Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 130048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
My mind shot to my birdcage cufflinks. I’d left them on my bedside table, unable to tell if the signal had slipped through Victor’s technology and alerted Q to this monster’s lair.
“He obeys because he knows what happens if he doesn’t.” Victor passed me the remote. “This little device is all you need.”
I accepted it with a shrug. “Looks innocent enough.”
“Press it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why? What does it do?”
“You’ll find out. Press it.” He grinned and grabbed a piece of cheese. Biting off the end, he smiled. “You wanted to come here, and I’ve let you. You wanted to know how to be free, and I’m about to show you. Press it.”
My thumb hovered over the button.
I shot a look at Ily whose silence fucked me off and freaked me out in equal measure.
“Do you want to be free or not?” Victor coaxed. “Don’t make me regret my invitation, Henri. Do it.”
With gritted teeth, I stabbed the button.
Ily screamed.
A piercing, screeching scream.
She fell sideways, her hands curled into spasming claws, her neck straining, belly flexing, limbs twitching as if possessed.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
A ripple of chuckles echoed around the garden.
Men who hadn’t dispersed watched Ily twitching and jerking, her legs wide and body on full display. The crush of their desire oozed from a mixture of races, ages, and depravity. A few had a jewel beside them, collared and leashed with an array of marks on their pretty skin. Teeth marks on one. Whip lashes on another.
A full-body shudder wracked me as I drowned in awful craving.
I wanted, no, I fucking needed to mark Ily that way.
To claim ownership so they would never get near her.
She was beautiful.
Beautiful in the throes of such agony.
Stunning in the clutches of surrender.
Her screams cut off with a choke.
I couldn’t hide my shudder as she writhed by my feet.
Her eyes met mine. Wide and brimming with terror.
It smashed apart the sickening spell.
I turned deathly cold.
Fuck!
What the hell am I doing?
Smashing my thumb against the button, Ily flopped into suffocating stillness.
Soaring upward, my chair fell back with a loud clang as I dropped to my haunches and dragged her into my arms.
She moaned but didn’t fight.
She flinched but didn’t push me away.
Her head lolled over my arm and her hair stuck to her finger-painted cheek.
My voice was inhuman. “Are you oka—”
“Kneel, Ily,” Victor commanded. “Don’t sprawl over your Master. Kneel.”
A twisting in my gut.
A snarling in my soul.
I loosened my hold on her just a little. I’d kill her if I didn’t. I’d crush her. Suffocate her with how much I wanted to save her.
Gritting her teeth, she raised her head and embraced the fight that would be my fucking downfall.
Her tear-twinkling stare locked on Victor’s. “I know how I’m going to kill you now. I’m going to electrify you until you choke on your own tongue.”
“Charming,” Victor drawled. “I appreciate your strength, my pet, but I’m unimpressed by your intelligence. I’ve gone over the rules with you. The time to test them is never.”
“Rules?” I asked as Ily slowly removed herself from my hold and crawled away. She didn’t stop until the leash stretched to its limit, tugging on my fingers, stopping her from going any farther.
She shot me a glower, unable to hide what truly lurked within her.
Fear.
Christ, I could smell it from here.
It tickled the back of my nose.
It soaked into the marrow of my bones.
It fucked me off that she gave such terror away to everyone watching. I wanted to hoard it. To draw out her horror just for me.
Merde, stop.
You’ve been fighting this your entire life.
Do. Not. Give. In.
I fisted the leash, sending vibrations to her collar.
Her golden eyes met mine. They narrowed. They burned.
I might not have done anything to earn her fear yet, but I had earned her loathing.
And it turned me on and scrambled me up because despite her hatred of me, I’d made her wet. She’d been wet as I strapped her down on that table, spread her legs, and—
God’s sake, stop!
I choked on a groan as I drank her in.
Desperation soaked into obsession; I turned into something unhinged.
My eyes kept wandering, taking liberties, stealing all her secrets.
I jolted as she shifted, unintentionally flashing me.
Just a strip of hair.
A single strip showing me exactly where to lick.
Motherfucking Christ—
“The rules of my home,” Victor said, dragging me back to a conversation I’d utterly forgotten about. “The rules all my jewels follow. They soon learn that I can be magnanimous if they treat me with respect.” He sighed as if their behaviour truly wasn’t because of him and it pained him to chastise them. “All I ask is that they willingly entertain my treasured guests, stay healthy and clean, refrain from self-pleasure so my friends can attend to them, and present themselves as quietly and as demurely as possible. That’s all.” His calculating eyes met mine. “That’s not too much to ask, is it?”