Eternally His

Sebastián seemed to peer right into my soul, and the sharp glint in his incisive gaze found me guilty.

“The cop said they were old friends,” Rafael supplied, further damning me.

My fingernails bit into my palms as my hands curled to fists, and my heart hammered in my chest. I hated my guard. I hated this captivity. I hated the fact that I was terrified of my new husband. Of what he might do to me because of my encounter with Morales. A sense of powerlessness hollowed out my chest, leaving me empty and sick.

“Is that true?” Sebastián demanded, his voice impossibly deep and forbidding. “Do you know this man?”

“No!” I lied before I could think better of it. I didn’t want to say a single word about how I knew Morales. Not when I was already clearly in trouble. It would be beyond stupid of me to bring up the betrayal that’d caused this forced marriage in the first place.

Sebastián’s jaw ticked. He’d heard the lie.

I shook my head and took a hasty step back, lifting my hands in a show of innocence.

But I wasn’t innocent, not entirely. And he knew it.

His massive body swelled on a deep, furious breath, and he seemed to loom even larger than his usual imposing height. He closed the distance between us, crossing the foyer in three long strides. I cringed back toward the door, my only exit. But there was no escape for me; I couldn’t outrun my fierce captor. He’d proven that once before. When he’d spanked me.

I braced myself for the pain of his fists, but the expected blows never came. Instead, my world tilted, and the air whooshed out of my lungs when my abdomen collided with his broad shoulder. The world was still spinning when he began to stomp down the long corridor, his boots thundering beneath us. The floral carpet was a swirl of dark blue and red hues that churned in my vision. If I’d been wearing my glasses, they would’ve fallen off and left me completely disoriented. As it was, my contacts allowed my eyes to gradually adjust to the strange perspective of being slung over his shoulder and carried off like a caveman’s prize.

I squirmed, unable to help the impulse to struggle. Stinging heat bloomed on my upper thigh, and I released a sharp cry at the visceral shock of his big hand spanking me. The act was humiliating.

My stomach dropped. Was he going to punish me like that again? I didn’t think my pride could bear it.

Just the memory of the mortifying scene in the ballroom made my cheeks burn, and my flesh tingled with the phantom heat of his punitive hand on my tender skin.

“Are you going to…?” My voice disappeared into nothing before I could put the embarrassing question into words. I didn’t think I could ever look him in the eye again if he spanked me like that. If my body reacted the same forbidden way.

His low growl rumbled through my entire body as we crossed the threshold to my bedroom. “We’re going to have an honest conversation. And you won’t be talking to any cop ever again. I’m going to make that crystal clear.”

My heart skipped a beat, then pounded in double time. He was going to do it again. I could hear it in the forbidding, hard tone of his deep voice. There would be no mercy for me.

My room spun around me, and my butt bounced on my soft mattress as he unceremoniously dropped me on my bed. Acting on animal instinct, I tried to scramble away, but he captured me easily, sitting on the edge of the mattress and dragging me over his lap. Just like before, his thick fingers deftly found the button at the front of my jeans before tugging them down to expose my bottom. My cheeks heated at the knowledge that he could see my pale pink underwear with the little red hearts dotting the cotton fabric. He hadn’t stripped me bare, but I felt completely vulnerable and exposed.

I squirmed over his lap, and his forearm became an iron band across the small of my back, pinning me in place. All my muscles locked up tight when I heard the distinctive sound of his belt unbuckling.

“What are you doing?” My voice quavered with a fresh rush of panic. This was different. He was getting undressed too. “Please, don’t…” My throat closed before I could finish the sickening plea.

Cool leather rubbed my bottom, drawing goosebumps to the surface of my skin.

“I told you, I’m not going to fuck you.” The crass words were rough with strain, and I felt his length stiffen beneath my hip. No matter what he said, he wanted me. He got off on punishing me like this. Holding me so that I couldn’t escape his harsh touch.