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“I want to make you feel beautiful. I want you to give yourself to me completely. I want to make you come. I can’t do those things if it’s not mutual. We can’t have the passion or the fire unless you want me too.”
“I’ll never want you.”
A subtle smile moved on to his lips. It only lasted for a few seconds before it disappeared.
I knew what that look meant.
He didn’t believe me.
When I entered my cabin the next evening, I made sure to take in the entire room.
My tray of food was there, filet mignon with a cream sauce and a side of pasta with veggies. There was also a thick piece of chocolate cake and madeleine cookies. A stack of books was on my nightstand.
He was there too.
Sitting in his armchair, his empty plate on the end table beside him. A bottle of scotch was next to him, along with a half-empty glass. The most striking thing about him was his bare chest.
His big, strong, muscular bare chest.
His pectoral muscles were each the size of a plate, the muscles defined and wide, cut into his flesh with a sharp knife. Now that he was shirtless, it was easy to see the way his strong body came together, the way his bulging arms connected to his powerful shoulders, the way those connected to this enormous chest that looked like the concrete wall of a parking garage. He was relaxed in a seated position, but his stomach was so naturally tight that it was flat as a board. The grooves of his eight-pack were just as deep, as if an artist had taken a knife and dragged it through his flesh, cutting into his body like it was the trunk of a tree. He was in sweatpants instead of jeans, low on his hips, showing those deep lines over his hips. He’d just eaten his dinner, and his stomach was still a flat surface.
I flinched at his appearance. I was used to seeing him decked out in black, used to discerning his strength through the tightness of his clothing. Now I could see his slightly tanned skin, a golden color to his complexion. His jawline didn’t have a shadow, and his hair was a little shorter like he’d gotten annoyed with the length and shaved it off.
His eyes were the same as always. Dark. Angry. Authoritative.
I moved to my bed, where my tray sat, feeling timid all over again.
His chin was propped on his closed knuckles. Veins like rivers flowed from the back of his hand, along the mountains and valley of his arms, over his shoulders, and then up his neck. Thick like a horse but cut like a marathon runner, he was the strongest man I’d ever laid eyes on. There had never been a man in my life who looked anything like him, even the best ones. He was a different cut of premium meat, composed of a substance harder than steel.
I couldn’t look away because I was both intimidated and mesmerized.
He didn’t reach for his drink. His eyes were reserved for me, like I was the one half naked. After a few minutes of the fire burning in the hearth, of the rising intensity of his presence, he spoke. “Let me take you to bed, chérie.”
I shifted my gaze away and forced myself to stop staring.
He grabbed his glass and took a drink.
The more time I spent with him, the less I viewed him as the boss, the man in charge of this hellhole. He became someone else entirely. Now he was this sexy stranger I should stay away from, but his magnetism continued to draw me in, deeper and deeper, into an invisible black hole from which there was no escape. Even if I could run out the door and hide in the wilderness, his pull would still reach me, because it was innate. His branding iron had seared me, and that mark would be implanted in my skin forever. Without touching me, he had felt me everywhere. Without sharing a kiss, he had tasted me everywhere. His fingertips were deep under my skin, wrapped around my bones. “Let my sister go, and I will.” His desire was the only leverage I had. It was a sacrifice I’d make for her, especially since it didn’t feel like that much of a sacrifice.
“I will say this once more and never repeat it. I don’t negotiate. This—” his eyes burned into me further “—is irrelevant to the world outside this cabin. My rules are not broken. Your sister is stuck here forever. There is nothing you can do to negotiate her freedom. You should take my offer and save yourself.”
I looked at him again, feeling powerless once more. He gave me that power, but then he also took it away. “Why would I want to bed the man who’s keeping my sister captive?”
