“Fight for you?” Her voice shook and I curled my hands around hers and squeezed.
“Yes,” I whispered, leaning closer so my breath swept across her cheek. “Can you do that?”
For once, I was a little unclear as to what was going to happen. I was pretty confident of an outcome before I took a path and if the path changed, I was ready for it. But with London, there was risk because if she insisted I untie her, I had no choice but to do it.
Always follow through with what you say. I was confident that she’d never walk away from me, but I was pushing her. I was taking her fear and putting it in the forefront of her mind.
Then I was cocky enough to say, “Tell me you want to be free. Tell me, London and I will let you go. But if I let you go, it isn’t just from the wire, it’s from me.”
She stilled and so did I waiting for her answer and then she said, “I want to be free.” Her eyes closed and she repeated. “I want to be free.”My Everything“I WANT TO be free.” I swallowed.
I knew with everything inside me that the second I said the words, there’d be no going back. Not with Kai. He may exude easy charm, but there was nothing in him that would yield. I’d never be able to walk away from him until he let me. He’d own every piece of me. But he made it my choice and that made it even more powerful.
And he knew that.
I took a deep breath and said, “I want to be free of them.”
He slowly grinned and the tightly coiled tension in my body sprung. My fingers uncurled from the backs of his hands.
“My braveheart,” he breathed.
He’d never kissed me before and I knew he was finally going to as he hovered over me, his lips an inch away from mine. I was desperate, starved to taste him for the first time.
“Do you want me to kiss you, London?”
I nodded, licking my lips with anticipation. The wire, the inability to get away, the fear associated with helplessness, all forgotten.
He kissed the corner of my mouth then trailed a path to my ear and sucked on the lobe. “I kiss you, there is no going back. No changing your mind.” He shifted and I could feel his hard cock against my inner thigh. “You’ll never be able to leave me, London.”
Breathless, I said, “Is that a threat?”
He chuckled. The gravelly sound sank into me and goose bumps rose. “I don’t need threats. Just truths.”
His hand shifted into my hair to the back of my neck and fisted. “But with me, you’ll have to be stronger than you’ve ever been. I’ll do things you won’t like and ask of you what you can’t understand, but you need to trust every word that passes my lips.”
Could I do that? Could I trust Kai so implicitly?
He’d never lied to me. He’d always told me the type of man he was right from the beginning. He’d given me choices. He’d given me the most important thing back—myself.
But I knew the answer. I knew without a doubt that being with Kai was dangerous, but it was also the safest place I could be. And the only place I wanted to be.
I arched toward him. “Kiss me, Kai.”
His grip tightened on my hair, and then he groaned before his mouth came down on mine.
It was owning.
It was a judgment.
It was the final knot binding us together.
Our mouths melding became a permanent tether that neither of us could break.
“Fuck, London.” He pulled back a second to look at me as if making certain it was real, and then our mouths crashed again, his tongue caressing, tasting, taking. I met his urgency with my own, pulling on the wire that kept me from wrapping my arms around him and bringing him closer.
There was no sweetness as he kissed me, but it was slow and determined, as if he was making certain I understood what all this meant. My body ached and soared, quivers of desire racing through me as I forgot about the wire around my wrists and gave in to him. Gave in to what I needed from Kai.
Everything.
He pulled back as his fingers went to the buttons on my shirt. I wanted him to rip it open, watch as the buttons popped off, and then have his hands on my breasts, but Kai wouldn’t do that.
Despite the fire burning in his eyes, he took his time and meticulously undid each little white button. His fingers trailing down between my breasts as he did it.
He smiled and paused. “What do you feel, London?” His fingers moved away from my skin and he merely held the next button between his fingers, not undoing it.