comes to my safety and not run down dark alleyways in a less-than-innocuous neighborhood.
I sit on the edge of the bed and look around the room. My prison. I can’t complain. Apart from the whole kidnapping and forced into a marriage thing, my situation is quite comfortable. Nico has made certain that I want for nothing.