Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24688 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 99(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24688 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 99(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
His eyes blaze in such an intense way that I can’t control my resulting shiver. “Take what you’re feeling and multiply it by a thousand, you might land somewhere in the neighborhood of how I feel about this ball.”
I can’t stand the hope that leaps in my chest. “You…don’t want me to be presented to society tonight, either, Pace?”
He puffs a humorless laugh. “I form a militia to guard you for your walks in the garden, complete with snipers on the roof.” His hand tightens roughly around my throat, words pushing through his teeth. “I am a psychotic fucking mess about tonight.”
“Is it just because you’re a control freak?” I wet my lips and do my very best to keep the hope out of my eyes. “Or is it…something else?”
Like maybe he doesn’t want me to dance with other men?
Or be anywhere near them?
Pace looks down at my breasts, his hand now steadily massaging my throat. Then he drags that calloused palm down, down, kneading each mound in turn, making my breath catch. Wetness slithers between the folds of my flesh, like a damp whisper, and I pray he doesn’t stop.
Please, please don’t stop.
I’ve fantasized about him touching me like this. He never has. And it’s more sensory and real and incredible than I could have imagined. Pace is…he’s stroking my nipples and zigzags of light are streaking across the backs of my eyelids. Feels so good.
“You’re old enough to be touched like this, but I might as well have both hands tied behind my back, princess,” he breathes against my mouth. “You don’t understand.”
“Make me understand.”
Pace bites back a groan and dips his mouth to my neck, suctioning gently, kissing, letting out a shaky breath on the dampness he leaves behind. “You’re just going to have to trust me.” He pushes my thighs open with unsteady hands, wedging his hips into the cradle of my body— and I feel his hardness. The plentiful, pulsing length of him. One rock of his hips and his expression turns almost feral with lust. “Can you do that?”
“No,” I whisper, defiant as ever, as is my default. “If you can’t trust me enough to tell me why I need to trust you, how can I? It’s a two-way street.”
“It’s not a two-way street. It’s you sitting comfortably in the back of an air-conditioned Escalade where you belong, while I battle oncoming traffic in your honor.” He rocks against me, harder this time, groaning in his throat and scatting my thoughts. “You keep your pampered, dick tease body locked in this room until it’s time to come downstairs tonight. And then you don’t leave my fucking side. These are orders you want to follow, Magnolia.”
I attempt to shove him off me. “I don’t take orders!”
“Oh, no?” Pace flips me over face down, his hand scooping up between my thighs to grip the mound of my sex, holding it firmly. Possessively. While I cry out into the bedding. “Do you give orders, Magnolia?”
“If only.”
Something in him softens, just slightly. It’s in the grudging exhale of breath, the soothing caress of his lips against the shell of my ear. “I know you feel helpless right now, but believe me when I say, you hold all the power.” He delves his hand inside of my panties and pets me, two fingers teasing through the wet valley of flesh while I gasp and squirm. “You rule my world with one bat of your eyelashes, one pout, a single smile, that laugh, your adorable observations.” His exhale bathes the breadth of my shoulders. “And God help me, this little golden pussy rules me most of all. You trust me for one day, Magnolia—and I will let you give me orders for the rest of your life. I will move mountains to obey. Just give me one day. One.”
Believe me, I want to say, yes, Pace.
Because I do trust him. With my life.
We are the wards of a very dangerous, very powerful man, and from day one, Pace made it his mission to keep me safe from Karson’s enemies. But being the ward of a demanding, enigmatic man has taught me never to accept half measures from anyone, especially when my freedom has long been in question. So I turn my face to the side and let him see my resolve. “No.”
Pace is immediately out of breath.
Like I’ve undone him with that one little word.
“No?” He yanks down my panties forcefully. “You’re not going to trust me? You’re not going to stay at my side tonight where you belong? Is that what you’re telling me?”
Oh my gosh.
What is he going to do now that my panties are around my knees?
Goad him. See how far he’ll go.
“Yes,” I whisper, breathless. “That’s what I’m telling you.”
Tension riddles him, muscle by muscle. “Don’t you think if I was free to lock your bedroom door and fuck you like a goddamn bull that I would do it, princess?”