Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Drake stared at her for a moment. “It’s not the same.”
“I’m not sure how it’s not.”
A look of pure frustration crossed his face. “Because I wasn’t lying to you about my feelings. Because I was right there with you, and I’m sorry I listened to a person I’ve trusted for a long time. I’m sorry I let my bitterness over my sister’s betrayal cloud my judgment when they came for you that day. I listened to them. I believed them, and I shouldn’t have. I think in some ways they wanted to separate us.”
“There was no us.” She forced herself to say the words because he was getting to her, and she couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t sneak under her defenses. This time she’d built them so high and strong no one ever would again.
Was that how she wanted to live?
“Wasn’t there? It felt like it to me. I know the thought of you betraying me sent me right back into an awful spiral I’d just started coming out of. Like I told you last night, I was getting ready to come looking for you, Taylor, and I didn’t care where you were. I had identified a couple of places to start. I was going to find you and make sure you never got in trouble again.”
“I wasn’t in trouble in the first place.” She couldn’t believe that he’d actually thought she’d been in custody all this time.
“Well, I didn’t know that.” He took a cautious step toward her like he wanted to see if she would move away. “I was working under the assumption that you were in a prison. That should tell you something. I was going to break you out, and if I had to, go on the run with you.”
She stood her ground. “Oh, that sounds like fun, but I think I’ll have to pass.”
“Not until you hear what I would have done with you.” His voice had gone deeper, a sound that had haunted her every dream. That voice of his was silky and could caress her every bit as much as his big hands. “You should understand the depths of my plans when it came to you. I was going to make you my submissive, train you so that you could never betray me again.”
Every word seemed to brush against her skin, making the room feel warmer than it had been before. She wasn’t falling for this again. “So you were going to break me out of the Agency’s prison to put me in your prison? You want to break me, Radcliffe? I’m sure you have your torture methods.”
“Oh, I do,” he assured her. “Mostly they involve my mouth on your pussy.”
A blast of heat flashed through her along with the memory of exactly what he’d wanted her to envision. That night had been a landmark—one of those events she knew had marked her forever. He’d shown her how good sex could be and then she’d been tossed into the trash before she could even process what she’d felt. Hadn’t she always wondered if that night had been a mirage? It couldn’t possibly have been as good as she’d remembered. “So you were going to force yourself on me.”
“Ah, but in this scenario I was the hero,” he corrected. “I was the man who got you out of a terrible situation and offered you a better life than you deserved. I was the man who shut everything down so you got out, and that made you willing to show me your appreciation.”
“Well, then we should be glad that scenario didn’t prove to be true.” Because she would never sub for him. He’d promised her they would play but that had been…not a lie, precisely. She was sure if they’d had more time, he would have shown her a thing or two. Would it have changed anything if she’d been his submissive? Why was she even thinking of this?
“Should we? It could be fun. I assure you there was no torture outside of giving you so much pleasure and taking such good care of you that you couldn’t ever consider betraying me again. I was going to make sure you didn’t have the energy to plot behind my back. You were going to be my sweet submissive. Did you look up what that meant? We talked about it that day, but we never got around to playing.”
“We wouldn’t have. I wasn’t interested. I was horny, but you’re making way too much of this, Drake.” She was the one who was lying now. “I would never have bottomed for you.”
A brow rose over his handsome face. “For a person who wasn’t interested in the lifestyle, you seem to know the terminology. And don’t make promises you can’t keep. Did you know we’re standing in a club right now?”