But I’m in too deep. We’ve gone too far.
I can’t stop this now if my life depended on it.
19
VICTORIA
Nothing else matters in this moment other than Archie’s huge hot hand resting on my hip. Anticipation flurries like a thousand starlings in my stomach, and lower. He’s thinking about it. Contemplating giving into this thing between us.
And that knowledge alone is enough to ruin my underwear.
‘After tonight’s stunt, you need to be taught a lesson.’ His excitement presses against me. Long, hard, and powerful. The need to feel him fill me up is unbearable. If he’s going to get me off and fuck off again, I might not actually survive.
I hold my breath, frightened to move, or even breathe, and break this moment.
He might work for my family, but there is no mistaking who’s in charge tonight.
‘It won’t happen again.’ My breath comes in ragged, shallow bursts.
‘You’re damn right it won’t happen again, Victoria. Because you are mine,’ he growls, gripping my wrists and pinning them against the counter.
Is this for real?
Because it’s like he’s tapped into my own personal dominant alpha fantasy.
Urgent, fevered lips seek my throat, pressing hard, but with contrastingly tender kisses across my jugular. In this second, I’m reminded of his power. His capability. He’s a soldier. A trained killer. And the knowledge he’s about to break his own moral code for me is kryptonite.
‘Yes, Archie. I’m yours.’
‘And I take care of what’s mine, Victoria, right?’ Bergamot and sweat hang heavily in the air between us. I suck it in, revelling in his carnal scent.
‘Are those needs getting to you again?’ His grip on my right wrist relaxes and his finger sweeps over my spine, sending goosebumps rippling over my entire body. My nipples are like bullets beneath my dress. Bullets that are begging to be fired.
I nod, unable to trust myself to speak.
With one short sharp tug, he unties the bow at the base of my neck. My dress slithers down my body, revealing my breasts in all their braless glory.
He takes a step back, his gaze chasing the fabric as it slides past my hips and all the way to the floor, leaving me in only a navy silk thong and the Manolo Blahniks.
‘So fucking beautiful, baby.’ His tongue dips out over his lower lip and the bulge in his suit trousers doubles in size.
Since forever, the word ‘baby’ has been a source of discontent for me. Being the youngest of three sisters, I’ve always been babied.
But from Archie’s lips, it sounds like ‘welcome home.’ It rolls from his tongue like the most erotic endearment.
‘But you do need to be taught a lesson so you never forget who you belong to ever again.’ He swipes a finger over the silk of the thong. ‘Nobody else touches this, okay?’
I nod again, swallowing the saliva flooding my mouth.
‘Open your legs for me, there’s a good girl.’ I do as he asks, praying I don’t combust with lust while he slips off his suit jacket, slinging it across one of the dining room chairs.
This entire scenario is hot as fuck and he’s barely laid a finger on me.
I’m under no illusion he’s about to torture me again. To make me beg. I’ll do it shamelessly. I don’t care. The entire world fades to nothing when he’s in front of me like this.
Deft fingers roll up the sleeves of his white shirt, revealing enough thick veins on his tanned forearms to mark out a road map.
He radiates promise, expertise and power, circling me, eyes searing a blazing path across my bare skin, over my breasts and right the way down to my stilettos and up again. But he doesn’t touch me. My nipples ache with longing as he blows a long, slow breath over them and watches them tighten further.
