I already knew he would say that, but it didn’t minimize the sting. I tried to yank my elbow out of his hold, but his grip was too tight. “I’m not letting you give me anything.”
“I always wear a condom.”
“You didn’t wear a condom with me.”
“Different. You’re the only woman I would do that with.”
I tried to twist again. “Is that supposed to make me feel special?”
“I’m just telling you that you have nothing to worry about.”
“Then we’re wearing condoms too.”
He chuckled like I’d made a joke. “You don’t call the shots here, Muse. I do.”
“That’s bullshit, and we both know it. If I want something, I get it. You act like you’re this asshole, but you give me more freedom than you realize.” I yanked my arm down and finally got free. I grabbed the towel from the floor and covered myself with it.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Muse.” He slowly approached me, his arms by his sides and his jaw clenched with barely restrained anger. He adopted an unthreatening stance, but he’d never seemed so terrifying. “I made things easy on you for the first time.” His hand moved to my elbow, and he grabbed it gently before he turned me around. I cooperated, feeling his quiet hostility. He grabbed the back of my neck and then shoved me into the couch.
I fell, losing my grip on my towel.
His pants dropped to the floor, and he pinned me down, my ass up and my face pressed to the cushion. The towel slipped to the floor, and now I was naked, my hair still damp. He got behind me quickly, and before I could fight back, he shoved his hard cock inside me in one swift thrust.
I lurched forward, gripping the couch cushions for balance.
He kept my face pinned down and leaned over me, his big cock buried inside my tightness. I barely had time to adjust to him, and he was burrowing through like he owned me. He squeezed my neck harder. “But I won’t be easy on you again. You’re just a trophy, a product in exchange for money. Don’t forget that you’re nothing—and you’ll always be nothing.”
* * *
I wasn’t sure what I expected from Conway. Sometimes he seemed like a nice guy. At other times, he seemed like a sadist. He gave me the gentleness and respect I craved, but then he took it away with the snap of a finger.
Then I was reduced to nothing.
He spent so much money purchasing me that I assumed I would be his only mistress. I was the inspiration for his lingerie, so why would he want to fuck someone else? He said I was his fantasy, so how could some other woman take my place? It wasn’t jealousy that I felt. It simply didn’t add up.
He fucked me harder than he ever had on the couch, making me bleed a little. When he was finished, he pulled on his pants and walked out without saying a word to me. He finished his business, and then our conversation was dismissed.
I stayed in my room for the rest of the day, not wanting to see him after our argument. I didn’t want to see his face, and I certainly didn’t want him to see mine. He fucked me like a whore, pressing my face into the cushion with my ass in the air. But then something terrible happened.
He made me come.
I hid it as best I could, but I suspected he knew.
Conway always knew.
Now I was ashamed, embarrassed that I enjoyed a man who treated me like an object instead of a human.
What was wrong with me?
Dante knocked on my bedroom door. “Dinner is served, miss.”
I stared at the solid wood door from my seat on the bed. I’d been locked inside my bedroom all evening, spending my time watching TV or reading. The last thing I wanted to do was sit across from Conway like everything was fine. “I’m not hungry.”
Dante’s footsteps didn’t sound against the floor. He stayed in the exact same spot. “Conway is expecting you.”
“I don’t give a damn what he expects, Dante.” I ran my fingers through my hair, hoping Conway wouldn’t burst through the door the second Dante told him the news. It forced my heart rate to spike in fear, even though I shouldn’t be afraid of that man.
Dante’s sigh was audible through the door. “Alright, miss.” His footsteps faded away.
I waited ten minutes for Conway’s presence to fill the hallway and leak through the crack in the doorway, but it never came. When thirty minutes came and went, I knew he wasn’t coming.
My stomach growled, but I ignored it.
I spent the next few hours watching TV and reading before I went to bed. I washed my face, threw my hair in a bun, and then pulled the covers back on my perfectly made bed so I could slip beneath the sheets.