Thank you,husband. Now I’m as Used as I feel deep inside
No.
No.
I jerk up, nearly ripping my arms out of my socket. I need to get to Haven. I need to hold her. What just passed between us… it was fuckingbeautiful,and for her to reduce it to what happens between an Owed and one of the Used?
Abso-fucking-lutely not.
For a moment, Iammute. I can’t speak. Instead, I’m a wild thing, trying to get out of the cuffs. Only when I find that I can’t do I whip my head toward Haven. There’s a blank look on her face now as she watches me buck my hips.
Fuck. That’s not helping. I need to calm down.
I need to make herunderstand.
I force myself to talk.
“Haven? Babe. Get me out of the cuffs.”
She shakes her head, letting her hair fall in front of her face.
Shit. Something’s wrong. It’s not just the sex, either. She seemed to enjoy it, the same way she’s enjoyed it every time I’ve let her take control of me. Damn it. I knew something was off when she first approached me tonight, but I allowed my own need for her to blind me to it.
I take a deep breath, shudder it out, then try again. “Unchain me, wife. If we’re going to have this discussion, it’s only fair if you do.”
Somehow, I get through to her. We keep the handcuff key on a pushpin stuck into the wall. It’s near enough that I can see it, but not reach it, and it’s another element of control I gladly gave my wife. Hesitating only a moment, she grabs it, then quickly removes both of the cuffs.
I pop up like a fucking Jack in the Box, wrapping my arms around her because, fuck it, I have this sudden vision of her flipping me the bird and leaving me. She can’t leave me. She’s my wife. She let me fuck her… and, yet, my biggest nightmare seems to be looming right on the edge of my consciousness despite the fact that I’m wide fucking awake.
Haven lets out anoof. For a heartbeat, she’s as still as a statue, but right when I feel like my goddamn heart is breaking,shedoes, and it’s infinitely worse. She collapses against me, heart tears burning my bare chest as she clings to me. She doesn’t push me away. Sheclings, and since I’m clinging to her right back, I refuse to let go until she finally stops.
Only then do I pull back, tucking my finger under her chin, forcing her to look at me.
“Talk,” I tell her. I don’t know what I’ll do if she won’t, but I need this almost as much as I needher. “You talk to me, Haven. You tell me what that was about. Because if you don’t…” My voice cracks. “My heart won’t be able to fucking take it.”
She shudders in my hold. “Connor…”
It’s weak. It’s rough. It’s Haven, and I squeeze her arms. “I’m here, baby. What’s going on in that head of yours? Used? You’re not Used. You’re my Offering, Haven. You’re mywife.”
And that’s when she surprised the shit out of me with the amount of venom in her voice as she spits out: “You never Claimed me.”
What?
Did my dick fuck with her memory or something. I release her arm, finding her left hand. With my thumb, I tap the wedding band that sure as hell is still there. “Of course I did. I Claimed you in August. I know you remember that.”
Haven folds her fingers into a fist. “I remember that you forced me to marry you.”
I did because if I had given her the choice? If I had asked to Claim her? She would’ve refused me and there was no way in hell I was going to let that happen.
“Of course I do,” I tell her, “because I fucking love you. Don’t believe me? After all this time? After what we just did? Fine. I’ll Claim you every way that counts?—”
Her head pops up. “Yeah? Prove it, Connor.”
Happily. Only?—
“How do you want me to do that? Because I’ll do it. I swear to fucking God, Haven, I’ll do anything for you.”
Her hands come up. No longer fisted, she lays them on my bare shoulders. “Then Treat me like a lover and a wife, not a captive.”
