Page 40 of Captive Ruin

“Was that just your body too?” he asks at last.

I can’t reply. We both know it wasn’t.

This man isn’t just inside me, he’s inside my head. He has been since the very first day we met, only now he knows it, too.

If he was ever in any doubt.

Maybe he wasn’t. Maybe the only person doubting it was me.

There’s no hiding from it now. Not after that.

He reaches up, unfastening one cuff, then the other, freeing my wrists. They’re not even sore, despite my struggles, the velvet lining soft.

Then he slips from inside me, flops down on the bed, turns me on my side, and pulls me in against him.

I’m too exhausted to fight it. I’m not even sure I want to.

“Sleep, Little Stray,” he murmurs, his hand cupping my breast. “I’ll keep you safe.”

Yeah? But who will keep me safe from him?

But as sleep takes me, it’s no longer my life I fear for. It’s my very existence.

I’m scared Van Wyk is making me his.

Ten

Amelia

Iwake from a dream to a strange sensation.

Someone is in my bed with me, stroking me, the back of their hand running along my arm, down my side, along my spine. It’s gentle and unexpectedly soothing.

Until I tense, startling fully awake.

He’s still here.

I expected him to leave after he’d finished with me, and well before morning—which it clearly now is, with the light streaming in through the curtains.

“Morning, Little Stray,” he says, far too chipper. His hand doesn’t stop running along my skin, sending tingles through me. “Sleep well?”

Concerningly, I did. Maybe I was too exhausted from the night before, but that’s not an excuse. Sleeping with this man in my bed? Very, very dangerous.

“I slept okay,” I grumble. A pause. His comments on civility come to mind. “You?”

“Yes, thank you. Very well rested.” His hand slips around, palming my breast, teasing the tip of my nipple. It sends little shocks through me. “What were you dreaming about?”

“I can’t remember.” It was something nice, I think.

“You were making noises,” he murmurs. “Cute ones.”

Shit. Was I?

“And moving your hips against me.”

I can’t have been. He must be lying.

Except that doesn’t fit Van Wyk. His word seems so important to him.