Her eyes imprisoned mine, wide but unafraid.
She fascinated me, even though she wasn’t sexy with her skin and bones, I found her resilience such a fucking turn-on.
I wanted her. I wanted to let myself loose and do what I’d dreamed about last night.
But I wouldn’t…not yet.
I had much more important things to claim. Plus, as much as my life was full of sin (and I asked for no apology for what I was), I refused to be like Alrik. She had enough assholes in her life. While she belonged to me, she’d learn that a bastard could still be a gentleman.
Lying on my side, I propped myself up on my elbow and ran a fingertip up her naked side. Her hard nipples turned to pinpricks while her discoloured stomach panted for oxygen. I didn’t say a word as I trailed my touch over one rib, then two, creeping closer to her breast.
With each inch, she shut down a little more. I sensed her pulling away, her mind leaving, whatever mechanisms she had in place to endure such torture tugging her into its safe haven.
I stopped.
She didn’t breathe.
“Relax.”
She shot tighter than a cello string.
“I see you don’t like that word.”
Her head turned, granting me turbulent but mutinous eyes.
“Or maybe, you don’t trust that word.” I couldn’t fucking blame her. Holding my hand up, I deliberately placed it on the bed in the small gap between our bodies. “Okay, have it your way. No more touching. But you do owe me, Pim, and I never forget a debt.”
Her forehead furrowed.
I didn’t know in denial or confusion, but I enlightened her anyway. “The rule I gave you: what I do, you must do. And what you do, I must do.” I lowered my head, skimming my nose over her cheekbone. “Are you forgetting I touched myself?”
The mattress rocked as she inched her hips away. It wasn’t much—barely noticeable—but I noticed.
And I wasn’t fucking happy about it.
If she thought she could avoid touching between her legs, she didn’t know my expectations for utmost obedience.
“Do you always oppose the man in your bed or just me?” My hand lashed up, looping around her throat. “You just made me break the no touching rule so soon. Don’t make me break the other rules keeping me in line tonight.”
Her eyes locked onto mine, pooling with panicked uncertainty.
“Ah, that’s intrigued you.” Loosening my fingers, I didn’t threaten to throttle her, merely held softly, trapping her mind in her body rather than flying free. “I have many laws that run my life.” I bared my teeth. “Want to know a few?”
I waited for her to nod, to blink—to do something that could be a signal for yes.
But she was too good.
Or too terrified.
She’d gone iceberg white, her eyes as complex as snowflakes.
“You don’t like your neck being touched?” I removed more of my weight but didn’t withdraw my fingers. “Does he strangle you…is that why you’re looking at me as if I’ve grown horns?”
She didn’t respond in any way, but her pulse gushed like a riptide beneath my thumb. “Don’t focus on where I’m holding you. Focus on why I’m holding you.” My thumb caressed the side of her neck, tangling with the escaped hair I’d secured. “Focus on my questions.”
Shadows formed below her eyes as she struggled to override whatever torture she associated with her throat.
Keeping her mind active with other things, I asked, “How long have you been silent? I’m rather impressed. You avoided my question and ignored your body’s will to reply—even with the small slip showing your dread.”
Her lips pursed, drawing every fucking attention directly to her mouth. Somehow, she transformed from frozen fear to strong stubbornness. Her skin coloured with fight again, burning beneath my touch.
Heat swelled between us. Poisoning desire and consuming intoxication sucker-punched me in the chest.
I wasn’t the only one who felt it.
The zinging awareness grew heavier as we both tried to ignore its presence.
Whatever inhuman part of me she intrigued turned drunk and crowded with complicated things.
I hadn’t come here for a connection. I hadn’t claimed her to feel. I’d borrowed her to steal her secrets.
That was all.
And that’s exactly what I plan to do.
“I’ll tell you what.” I licked my lips. “You answer one of my questions, and I’ll answer one of yours.”
She swallowed, her neck working beneath my imprisoning fingers.
“You don’t believe I can hear your questions?” Trailing my touch to her sternum, I pushed on a yellowed bruise. “I can. Just like I can tell you things about your master. Things I have no doubt you’ve wanted to know for a while. Do you know why he’s letting me use you, even when it angers him? Why he lets me claim his prized possession? It’s because you might be his favourite toy for now, but what I’m building for him is worth more than a girl, more than money, more than a life. It’s a ticket to power, and for men like Alrik—that’s the only thing he craves.”
She jolted, unable to hide her shock. Wriggling away like a freshly caught fish, she shot up the bed. Locking her legs together, her arms lashed around her knees as her back slammed against the headboard.
You really shouldn’t have done that, Pim.
I pushed off my elbow, sitting upright. “That wasn’t very smart.” Grabbing her ankle, I squeezed the black-shadowed bones of her foot. “I didn’t say you could move. I won’t hurt you, so don’t fucking run.”
Her jaw clenched, dragging me into deeper fascination with her.
I’d exercised my self-control a lot tonight.
She’d just pushed me to the edge.
Pressing my thumb against the metatarsal leading to her big toe where badly healed bones showed injury, I said, “Just like he broke your hand, he broke your foot.”
