A low growl escaped him. He put his hand on her throat, pressing in until it hurt.
“Say you’re mine.”
His voice was snarling. Triumphant. As though he’d won a prize rather than stolen it.
Harper went cold, and despite that, she sensed everything with painful clarity. His lips against hers. His calloused fingers touching her skin. His massive body, giving off a sour smell of blood and sweat.
You’re not here. You’re not feeling any of this. It isn’t real.
He was still touching her. Groaning against her, and with every second that passed, her body screamed louder that sheneededto get away.
It wasn’t that she was frozen in place. That she’d shut down to protect herself from what was happening. Instead, her limbs ached from the effort of maintaining her composure.
Kieran put a hand on her thigh. Moved it up. Pushed between her legs.
Ice shot up her spine. Tension coiled around her muscles, tightening and tightening, and thensnapped.
She wrenched her head back and slapped him. A hard, stinging slap that brought a burn to her palm.
She immediately froze. She’d messed up. Had fought back when she wasn’t allowed, but she hadn’t been able to stop. It just happened.
Kieran looked confused. Shocked, as though her reaction had come out of nowhere. As though he had genuinely believed that if he just got her alone, she would see things his way.
Then his expression darkened. Anger filled his eyes. A primal, violent kind that summoned another dreadful conclusion.
He had no intention of leaving this room. Not until he was done with her, at least.
He backhanded her across the face, and the force sent her crashing to the floor.
“You just refuse to learn.” He yanked her upright and shoved her against the wall. “I tried being understanding. I tried being patient, but that doesn’t fucking work with you. You’re just a dumb bitch who can’t understand what’s good for her. It’s like you enjoy pissing me off.”
She glared at him, filling her gaze with every ounce of defiance she had just tried to suppress.
“You’re wrong. I fuckingloveit.”
His face turned bright red, but right then, she didn’t care how mad he was. She wanted to eviscerate him, and the only way she could do so was verbally.
“I’m notyours. I’ll never beyours. It doesn’t matter what you do. How long you do it for. How much you make ithurt. I will never love you, and I want you to know that. I want you to know that no matter what happens, no matter what you tell yourself, no matter what you make me say, the only thing I’ll ever feel for you isloathing.”
His eyes blazed. Low, rumbling growls slipped past his lips, the kind she had heard so many times before. The kind brought out either by fury or a far more sickening emotion.
“You don’t know what you want.” He pulled off his belt and dropped it on the floor with a heavy thud. “You don’t know your place. What your purpose is. I don’t care how long it takes to make you see it. Iwillmake you mine.”
He pulled at her t-shirt, the fabric ripping. Cool air touched her skin, followed by rough hands as he groped her chest through the torn clothes.
He kissed her again. Hard and messily and growling against her mouth. She bit down on his lip hard enough to taste blood and then kneed him between the legs.
A pained grunt escaped, but instead of backing off, he pushed her to the desk, pinning her down so her chest was against its surface.
She thrashed against him, but it did nothing to loosen his hold. He leaned over her from behind, his groin pressing against her.
He was already rock hard. She knew he got off on stuff like this. When they were dating, one of his favorite scenarios to play out had involved her pretending to resist and yelling for it to stop.
There was nothingpretendabout this. In a twisted way, it felt like he liked that more.
“You aremine!” He yanked her sweatpants past her hips. “You were made forme. You belong tome. If you refuse to realize that, then I have to fucking show you.”
She couldn’t get away from him. She could protest and struggle and scream, but he was stronger than her. In his mind, he was owed her, and that negated any desire she may have.
