I didn't recognize the girl in the mirror, and if it weren't for the faint red light that reflected in one of the diamonds, I would say I looked like I had a night that was worth every bruise and moment of self-doubt.
That damn red light, though, was a constant reminder that this was not my choice. Last night did not happen because I seduced this sexy man into bringing me into his bed.
It happened because I was a target.
I was nothing more than a pawn in his fucked-up little game against my mother.
"Tell me what you see," Darius demanded, his hand tightening in my hair.
I lifted my chin, meeting his eyes in the broken glass.
"I see a woman who's getting very tired of being used to further other people's agendas, sir," I answered, the honesty surprising even me.
Fear coursed through me, but I held my head up high anyway.
A low sound rumbled in the back of his throat, and I couldn't tell if it was approval or just amusement at my little act of defiance.
"Let me tell you what I see," he whispered in my ear as he yanked my body back so I was pressed against him. "I see a woman who learned a vital lesson last night."
His eyes swept down my body, and the fragmented mirror reflected how the blush hit my cheeks, starting on my chest. Even the tops of my breasts flushed pink.
His one hand stayed tangled in my hair, but the other wrapped around me, his palm flat on my stomach, before it moved up to pinch my nipple, making it taut. "I see a woman who learned what her body can do when in the hands of the right man."
I watched in the shards of glass, fascinated, as his hand moved from my breast down my stomach to my swollen, aching pussy.
"I see a woman who learned how good it can feel to be taken apart and put back together," he whispered in my ear as his fingers delved between my pussy lips and stroked my clit.
My body relaxed against him instinctively. His body heat seeped through his suit into me as his fingers drew lazy circles over my clit. "Do you see that too?"
"Yes, sir," I gasped, too weak to deny him.
His fingers moved slowly, and although I ached, it still felt good, too good. It wasn't fair. How could this man, a man I should loathe, make me burn so completely?
"Are you going to be my good girl? If I give you rules today, will you follow them?"
"What rules?" I gasped. My brain was fuzzy, and I could barely understand his words. Trying to think through a dense fog of lust and need. The logic was there, but it was fleeting.
"Here is what's going to happen today,maya soloveyka. You are going to get dressed, and my men are going to take you home." His fingers kept their slow, steady pace, driving me crazy.
The pressure built in my core, but the motion was just enough to make it build, never enough to give me satisfaction.And the sadistic son of a bitch who was doing it knew precisely what he was doing.
"You will not go to the local police. If you do, you die." His words turned cold, but his fingers kept moving.
"If you try to contact the Capitol Police or any other government agency, you die." His fingers sped up just a little, just enough to make sure that his words couldn't break the spell that I was under.
"If you contact anyone else to help you, they die, and then you die."
"Sir, please," I begged, my knees going weak.
"The only person you will talk to about any of this is your mother, and it is only to remind her that if she disobeys the Ivanovs, she dies, and then you die."
"Darius, please," I said, using his name for the first time. It felt foreign on my tongue, but I liked it.
Lust and fear swirled together in my mind, and I couldn't think. I didn't know what to do. He let go of my hair to slide his hand around my throat and under the necklace. The metal pressed against the back of my neck, warm from my body heat, cold from the threat it carried.
"This necklace doesn't just have high-powered explosives in it,maya soloveyka. It has a GPS tracker, and I have the only key that will take it off of your pretty little neck. Do not try anything. If you do, I will know. And if you disobey me in any way, you die."
"Please," I begged again, tears streaming down my face, and I didn't even know what I was asking for.
