I gave him a sickly-sweet smile, not sure what to believe now.
“Then maybe I don’t need to keep being locked up in my room? Please, Hendrix. I can stick to the house only, and one of you will always be watching anyway.”
His brow furrowed, and he huffed. Darkness swept over his face so fast, I regretted asking him.
He grabbed my elbow once more, a lot more roughly this time, and hauled me out of the kitchen. I almost tripped over my feet, staring back at Caspian, pleading for his intervention, but he just stood in the kitchen, watching. His mouth tightened, but he never said a word.
I immediately began to kick myself for believing he’d go against his brother for me. He’d just met me. It didn’t matter that I’d thought I’d felt a spark...or whatever that was. I was a toy to them… just as River had said. Sure, he had me living in a spectacular home that came right out of movies where cartel drug lords lived, but a prisoner was still a prisoner.
I stumbled into my room, Hendrix charging in right after me. I recoiled until my back struck the wall, my heart trying to break out of my chest with how furiously it thumped. He shoved a hand to the wall over my shoulder, caging me in.
“I’m not a man to defy,” he growled. “I’m really trying here.”
He towered over me, and he was so close I noticed the red flecks even more in his deep, blue eyes. His lips were full, and it was ridiculous that my thoughts played with the fantasy of what they tasted like rather than escaping this mad man.
“I-I did nothing wrong.”
His upper lip curled. “Turn around,” he ordered, to which I gaped at him, not moving.
“What are you going to do to me?” I asked softly, and then glanced quickly to the open door behind him, wondering how far I’d get before he caught me.
“Turn,” he told me once more with an authoritative tone that said he wasn’t going to ask again.
I had no idea how this was going to end, but my body hardened as if expecting his blows. Yet at the same time, a burning heat erupted in the pit of my stomach, excitedly anticipating that he might do something else to me. I’d never reacted this way to anyone else before.
So, I did as he asked, showing him I could follow orders, even if every inch of my body screamed to defy him. A burning heat erupted in the pit of my stomach at how close he stood over me, how his addictive musky and earthy scent flooded me.
His chest pressed against my back, pinning me to the wall. His hot breath danced across my ear, and my breath hitched.
“Good girl.”
The feathery touch of his fingers stroking down the side of my body and over my hips had me gasping for air. When his large palm grabbed my ass, a small moan slipped past my lips. He squeezed tight, his fingers pressing between my cheeks.
He gave a small noise of approval. “You’re ours, Syn. Remember that.”
“No,” I murmured a response I never should have voiced. Maybe the fog of how turned on I was made me foolish. “I’m nobody’s.”
He hastily spun me around to face him, and there was something terrifying and captivating about his deepening frown. “That’s where you’re wrong.” The harshness of his tone reminded me of how he spoke to the flight attendant on the plane.
Hendrix wasn’t a man who took being challenged lightly... he was the wolf who’d tear your throat out for even a small mistake.
I tensed, yet for a ridiculous moment, I let my gaze roam over his handsome face, taking in how truly small I was next to him. And I imagined what it might be like to have a man like Hendrix fuck me. Brayden had been my first and only, and at the time, I looked to him like he was my world, like I was the luckiest person in the world. Well, that fairy tale proved to be a complete disaster.
But with Hendrix, I felt different. From the first time, my attraction was instant, even if he controlled me…along with everything else around him.
“You tempt me,” he growled, his voice drawing me out of my thoughts and making me focus on only him. “And you push me. But I’ll only remind you once. What I say goes under my roof. No disobedience, no anything unless I asked for it.”
His words roared in my face, but I found my attention split between his threat and the desire he enticed with the gentle stroke of his fingers across my neck as he seized my nape.
"Next time you go against my orders, I won’t let you off with a warning. There’ll be consequences.”
Fire soared through me from the anger he stirred within me, from the arousal curling between my thighs. I hated myself for feeling anything other than pure fury at his dominance.
But when that moment of silence stretched between us, and his eyes fell to my lips, everything froze in time.
He leaned in, and his lips pressed against mine.
That was the exact moment I lost myself to him. When a fire rushed up my back, when I felt so safe against him, that I softened against him.
He held me by the back of the neck, and our lips crushed. He kissed me hungrily like he’d been building up to this moment, like the world revolved around us. Stars danced in my vision, and I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.
Hendrix was everything at that moment. My oxygen, my deepest desires.
His body pushed flush to mine. The thick erection in his pants nestled against my stomach, his body on fire. I fisted his shirt and kissed him back just as savagely, knowing my lips would bruise, but I didn’t care.
Pushing his tongue past my lips, he invaded my mouth, tasting all of me, coaxing a moan out of me.
Kissing him was almost like flying… I never knew any different with Brayden, but with Hendrix, he had me burning up, and when I clenched my thighs together, the most beautiful tingling sensation moved into my stomach, buzzing through me.
His hand slid under my shirt, tracing a path to my breasts. I grasped him tighter. Soft touches trailed under my bra, so soft I started to tremble. When he cupped my breast and squeezed it tight, I gasped against his mouth.
Excitement shivered all the way down my spine.
His fingers slid down past my stomach and to the apex between my legs. He stroked so lightly, over the fabric of my pants, that I could barely breathe. I gasped against him, small sounds grazing over my throat when I should be shoving him aside. My body betrayed me.
And just as quickly, Hendrix abruptly broke away from me. The wildness in his expression and the bulge in his pants confused me. Why had he stopped?
“That’s enough. And that’s what you get for disobeying me.” He looked at me, his eyes half-lidded.
I reared back. Was he kidding me? I should have known better… After all, I just kissed a warlord who killed people and threatened me. He didn’t even ask for my consent, and while heat scorched between my thighs, losing myself to him should have scared me, not made me lose my head.