From the Ashes (Possessed 2.50)

I watch as his eyes narrow, and I can see the wheels turning in the back of his mind. “What are you hiding? What’s so important that you can’t tell me?” A light seems to click in his mind, and I feel like he might know. “Are you fucking pregnant?” His angered question has me bursting out laughing at the ludicrousness of it until I feel his hand back at my throat, tightening to the point of breathlessness again; however, I feel nothing like I did before. “This is no fucking game, Ashley. Are you?”

Shaking my head back forth as quickly as his hand allows, I let out a sigh of relief as he loosens his hold. “I swear I’m not.”

With his other hand gripping my belly over my shirt, he tells me, “I’ll let you have your privacy for now, cupcake, but it won’t be long before I demand everything you’re trying to hide. I want every fucking secret you have out on the table when I do.” I nod, knowing full-well I don’t want him upset with me. “Good.” He smiles. “Tell me, has someone hurt you?”

“No,” I respond quietly. I want to please this man. I want to be his everything. Now I’m terrified he’s going to be disgusted with me. Hate me for needing to relieve all these pent-up emotions I have.

“Why won’t you tell me then?” he asks, his voice gentler than it has been since I’ve met him. He’s running his cheek along mine, and I’m lulled into a sense of safety.

“I’m afraid,” I tell him honestly.

“Of what?”

“Shame is a wonderful motivator, and I have a lot of it. I couldn’t bear for my greatest indignity to drive you away.” By the time I’m done speaking, my voice is barely decipherable, and we’re in a standoff.

Chapter Four

Declan

Where Ashley is concerned, I have this dark desire running through my veins. The need to control her every move is a driving force within me. When she ran from the restaurant the previous night, I was pissed. I tried to go slow, get to know her, not force her hand.

I want her trust. Turns out, I’ve been going about it the wrong way. The second I put my hand around her throat, showing the girl who was ultimately in charge, she bent to my will. Like a match to a flame, she ignited for me.

I didn’t mean to take her the way I did, to be so rough, but the thrill that ran through my veins at having that type of control was exhilarating. I want more. I want everything from her and am going to take it. She can’t hide from me, I won’t let her.

After I had dropped her off at home, much to her dismay, I told her she had seventy-two hours to bare all for me before I ran right through her and figured it out on my own. And if I didn’t like what I fou

nd, then she would be strapped to a bed enduring hours of sexual torture until I had my answers.

The fear in her eyes awoke my beast.

The anticipation had my cock growing to an unnatural size.

Now, here I am waiting for her to call. I know what time she wakes up, and if she knows what’s good for her, she’ll damn well listen like I’ve instructed.

Five minutes later, my phone rings. “Yeah,” I bite out. Ashley needs to know who is in control, and by throwing her off balance, she’ll give me what I want.

“Declan?” her muffled response full of her sleepless night is sexy.

“Morning, cupcake. How’d you sleep?”

I could hear the pause in her silence, she didn’t know how to answer me. “I didn’t.” I’m pleased with her honesty.

“Why?”

“Ummm,” I can tell she’s readying herself for a lie.

“If you lie to me, Ash, you won’t like it,” I warn her. One day, she’ll forgo the hesitancy to tell me what I wish to hear rather than what she chooses to tell me.

“My brain wouldn’t shut off. It was like I was stuck in replay in that alley. I’ve never done that before.”

Chuckling at her confession, I say, “I’m glad you haven’t, and you never will with anyone else but me.”

My voice is heavy with command, so I’m unsurprised to hear her reply. “Yes, daddy.” Fuck does that get me hard as stone. I can feel my dick pulsing with the need for release, pre-cum is dripping down my shaft as her breathing halts in her chest.

Pulling my cock from its confines, I grip it as hard as I can, picturing her willing mouth waiting for my load, daddy falling from her lips.

“Declan?” she questions.