Page 36 of Bound

The word hurts because he does not deny it.

He does not rescue me from the truth with pretty lies.

“You walked through it,” he says. “Then you became mine.”

The belt strokes over my heated skin again, softer now, almost tender. Another strike. I jolt, the sound leaving me raw.

He soothes it with his hand. “You became mine.”

Another. Heat flashes through me so sharply that my hands hurt from gripping the cushion so tightly.

“And not because I bought you. Not because they sent you.”

The belt lands again, lower, wickedly precise.

I cry out, and this time the sound turns into something dangerously close to relief.

“Because I chose you. And you chose me.”

His hand smooths over me.

Another strike.

“You chose to stand between my brother and a bullet.”

Another.

“You chose me when running would have been easier.”

Another.

My knees tremble. My skin burns. My heart feels cracked open and exposed.

The belt falls from his hand onto the floor.

The sound is final.

Lucian turns me around before I can gather myself, lifting me easily onto the edge of the cabinet. I gasp as the cool surface meets my heated skin, then again when his hands frame my face.

“Tell me. Now.” His eyes are wild now. “What are you?”

A tear spills over. He catches it with his thumb. “Yours. I’m yours.” The sob breaks out of me.

I hate it. I need it.

Lucian kneels between my thighs. His strong arm slides underneath my waist. He pulls me up and against him so we’re kneeling as one. He presses himself hard into my burning backside.

“Say you were not one night.” His hand slides into my hair. “Say it, Erin.”

“I was not just one night.”

“Again.”

“I was not just one night.”

His forehead presses against the top of my head.

He cups my face under my chin, turning my lips to his. “And what are you?”