“Come on now,” he urged, voice lazy as he patted his lap, a ghostly smirk tucked under the curve of his full lips. “Come sit on daddy’s lap.”
Say what now?
I stared in defiance at him across the room, my brows pinched in irritation, fingers clenching around the polished wooden edge of the bed.
He exhaled tiredly. “Don’t make this difficult, Mrs. Raskov.”
I hated the new name. And he had been teasing me with it ever since he slid the stupid ring into my finger.
Ring.
I glanced down at my left hand and my chest tightened at the sight of the silver that weighed on my finger, the diamond encrusted in it catching the light.
I might not have been paying attention. I might have acted like I didn’t care when he asked me to pick the one I wanted and I randomly pointed. But I heard the price. The money was enough to sustain me and maybe ten generations after me.
The ring felt like a weight. It wasn’t a promise. It was an entrapment for me.
“Elizabeth.” His voice rumbled, my name rolling off his tongue like steel against silk.
With an uneager sigh, I lifted myself off the bed, the muscles in my calf snapping as I dragged my feet across the room to him.
Barely an arm’s length away from him, and he pulled me by my wrist to his lap, one hand immediately snaking around my waist, holding me in place.
And even though I had so much anger and resentment trapped inside me, I couldn’t help it when yet again, my body defied my resolve. Being so close to him had a way of shattering my defense. One whiff of his intoxicating cologne and I was a mess again, lightheaded, on fire.
“My darling wife,” he teased, and heat spread across my exposed thigh where his free hand rested, tingles shooting up my spine when he ran the tip of his nose along the curve of my neck.
“Kenzo,” I whispered, my eyes burning, heart aching not for anything else, but for the fact that no matter how I fought this today, I would still bend to his desire, give him anything he asked because I was so foolish, I could never make my body cooperate with my heart.
“You’re my wife now. Mine,” he murmured, his tone growing raspy as he pressed his lips to a sensitive spot below my ear, his palm squeezing my thigh sensually. “So keep another man’s name off your lips.”
My eyes squeezed shut to stop the embarrassing sound sitting in my throat, hands clenched tightly on the hem of my skirt as he assaulted my neck with hot, open-mouthed kisses.
I could feel the heat pooling between my thighs. And if his exploring palm dove further under my skirt, he would feel just how much amidst the chaos, I wanted him.
How was I supposed to maintain the rage inside me, prove to him that this wasn’t the end when I fell apart at the mere touch of his hand? Of what use if I fought and rebelled so hard but couldn’t stop moaning his name and begging for more of him?
Really, what sort of cruel fate was this? How could my body still be responding to the man who murdered multiple people, forced a human heart down my throat, and pressed a gun to my best friend’s head?
Was I even human myself at this point?
“I need…” I violently bit down a moan by sinking my canine into my lower lip, almost drawing blood. “I need to know if he’s okay.”
Hissing, he pulled his head away, a disapproving look blending into the darkening ember of his eyes.
“He is fine,” he bit out. “Back at his home, fucking fine, Elizabeth!”
“Okay.” I nodded, my palms laid flat on my thighs, my chest heaving. I knew he wasn’t lying. That information relieved me a little. I couldn’t have possibly slept well today, not knowing how he was doing, if he was alive or dead.
I scanned the room, looking anywhere else but his face. My body still carried the residue of the fire he had lit with his touch.
“What about my phone?” I asked. He had snatched it from me earlier, on our way to the church.
“I will get you another one when we arrive at Glenfallow,” he stated, leaving no room for further questions.
He wanted to erase anything that connected me to this place or anywhere else. I knew he was going to make me a prisoner, cutting me off from the world because he didn’t want to risk anything that would snatch me away from him.
He wanted me to leave everything behind, adopt a new life.
