“What you want isn’t relevant,” he said, turning as he led me to my doom. Lips curved around a smirk.
And without really meaning to, I snapped.
Lunging, I closed the distance between us with a war cry and a single step. Punched that infuriating little grin with my free hand, with every spare ounce of strength I possessed.
At first, he did little more than grunt.
Didn’t move or react beyond his head snapping to one side.
It wasn’t until a breath hissed through his teeth that I realized what I’d done.WhoI’d struck with a closed fist and no warning.
An unbound elite.
And I watched—one wrist still caught in a ring of clenched fingers—as he thumbed a drop of blood from his lower lip and frowned at the crimson smear. With every passing instant, his grip grew tighter and tighter, squeezing until the bones in my wrist ground together. Until a squeak of protest bubbled past my lips and drew his attention back to me.
Moving faster than I thought possible, he spun me. Wrenched one arm behind my back and folded me over the edge of his desk with a thump that stole my breath. Bare skin slapping against the polished surface, he forced me flat.
“Wait—”
A band of steel wrapped tight against my windpipe, cutting me off. Squeezing a warning that made my head spin.
His forearm, I knew, because an instant later, the full weight of his body fell across my back. Pinning me there, naked and exposed.
“Well, aren’t we just full of surprises this morning?”
Already so far past the point of rescue, I tried to buck him off. “Get o—”
“Shutup,” he snarled, and kicked my feet apart. Forcing my ankles wide as they might go, he filled the gap and made me feel every inch I never wanted to know.
Hard.
Breath hot against my ear, he shifted so I might feel the pulse of furious arousal when he set it to the most vulnerable piece of me. Leveraging a terrible threat, he pressed too close. Lips skating across my jawline, his breath tickled my ear an instant before his teeth found purchase on my left earlobe. Pinched.
A sob got caught in my chest, but I went still and small in his hands. Yielding to a predator far greater than myself.
“I’m going to enjoy breaking you very much,” he whispered, and moved to stroke the vulnerable skin of my throat. Blunt fingernails leaving a trail of gooseflesh where he traced my pulse.
I squirmed, and felt him reactthere, too. Felt a kick between my legs that made me clench, eyes squeezed shut on a swell of shame.
“I’ve never trained a slave quite like you,” he murmured, smiling against my cheek when I shivered.
Elite energy flared to life once more. Hunger with a vengeance, darkness that beat against my senses, drawn to me without seeming to realize why.
“For most,” he said, and released my trapped arm, leaving me free to brace with both palms, “this is a welcome reward.” His fingers fell to my outer thigh, leaving a burning trail in the wake of so simple a gesture. “But not for you,” he said. Edging up and over, rasping against tender skin no other had ever gotten close enough to touch, he claimed my hip and squeezed. Fingertips bit into the muscle, a ragged breath puffing against my cheek. “For you, this will be the worst kind of punishment.”
And then, with an unforgiving grip, he pushed that flesh toward the desktop with relentless confidence. Spreading me in a lewd stretch, I was made to open for him. A band of male hardness notched into place with a roll of his hips, separated only by a bit of fabric. Held back by his zipper.
“Please,” I whined, and it was the sound of defeat. “Don’t do this. Set me free,” I said, pleading. My voice hoarse. “You’d be out fifty dollars. For a slave n-no one even wants. Hardly worth mentioning.”
“A valiant attempt, darling,” he said, and laughed, a deep rumble that licked up the length of my spine. From tailbone all the way to the base of my skull. “But you’ve earned quite a reputation for causing trouble.” He pushed into me hard enough that my hips bit the hardwood, then continued in a husky whisper thick with malicious intent. “And, of course… I can’t just let you go…”
“The salt mines!” I gasped, tears blurring my vision. “Let me die in the salt mines,pl—”
He hauled me up, my hips left pinned by that unforgiving grip, tipped forward. My bottom spread where he’d claimed a handful of muscle and fat. Spine forced to bow when he straightened and took me with him while his free hand snaked between my breasts. Pausing to cup first the left, then the right, he caught my nipple and bit my shoulder with a growl of warning that rattled through my chest.
A gesture I could almost believe to be playful if it weren’t for that hand moving higher still. Palming my throat, his fingers flirting with the notion of strangling me.
Both hands flying to his wrist when he squeezed, I writhed against his chest. Ground back and felt him lurch where blunt heat was pressed to my core.
