“You slimy, cocky, spineless son-of-a?—”
His own temper spiked as he tightened his grip on her face. “Careful, princess. Call me whatever names you want, but leave my mother out of it.”
“Seriously? You kidnapped me, scared the shit out of me, tied me to a chair, and you’re pissed I might insult your mother?”
“Yes.”
“You’re a piece of fucking work, you know that?”
“So I’ve been told.”
Snarling again, she yanked at the ropes binding her to the chair. “Let me go, and I might not have your ass thrown in jail.”
“No.”
It pleased him to no end to watch her eyes go blank as she tried to grapple with his simple denial. “Killian. You can’t just keep me tied to this chair.”
“I could.” He let some of what he was beneath the sheen of sophistication slip through. Just a hint of the monster that lurked inside him, enough to have her eyes going round and her breath catching as she recoiled in fear. “It would be nothing to me to keep you down in this damp, dirty basement?—”
“Hey.” Insult colored Lochlan’s tone. “I clean up after myself, thank you very much.”
Without taking his gaze off his princess, Killian nodded. “Aye, that you do. My apologies, cousin. But as I was saying, it would be nothing for me to keep you down here, princess. Forced to sit in your own filth day after day. Locked in the dark for hours on end, your mind slowly shattering. Until you become nothing more than a shell of the woman you once were, willing and pliant and utterly empty.”
With every word, the terror in her eyes grew, and he was rewarded with a slight tremor wracking her body even as her jaw firmed in his grip. “You might do that to me, but you wouldn’t do that to your child.”
“You have a point. But I don’t need you happy or even particularly sane to carry my child, Aria. Something you would do well to remember.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Maybe,” he conceded with a shrug. “Maybe not. The point is, I could. And if I could so easily pluck you from the streets and keep you tied in a basement, imagine what my enemies could and would do.”
He saw the moment the pieces clicked in her mind. “Is that what this is all about? Trying to prove to me how much I need your protection?”
“I knew you’d figure it out eventually. Clever little princess.”
“Fine. Point made. I’ll let my father hire a bodyguard and I’ll be more careful. Now please let me go.”
“No. I gave you a chance to prove you and your father could provide the protection you need, and you both failed spectacularly. So now we’re going to do things my way.”
Uncertainty filled those baby blues he’d fallen so hard for that first night. “What does that mean?”
“It means you’re mine, princess. And I protect what’s mine. No matter what it takes.”
“So you’re, what, going to assign one of your goons to watch over me?”
“Goons, she says.” Tiernan snorted. “We are not goons.”
Ignoring his cousins for the time being, Killian stroked his thumb over his naughty princess’s full bottom lip. “You will be watched, very carefully. But from the safety of my home.”
“You can’t just keep me here, Killian! I have a job and friends and?—”
At the reminder that she hadn’t heeded his warning to stay away from Richard Williams, Killian let his mouth curve up in a wicked smile, excitement pumping through his veins. “Ah, yes. Thank you for reminding me, we still haven’t dealt with the little issue of your disobedience. Lochlan, help me untie my naughty girl, please.”
Aria
* * *
This couldn’t be happening. Shit like this didn’t actually happen outside the movies. Maybe it was a dream. A very fucked-up, terrifyingly vivid dream.
