Wearing Him Down

I lean back on my hands and watch his hungry eyes rake over my bare breasts. “I could never be scared of you, Grant,” I murmur, meaning it with my whole heart. “Never.”

After running his touch up my thighs, he steps away and crosses to a liquor cart, pouring amber liquid into a tumbler and taking a long sip. “Come with me and we’ll find out.”

My pulse skips a little at his ominous tone, but I slide off the bed and follow Grant toward a short hallway at the back of his bedroom. It leads to a single door and he hesitates before pushing it open, gesturing for me to go inside. I hear him swallow hard as I pass…into a room full of monitors. It takes me a few moments to realize what I’m seeing. On one monitor, the inside of my Time Management classroom is displayed. On another, my aerobics gym at school. The rear seat of the SUV that transports me to finishing school and back is shown on another.

My bed. The desk where I do my classwork.

Not my bathroom, thankfully.

But everywhere else is there, documenting my days, second by second.

I think I’m supposed to be righteously angry. I think to most people this would be wrong. An invasion of privacy. I can’t account for why it makes liquid heat pool between my thighs. Or why it makes me feel so secure and loved and happy. I almost can’t stand how much. I want to rub my cheeks on the glowing screens and laugh. Grant has been right beside me, caring for me, every single moment of the last year. This is how a man who thrives on control needs to love his woman. And wrong or right, I love being under his control. Because I know the truth.

The truth is, I have all the control.

I won’t wield my power often, but a single tear from my eye can shatter his world, so I’ll let him watch me on his cameras and keep me safe. It’s only fair.

Grant’s breath on my neck makes my head fall back on a moan. He pulls me up on my toes with a forearm and locks my backside to his lap, stroking his tongue up my neck.

“I’m obsessed with every breath out of your mouth, Sienna. Every blink of your big eyes. Every smile, pout and giggle. Your heart, your humor, your logic and compassion. I see it all from this room. This room where I’ve suffered, fucking my hand every night like an animal, waiting for this day.” He wraps my hair in a fist and pulls, baring his teeth against the flesh beneath my ear. “Tonight you’ll take away Daddy’s pain.”

A shiver passes through me, carrying with it a sense of rightness. I’m in the exact right place I’m supposed to be. “What would you do if all the cameras made me run?

His fingertips bite into my waist. “I’d catch you.”

I circle my bottom against his thick bulge, grinding back and making him groan. “Would you let me go if I kicked and screamed?”

He pulls me up higher and tighter against his body, his breath coasting over my neck as both of us survey the wall of monitors. “Which answer would you like?” His right hand drops to reach up under my skirt to grab hold of my sex. “The truth? Or a lie that will let me keep the illusion of being a gentleman where you’re concerned?”

My nipples harden into tight puckers. “Take me to bed, please,” I gasp.

His finger tucks between the lips of my womanhood and gives my clitoris one light stroke before he takes his hand back. “We’re not done, princess.”

I sway and he catches me. “Oh?”

Grant walks me forward toward the desk that is positioned in front of the monitors. Without turning around, I sense him reaching into his jacket pocket. And then he’s reaching around to set down two brochure-sized envelopes in front of me. I pick up the first one and open it, frowning over the certificate that slides out into my hand. My name is on the top and beneath are several lines of legal jargon. “What is this?”

“That’s the deed to the private island I bought you,” he murmurs into my hair, his hands riding up my hips and waist to fondle my breasts. “Look at the date.”

“This…” After finding out I own an island, I can barely concentrate on anything, but I study the small printed numbers in the upper right hand corner of the page. “You bought me an island the same day we met?”

“Yes. And we’re going there tomorrow for a month. That’s why you needed the summer clothes, though I doubt you’ll be wearing any of it.” With a sob, I try to turn around and throw myself into Grant’s arms, but he holds me still. “Open the other one first, Sienna.”