Page 34 of Bound

His eyes flash a warning. “Because I will remind you who you are to me, now. Always. Forever.”

Forever.

His words make everything stop.

I hold them in my head, in my heart, in every part of my body.

Then, I fall to my knees. The soft carpet welcomes me like a kiss.

Lucian steps away from me.

Only one step, but the distance feels enormous.

Then his hand goes to his belt. My pulse stutters.

The sound is soft. Leather sliding through loops. One slow pull.

Heat pulses low in my core, tangled with nerves, shame, and something deeper.

He folds the belt once in his hand.

Like a ritual.

The belt hangs from his hand, dark and wicked against the warm light of the room. He does not touch me with it. Not yet. He lets me look and lets the want and fear tangle in me.

My throat goes dry. “Lucian.”

His eyes lift to mine. “Color.”

The room seems to narrow around that one word.

My choice.

I swallow. “Green.”

“Turn around,” he says. “Chest pressed to the cushion. Face down.”

Everything in me wants to run. Instead, I force myself to obey. Slowly, knees in the carpet, I turn to face the cushion. I bend at the waist, pressing my naked breasts against the soft velvet, my face over its edge.

I turn my face to the window.

The glass wall reflects us in shadow: me naked and shaking, pale skin, curves on display. Lucian behind me in an open shirt and dark trousers, belt in his hand, his face carved from possession and restraint.

He crouches down. I watch him in the mirror as he moves. So controlled, so graceful. His hand settles on the back of my neck.

“You are going to listen to me,” he says, his mouth near my ear. “And you are going to believe me.”

The belt touches the back of my thigh. Cool leather dragging over heated skin. Lucian’s hand tightens at my neck. “What are you to me? Now and forever?”

I want to respond. No words come. He waits.

The belt trails higher, over the curve of me, a slow drag that makes every nerve wake.

“Mine,” he says to me.

My eyes burn. “Yours.”

“Not theirs.”