He reached me in one stride and tugged me toward him, locking me in his grip. “Don’t. Not today.”
A gasp quivered on my lips. “Get away from me.”
“No.”
I pushed at his chest as hard as I could, but he felt like a fucking wall. “I don’t give you my permission to touch me, so leave me the fuck alone.”
He tugged harder, squeezing me against his firm body, his eyes feral. “I don’t need permission to have my wife. I don’t need permission to have anything I want.”
“I’m not your fucking wife.”
“My ring on your finger, the papers you signed and the vows you took before God and all the witnesses say you are.”
“And you know very well I didn’t consent to any of it. I was forced into this marriage. That doesn’t make me your wife. It makes me your fucking captive.”
“Captive?”
“Seems fitting with the cuffs and all.”
Something crossed his face. An expression I didn’t understand. Was it confusion, anger, both or something else entirely? His arm softened around my body. “Allora, that changes things.”
Had I just reasoned with the beast and persuaded him to abandon his predatory plans for me? I almost did a happy dance when his hand reached inside his pocket and brought out the key. He held my wrist and freed one of my hands. The metal dangled on the other in the space he allowed between us.
“Thank you, Dom,” I said, truthfully.
His gaze caught mine, the yellow in them more dominant than usual. Was it the lights or the colors of the bright sea that reflected on everything in the room, including him? Or was it just my sore eyes from the stressful day and sleepless night? Either way, there was a certain beauty to them, more dangerous and mesmerizing than ever, that I only could see now. “I was gonna do things differently for just one day, and then we could have gone back to our little game of hate. But since you insist…”
Click.
I frowned. “What’s—” The words got stuck in my throat when the lights shone against a blade emerging from his fist. My eyes widened as fear coursed through me. “The fuck?”
He reached for my sleeve as I stumbled back, stopping me before I had any chance to run. Then he ripped at the lace, dragging me back to his space.
“Stop it! Are you crazy? What the fuck are you gonna do with that knife?” I cried out.
“What a captor does to his captive.” He sliced my right sleeve in two and did the same to the left.
“Dom, no,” I gasped.
He didn’t listen, ripping the dress in shreds. The yellow in his eyes was clear now why it was so dominant. It was that of the hungry predator he was. The monster that was all him in this moment.
The knife hit the middle of my bra and cut. My arms flew to cover my tumbling breasts as I stood only in my underwear. “Why the fuck are you doing this?” I panted. “Didn’t you say it was okay to take things slow? Didn’t you tell me to take all the time I need?”
“I said that to the woman I liked, not the bitch who was trying to fuck me over.”Rip.The cold tip of the knife pinched my hip as the sound of my panties tearing penetrated my ears. “I wanted to make things nice and easy for the woman I married, not the one I took captive.”Rip.
The fabric of my panties stuck between my thighs as I squeezed them together and slid one trembling hand to cover myself. I thought about telling him to stop again, even begging him, but I knew it was pointless. Humiliating me was part of the revenge he sought. He’d savor it and still go through with fulfilling his sick demands. It was all part of his plan to torture me.
And the silly me fucking thanked him a minute ago and thought he was more beautiful than ever.
“Move your arms away. I want to see your body,” he commanded, circling around me.
Anger and fear traveled hand in hand through me. I hadn’t been that scared, that hurt, that abused in so long, but I’d never forgotten the feeling.
“I’m not gonna ask twice,” he warned, his breath searing on my neck as he fisted my now disheveled her.
Despite the fear that shook me up and the tears threatening to show the weakness I wouldn’t dare show this bastard, I didn’t budge and managed to stare at him in the eye with all the defiance I had in me. I wasn’t going to make this any easier for him. Everything he wanted to take from me, he’d take by force and not without a fight on my end.
“Va bene. Have it your way, little kitten.”
