Page 372 of Coal Hearts

If I didn’t find a cure soon, I would die—storm or no storm, island or no island.

“I’m saying that if you want to be my slave so badly...” He exhaled heavily. “If you want to keep that line drawn in the sand between us? So be it.” Striding to the wardrobe, he yanked it open and grabbed the tie he’d been wearing at the nightclub.

The faint whiff of his woodsy, citrusy cologne from that night drugged me instantly.

Memories of the way our eyes had locked.

The way the stars had sung.

And fate had laughed.

I’d meant what I said in the shower.

He’d given me butterflies and every other winged stupid thing.

My eyes locked on his hands as he snapped the tie tight and gave me a dark, devilish look. “Stand by the four-poster. Hands up.”

Another gush of need flowed through me.

I tried to stop it.

I hated that I couldn’t.

His voice. His words. His body. His threats.

It made me a sick, sick person that everything about him terrified me and turned me the hell on. A trickle of moisture. A betrayal of everything I believed in.

I shifted my hips.

I tried to hide.

Too late.

His gaze dropped between my legs, his nostrils flaring. “Shit, y-you’re wet.”

“No, I—”

“Lie to me about that again, and I’ll throw you onto the carpet, here and now.”

Oh God.

The image.

The need.

His entire body trembled as he slowly lowered the tie and cocked his head. “Jesus Christ, how did I not see it?”

“See what?” My nose wrinkled, common sense pouring icy water on the flames in my blood. I looked down at my body, cursing the traitorous shimmer coating the inside of my thighs.

The spark between us threatened to explode.

This was different to when he’d drawn my blood in Victor’s trophy slaughterhouse. Different to when he’d spanked me by the pond and different to all the other moments where we’d done things to survive—both of us knowing full well there’d always been something lurking beneath our acting.

I couldn’t get wet if I wasn’t drawn to him, and he couldn’t get hard unless he wanted me.

That was the truth right there.

The only truth.