I think about how the fuck I will go about keeping her, because she is dead to her old life, while maintaining her safety and making her desperate with need for me. I’ll be a busy man with this wild principessa on my hands. The water begins to grow cold, and I decide to give in to the exhaustion consuming me. Toweling off first, I step into the bedroom naked, moving toward my closet, when I hear a shocked gasp.
“Oh, um. Sorry.”
Looking toward the bed, I turn to see Arabella hiding her face in the side of her bicep.
Smiling smugly, I respond, “No need to look away, piccolina. Might as well get used to my nakedness, and yours, because soon enough we will be tangled in nothing but our flesh when I ravish you the way I fucking intend to.”
She peers up through her lashes, unable to hide the blush on her cheeks and the tightening of her legs under the black silk sheet.
“Yeah, that ache will be fun to relieve,” I growl, gripping my now-hard cock in my fist. I imagine her cunt is much tighter and warm and will keep me in a haze between those sweet thighs.
Her eyes never leave my moving hand, and watching her watch me jerk my cock as if I’m fucking her gets me so damn close.
She wants it. Sure, sexually, she can’t deny what I do to her and what I could do with a touch, but I need her to want all of me. Every bit of lust, craziness, and obsession. Until then, I will make her starve for my touch. For my fuck. For my pleasure.
“Fuck, I want you. Tell me you like what you see.” I pick up the pace, so close to coming. I swear I can feel her arousal all around me. Every inch of me invading her, claiming her, taking her, owning her, and seeing her like this, I know she will want that, every part of it.
“I do. You make me want things I shouldn’t. You’re a monster, but I like it,” she whispers, rubbing her thighs together.
“That’s right. I am a monster, but I will not be one to you. Ever. In time, baby, in time. Fuck.” With that, I explode, coming without breaking eye contact with her. Both of us breathe deeply, the sound echoing in the still room. My lip curls into a snarl, my lust turning into raging anger, because this woman has been in my life less than a day, and she’s already driven me mad.
I don’t care what this means for me and The Ruin, or what havoc Ferro is going to rain down on me. I don’t care that this woman is a temptress who has made me want something I never sought out or desired before. But I hate that Arabella is under my fucking skin. I have to focus, be more aware of what exactly is happening around this bubble of lust and desire and pure fucking insanity.
If I let my guard down, it will be deadly for the both of us. She senses my anger and cowers and curls into herself, the lust being overruled by fear. Turning, I slam my fist into the wall, the smooth surface cracking under my strength, and then I disappear into the closet, ready for the wars I’m about to fight.
For her and with her.
9
Arabella
What was that? What is this? What the hell is happening? It’s been less than a day. I’ve been kidnapped, being held captive. Yet, I’m mad with lust and desire. I’m suffering from my own self-induced whiplash. Seriously. This man is a monster, but there is something in me—and I mean deep, deep in me—that feels… saved, protected. Who else would feel this way under these circumstances? Well, that’s easy—any woman inside The Ruin.
I’ve been captive since the day I was betrothed to Ferro, but I never teetered on this line of both want and hate. I hate that another man has claimed me as some sort of property, when all I ever wanted was freedom—but… the man claiming me is one I don’t want to hate. For once, I feel like I can breathe, escape from the world like I fantasized about for years. Sure, I envisioned it, but who knew I’d actually be kidnapped by an insanely sexy megalomaniac?
I’m in the most dangerous situation of my life, yet I’m not completely afraid of it in the way I should be.
Mad. I’ve gone mad. This will all end, and it needs to. I can’t bring myself to truly believe the same man who took me like a thief in the night will be my knight in shining armor. He is a monster, and I need to find a way to get out of here. I’ve already gone so far as to ask him to make me come, and when he pulled away, that should’ve been the wakeup call I needed in order to snap out of this insanity. I have to find a way to call my father or Ferro and get the hell away from this man before he digs his claws in too deep and I end up with some twisted form of Stockholm Syndrome.