She sucked in a breath as my touch lingered on her toes then crept up her ankle to her calf. “Why? Is it to keep you in line? Are you rebellious and deserving of such cruelty? Or is he just a sick fuck who plays with you?”
A rageful spark ignited in her gaze. For once, I couldn’t figure out if she was pissed I’d implied she deserved such punishment or relieved I saw exactly what Alrik was.
“I’ll put your mind at rest. I know it’s not you. It’s him. You don’t deserve a single bruise he’s given you.”
That damn connection spiralled thicker as she stopped breathing. Her eyes tore into mine and whatever enchantment she’d fucking weaved on me grew hotter, tighter, stronger.
It couldn’t be permitted to continue.
I only had one night. I only wanted one night.
I wouldn’t hurt her, but I would steal from her, and then…I’d leave.
Because I was fucking selfish and didn’t have the willpower to fight the addiction quickly building for her.
My thumb stroked her gently as my constant battle for control won over my scattered thoughts. “I have many questions for you, Pimlico. Questions I didn’t really care about until now. However, by trying to dissuade my interest by refusing to obey me, it’s done the opposite.” I grinned. “It’s only made me more determined.”
Bracing myself on my knees, I yanked her lower leg. I wasn’t gentle or kind. She swooped from reclining to spread, and the moment she was on her back, I locked my fingers around her throat again.
The panic I’d witnessed in the stairwell when I’d given her my jacket unravelled. Her breathing picked up, unable to avoid the trigger whenever I touched her neck.
If I was a nicer man, I would remove my hand and touch her elsewhere.
But I’d already established I had my faults.
She would have to live with them.
I waited for her to erupt into an attack—to fight me off—but once again she inhaled and exhaled, taming her snarling pulse, locking everything from view.
Fuck, she’s so much more than
I thought. More warrior, more wounded, more woman.
But none of that mattered.
I would still earn my answers.
“Three questions.” Shifting my body to lie back beside her, I whispered, “You get three questions. If you answer them, I’ll let you go. I won’t expect anything more.”
Her gaze widened as my hand slipped from her throat to resume my position on her sternum. “However, if you don’t answer them, then I’ll expect everything. I’ll fuck you, just because I can. I’ll treat you like a slave because that’s all you’ll ever be if you don’t let me into your mind.”
I locked eyes with her. My control snarled, begging to snap. But I had just enough discipline to ignore it. “First question, how long is it since you ate?”
Her face went slack with surprise.
I chuckled low in my chest. “Not something you expected me to ask?”
Come on, shake your head.
Answer me.
The longer she was silent, the more my obsession increased.
I will break you, Pim.
Poking her stark ribcage, I said, “I want to know because I’ll ensure Alrik is starved the same way, once our deal is complete.”
Her muscles tensed, her eyes flying to the ceiling, searching for cameras. I didn’t need to be quiet about what I intended to do. We had a contract. That contract would keep peace until delivery of his yacht.
After that, he would try to kill me—like the fuckwits who bought my services always did. And he would fail—like the fuckwits always did. But at least I would’ve upheld my side of the business and my reputation remained intact.
However, I wouldn’t kill Alrik so fast. I’d pay him back, like for like, let him live Pimlico’s life before ending his.
What would she say if I admitted my plan? Would she rejoice or cower? I had a feeling if she had the power to make her master hurt, she would be the one to do the dirty work. She wouldn’t be satisfied with an outsider extracting tolls she herself had paid.
Our mutual silence filled with thoughts of revenge and the slightest thawing in her gaze welcomed me to ask another question.
She might not know it, but she’d just lost.
She’d let me in.
Stupid, stupid girl.
“How long is it since you’ve been free?”
Whatever openness she’d given me shut down with the clang of a steel gate. Her eyes closed as she swallowed.
“Months or years?”
She didn’t flinch.
Studying her body, counting the breaks and kicks and bruises, I answered for her. “Just like a tree gives up its age when its trunk is revealed, your body answers without words.”
Her forehead furrowed, keeping her eyes shut.
“I’ll guess a few years.”
Anger heated my blood—not because of her pain, but her refusal to reply. Such questions might’ve made a normal man care. Might’ve given them second thoughts about being here and doing his best to shoplift a girl’s secrets.
But I wasn’t most men. I did care…somewhere inside me. But I’d been through my own trauma, and it’d tainted my view of others.
I didn’t have a saviour when I’d needed one.
I had no intention of being a saviour to someone else.
Who cared about such generic questions? I’d earn her answers through other means. She owed me a debt. It was time to pay it.
The thought of watching her finger herself thickened my cock.
Alrik was right about one thing. Being at sea made it hard to find a fuckable companion—unless I supplemented my on-board staff or flew in an escort with my helicopter. However, both those options didn’t hold allure.
Not like this creature.
I didn’t have long before I returned to the ocean. I’d wasted enough time already.
“Enough questions. Time to repay me, Pimlico.”
Her eyes shot wide as my hand splayed on her lower belly, trailing up her ribcage, following the slight curve of her breast to the vivid collarbone sticking out with hunger.
I didn’t stop touching her—up her throat, to her cheeks where I dug my thumb into one side and my fingers into the other, yanking her face to mine.
