Enthralled (The Enslaved Duet 1)

“Out of the question.”

“Then teach me yourself,” I dared even though it terrified me and thrilled me in equal measure to think of such a beast fighting against me.

I could feel arousal bloom like a rose between my thighs.

Something was wrong with me, some trigger he’d flipped in my psyche to make the thought of his flesh against my fists and his blood in my mouth arouse me.

Alexander clenched his teeth, a muscle popping in his jaw as he studied me. I watched as he reigned in his base excitement, filtering it through his gentlemanly upbringing and psychopathic calculation until it was polished and refined as a diamond.

My mouth went dry watching that, and for once, I didn’t blame myself for the reaction.

Watching a man struggling to govern himself against the force of his attraction to you was a heady thing.

“Riddick,” he called out even as his eyes remained latched on mine. “Get out.”

“Yes, sir.”

I didn’t watch his bodyguard/man servant leave, but the banging of the door as it shut resounded like a starting gun through the chamber.

“You want to learn how to defend yourself against wicked men? Against me? Then get up.”

He turned on his heel and stalked toward the center of the mats again, only this time he placed his rapier in a rack on the way and tossed his helmet to the side. It was only when he turned to face me that I realized I’d unconsciously followed him across the gym.

His dirty smile said “good girl.”

My traitorous body shivered.

“You seemed able enough to defend yourself when a man was attacking me with a gun,” he noted as he pulled off his light fencing armour, revealing his sweat slicked torso.

I watched a bead of moisture travel between his hard pecks and get trapped in the boxed hedgerows of his abs. My fingers literally itched to trace its path under the waistband of his trousers.

“My brother taught be dirty tricks so I could walk home from the train at night in Milan and feel relatively safe. I don’t know how to subdue a real threat.”

“No,” he practically purred. “You don’t.”

“I find it hard to believe that you’d want to teach me,” I admitted as he came at me on brisk, threatening strides. When he stopped before me, it was sudden as if he was a horse desperate to canter but reined in by his rider. I could feel the potential energy in his stillness like a promised threat of violence.

God, but I knew how much he wanted to hurt me.

Almost as much as I wanted it.

“There are times in this life I cannot be there to protect you. It’s my duty to teach you how to help yourself, and I will teach you anything you need to know,” he told me calmly even though I could see the pulse going in his throat and the strain of his erection against his white trousers. “Because I am the only man of influence in your life.”

“You cannot be everything to me.”

“Can’t I?” he asked with a raised brow, looking every inch the haughty lord even half dressed as he was.

“I have a father, a brother, and friends. You are not the only man in my life of consequence.”

“I am. Your father is dead to you, just as he should be. I did that. Your brother is benefiting from a placement in Finborough Theatre at London. Who do you think pulled those strings? You never had any friends outside your family; don’t pretend otherwise. You were too pretty for the jealous village girls and too ripe for the boys to ignore as an object of lust.” He stepped closer and looked down into my face from his awesome height. “I am your Master, Cosima. Not just of your flesh, but of everything you hold dear.”

I wanted to cry for his kindness. I’d hated my father’s selfish destruction. I loved my brother enough to thank God or him for any favours toward Sebastian.

But I always wanted to rip out his throat because even as he so obviously manipulated me, it was working.

“It’s funny how people fight against the things they cannot change,” Alexander noted cruelly as he watched my internal struggle. “Why don’t you focus that lovely anger on defending yourself? At first, I want you to move on instinct, and then I will teach you some moves.”

He attacked before the last word was gone from the air.

My breath whooshed out of my body as he slammed me to the ground and pinned me there with his weight. I wriggled just enough to pull my leg up between his, then I curled my toes hard into balls.

He huffed with pain, letting me go just enough that I could push off his shoulders and remove my torso out from under his. Using them as leverage, I dragged one leg out and kicked him hard in the face.