Page 194 of Captive Ruin

“I do. I don’t mind the chase.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Be serious, Van Wyk.”

He sets down his own silverware and fixes me with those intense eyes. “Call me Lukas.”

I mean… I suppose I should, really. We’ve come this far. “Be serious, Lukas.”

“That’s nice,” he says softly. “I like hearing my name on your lips. I’ll like it even more when you’re screaming it.”

I twitch in my chair, trying not to show how much that affects me, but his words cause a kaleidoscope of imagery through my mind. Him pinning me down. His cock inside me. His hand spanking me. Those cuffs of his. My nipples tighten and heat pools in my core, spreading throughout me with a flush he can’t help but notice.

Why am I responding so hard? Is it the intimacy of our dinner? Or because it’s been so long since he did any of those things?

I’ve been expecting him to, but he hasn’t, and I’m not sure why.

Has he been waiting for me to ask? To go to him? I’m not ready to do that. I’m not sure I ever will be.

“Answer the question,” I say, my voice husky.

“I did,” he says nonchalantly, then turns serious. “I’ll chase you, if that’s the game you want to play. I am obsessed with you. I love you. You can run if you want, but I will find you wherever you go. I will bring you back, I will pin you down, I will remind you again and again that you’re mine, in whatever ways I need to. With my tongue, with my cock, or by filling your room with fresh flowers every day for a year.” He leans forward, resting one elbow on the side of the table. “I’ve told you before, Little Stray: there is no escape. Not just from me, but from us. You react to me as much as I do to you. Your mind might be in denial; your body and heart are not.”

Okay, fuck. Blood pounding in my ears. Panties soaked. Breath coming too fast and shallow.

And my mind isn’t in denial as much as he thinks. It should be, damn it, but it isn’t.

I shouldn’t find this man so devilishly compelling, but I do. Hell, I did from the first moment I set eyes on him. And though I don’t approve of how he claimed me, I can’t deny I liked it.

Said no. Didn’t want it. Wouldn’t ask for it again. But enjoyed it? In hindsight, yes. Because hot. A fantasy that should’ve stayed that way, too intense to be anything more.

Yet more is where we went, and all that’s happened since.

But it doesn’t change the facts. “So I’m still your prisoner.”

“As much as I am yours,” he replies in perfect sincerity. “You call yourself my captive, but my heart is in a cage of your making.” He looks down at the table. “I’m sorry that you were here for so long alone, unable to leave. I hated being away from you. It was…” He takes a breath and lets it out slowly. “I was going to say necessary. It wasn’t. I should’ve brought you with me.”

He sounds so genuine it’s difficult not to feel for him.

“Was that an option?”

He goes still. “Amelia… I’m not a good man. Some of the things I’ve done…”

So he was out killing people. It’s the confirmation of what I always suspected. Yet, I understand why, and more than that… I accept it.

“The Volkovs threatened us both.”

His head comes back up. “Exactly,” he says fiercely. “Now you can safely go where you want, do what you want. But… you’ll always be mine, my wife. And I’ll always be yours.”

I bite my lip, thinking. I’m not fully ready to forgive him, but I’m also not averse to him. If he doesn’t revert to his dark, controlling ways… or, at least, not all the time. I wouldn’t mind it occasionally.

“It… will take time,” I say carefully.

“We have time. Which reminds me.” His dimples come out as he grins. “We had a wager.”

Okay, that’s dinner done. “I’m clearing up, I get it.”

“No, the other one. I’m challenging you to a moonlight swim. You remember the stakes we agreed?”

Loser goes down on the winner. That’s what he said. I’m not sure I ever agreed.