Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 101988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
“Play along with you?” Victor cut in. “I thought you said that was over with?”
Frustration built in my blood, scratching at my teeth, reminding me that a beast stalked within me and the longer I teased it, the worse it would pounce. “Not to play along with me to fool you, Vic.” I shrugged, not really wanting to share my idiotic fantasy but knowing he’d see it on the cameras anyway. “I’m here for life. I’m never leaving. Neither is Ily. I merely want her to act as though—”
“I’m his perfect little wife,” Ily spat. “To beg him to beat me. Plead him to fuck me. Pretend I love him.” She shuddered with uncontrolled anger. “Of all the twisted—”
“I think that’s sweet.” Victor sat back and stroked Rachel’s hair. “We all need that special someone. I find men are a curious breed. The ones who have been coming here for years all have their chosen jewel. It’s rare for them to stray once they’ve found the one they prefer. If Henri has already found his chosen one, then you should be grateful, my pet.”
“I’ll be grateful when you’re both dead. When all of you are dead.”
“Well, none of us are immortal, so that will one day happen.” Victor fed a piece of chicken to Rachel with his fingers. “But…that’s a long time to wait.” His eyes narrowed, glinting with explosive temper that he occasionally lost control over. “Now, your Master gave you an order. Open your fucking legs. Take his hand. And show him what he wants to know.”
“I don’t need you ordering her about, Vic,” I growled. “My jewel. My rules.”
“Fine.” Wiping his fingers on a napkin, he faced the stage.
Lightning flashed through the ballroom, highlighting the erotic tapestries on the walls and statues of winged folk being fucked by demons. All around us lewd artwork encouraged us to join in.
The housewife let out a sordid moan as the handyman finger-fucked her as if his hand was a hammer drill.
An ear-splintering boom crashed right above us as thunder added itself to the electrically-charged air.
Ily’s chest rose and fell as if she bordered a panic attack. I searched her eyes for tears. I longed to see salt pour. But, unlike the breaking in the library on that first day, sorrow didn’t glow…hatred did.
My heart wrenched painfully.
My stomach chose that moment to turn sour.
I had everything I could ever want, but somehow, the one thing I didn’t know how to ask for was now the one thing I would fucking kill for.
“One day, I’ll turn your hatred for me into love,” I whispered before I could censor myself. “One day, you’ll feel for me as strongly as I’m starting to feel for you, and when you do…we’ll both be happy here.”
Her eyes met mine.
Her loathing morphed into pity.
With ever so soft fingers, she touched my scruff-shadowed cheek and pressed her nose to mine. Her back twisted, her body contorted on my lap. For the longest moment, she didn’t speak but then she breathed, “I’m sorry that your childhood turned you into this creature. This confused, lonely creature who doesn’t understand the meaning of love. I’m sorry you’ve never had someone to call your own. And I’m sorry you’re searching for belonging in all the wrong places.” Pulling away, she dropped her hand from my cheek and lashed it around my wrist. “But allow me to teach you the most important thing about caring for someone.”
I couldn’t breathe as she shifted and lowered my hand down her gorgeous body. My nervous system misfired. My blood turned to lava. My cock a battering ram of need.
“The day you actually learn what true love is, Henri Mercer, is the day you will know the darkest pits of despair, not happiness.” Turning my hand in her hold, she ran her touch over my knuckles and curled my fingers into a fist, leaving just my middle outstretched.
“You think just because you can make me come that I want you?”
Her skin flushed as she moved aside her G-string.
“You think just because I’m wet that I’m secretly in love with you?”
Her eyes darkened to bronze as she guided me lower, lower.
“You think just because I obey you that I respect you?”
I swallowed hard as she hovered my hand above the scorching fire between her legs.
“You don’t have a clue how far people will go for love. You don’t have the faintest idea how far I’ll go to one day be free of you.”
I groaned as the first touch of her scalding, sopping heat stung my fingertip.
Her head flopped backward, crashing on my shoulder.
Guiding my finger deeper inside her, she whispered, “You have no idea what I’m prepared to do to deny you every part of me.”
With a gasp, she shoved my finger in as deep as it would go.