She stopped breathing.
I squeezed hard, forcing her to pay attention and listen to every instruction.
“Open your legs.”
Her teeth clenched beneath my hold.
My hand tightened. “Do it.”
For a moment, utmost detestation glowed then, ever so slowly, her legs switched from glued together to slightly spread. Not nearly wide enough for a hand or tongue but enough to glimpse what lay between them.
My cock turned to stone.
Shaking my head, ridding the pressuring lust and focusing on my control and never-fading shame, I growled, “I’m going to let you go, but you’re going to do everything I tell you. Got it?”
Even now, I still expected a nod.
However, Pimlico merely stared at me offering no acknowledgement or refusal. My eyes dropped to her lips, following the cracked pink skin and fighting the sudden diabolical desire to kiss her.
I wanted so fucking much to kiss her. To force her lips to move even if they wouldn’t speak.
But shit, that was way too personal.
I was allowed to sample one of everything. One gasp, one night, one orgasm.
But a kiss…I wouldn’t fucking do it.
Trusting years of training by Alrik to force her to obey, I let her face go. The loose ponytail I’d formed with her hair fanned on the bed as she rolled completely onto her back and opened her legs a little farther.
“Good girl,” I murmured, tracing the bruises on her flesh, almost like roses in different stages of bloom. Some spread and mostly colourless with fading beauty and others as bright and tight as new buds.
Pressing a practically violent green one, I said, “Do you remember what each was caused by? Or do you prefer to forget?”
She stared at the ceiling as I followed the petals of another as it faded into ochres and browns. “The more I study you, the more you remind me of a mouse.”
The sharp intake of breath and sudden flinch was the most reaction I’d earned so far.
I latched onto the word that’d unravelled her silence. “You don’t like being called a mouse or was it something else I said?”
Her chin tilted. She shut down again.
Too late.
I’d unlocked something. I didn’t know what, but I’d find out.
“I think I’ll call you that from now on…little mouse. You’re a silent mouse tormented in a cage. However, no matter how small and vulnerable a mouse is, they have the power to wreak havoc if they accept who they truly are.”
“They also have incredibly sharp teeth.” Drifting my finger over her mouth, I inserted the tip past her lips to the warm wetness beyond. “Tell me, Pimlico, do you have sharp teeth?”
She didn’t open or let me run my finger beneath her canines. But her heart picked up, siphoning through the visible vein in her neck.
My silent one had become a silent mouse, and it suited her so fucking much.
Her face snapped away as if a memory was too hard to handle.
Nudging her chin with my knuckles, I guided her back to me forcibly. “You don’t know me, but you do need to know that if you’re in bed with me, you focus on me and only fucking me.”
She glowered.
I ran my hand down her right arm and looped my fingers with hers. “I trust you’re right-handed?” Glancing at her broken one, I smirked. “Because if you’re not, this isn’t going to go so well.”
Her eyebrow twitched but I didn’t catch her retort. Either way, she would do what I wanted. She would touch herself. I didn’t care if it took her all night.
Unthreading my fingers from hers, I wrapped them around her wrist, guiding her hand to her pussy.
She stiffened as I placed her palm over herself, hiding what I wanted to see. “Your turn.”
&
nbsp; Propping my head into my palm, I stared down at her. “Go ahead. Touch yourself as you would when you’re alone. Let me see what you do, hear what you moan, watch you fuck your fingers.”
She jerked, her hand flying from her pussy to clutch the bedding beneath her.
Temper masked my thoughts. “Don’t disobey a direct order, silent mouse. You have to do what I do, remember?” Taking her hand again, I guided it back into position.
Letting her go, I latched onto her knee, yanking her legs farther apart.
The moment I had a full view of her, I swallowed my groan. I’d seen many women in my travels; I’d sampled some and avoided others, but never seen one as pretty as Pimlico.
Could a woman be called pretty down there? Addictive and bare, yes, but pretty? I didn’t fucking know, but Pim was. Everything about her was delicate and petite, tucked away as if terrified of yet more abuse but still womanly enough to hold a hint of sex.
Biting my lip, I curled my fist to stop myself from touching her. If I felt her…that would be it. There would be no tease or appetiser, just a fucking banquet as I took her over and over again.
“Touch. Go on. I order you not to be shy.”
How could a sex slave be shy? Every part of her was owned by someone else. I didn’t understand the sudden terror on her features.
“Wait…” I paused. “You have come before, right?”
She froze.
Ah, fuck.
“You’ve…never come?”
What was I supposed to do with that?
She squeezed her eyes, trembling as if preparing for a beating. Would Alrik hurt her for such a thing?
Would I?
I ran a hand over my face. “You’ve never orgasmed with another person? How about on your own in private?”
Her entire body shot pink with embarrassment.
Her answer was loud and fucking clear.
Shit, how old is she?
How old was she when she was fucked for the first time? Surely, at some point, a release would’ve found her? Or at the very least, curiosity would’ve forced her to find it on her own if not with another?
My first orgasm was when I was twelve while I slept behind a dumpster. It’d been the only good thing in a sea of awful. After that, I’d become rather addicted to the brief but blistering bliss I could administer.
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