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“Uh-uh,” he reprimanded with a short click of his tongue. The sound a man makes when he’s caught you doing something. He ducked his head down to my level, and there was no rush in it.

“Now try again, as I want to see it in your eyes when you lie to me.”

“I did not dream of you… not once.” I got it out with my chin in his hand and my eyes on his and every single word a lie.

He smiled.

It was the first real one I had ever seen on him since Ashlock and it was a horrible, beautiful thing.

“Ah. There it is.” He let go. “There is the lie I wanted.”

I yanked my face out of his grip and put a step between us and surprisingly, he let me.

“What do you want?!” I snapped.

“Oh, but I think you know.”

“Humor me,” I forced through gritted teeth.

“I pulled a great many strings to stand in this room.” He said it without any irritation at all, as though it were an inconvenience he had already dealt with. “Because you would be surprised what a piece of paper costs when the right man signs it.”

“I didn’t ask you to be here… I never wanted…” He didn’t let me finish.

“No. It was simply the only option available to me when someone who belongs to me disappeared… I missed my little nurse.” He whispered this last part, and I hated how badly I wanted to believe it, enough that I shot it down with a sarcastic comment,

“Oh, so it’s my healthcare you’re after.”

He grinned at that, actually grinned like he was fucking happy. Enough that his hands came back to my waist and tightened. Which meant every single thing in me went hot and stupid all at once.

“I think you already know the answer to that one.” It came out almost like a threat and I shivered, unable to do a single thing about it. Two months of a body running on nothing but memory, and here was the real thing with his hands spread wide on me. Meaning my skin had opinions I had never once authorized. Heat came up my throat and across my face as my breathing went shallow and quick, with every part of it written all over my body for him to read.

But he didn’t just read it, he felt it too.

Of course he did.

“So, what happens now?” I asked after swallowing hard.

“Well, that depends entirely on you,” he said, shrugging his massive shoulders and I tried not to look… I really did.

“Depends on me how?”

“On how good you are going to be for me.” And he looked down at me while he said it, patiently waiting and giving me all the time in the world to work out that it wasn’t a question.

“I told you.” I lifted my chin, and thankfully, my voice didn’t shake, which honestly at this point, I count among the achievements of my life when I finished,

“I am not going to be anybody’s good girl.” His jaw tightened at that, a hard set to the lower half of his face that was admittedly terrifying and instantly made me wary when trying to push him further. Because I quickly understood that I had just handed him back the last thing I ever said to him, and it looked like he had been carrying those words around with him ever since.

He confirmed this when he said,

“I remember your parting words… Every single one of them. In fact, I could recite them to you in order.” I don’t know why I flinched at that or why my chest felt tight with something foolishly close to guilt.

“Then you know…” Once again he was quick to interrupt me and this time it came first with just a pointed look.

“But here is the thing, little bird.” He paused long enough to lean in, before assuring me,

“You are going to be a good girl for me.” The word ‘are’ was more of a promise he had made for me.

“And if I am not?” I asked and this time it didn’t come out confident at all.