Page 74 of Captive Ruin

“It’s a physical response,” I mutter. “Doesn’t mean anything.” I think. I hope.

“And an emotional one,” he replies. “That means something.”

Damn him. Is that true? I don’t even know.

Yet he must be right. My whole body is alive to him, there’s no denying it—even though I’ve been trying. How am I supposed to resist him with his hand around my neck and his words in my ear making me melt?

His fingers dip between my legs, and a whimper gets trapped in my throat. His touch brushes lightly over my labia, and it teases so good I’m not even sure why I’m trying to fight him. Would it be so bad to give in? It’s not like I have any pride left. He’s stripped me bare, in every sense.

“You know,” he murmurs, “I may have said it before, but you do have the most fantastic ass.”

“Yeah, that’s me,” I mutter through clenched teeth. “Just a physical characteristic.”

“Petulance doesn’t become you, Little Stray.”

“I wasn’t being—”

“It’s not just your ass.” He gives it another spank, driving the breath from me, the sound cracking through my bedroom and the heat radiating through my flesh. “Your breasts are divine. Your eyes flash fire. Your perfect pussy calls to me.”

I scowl against the mattress. Patronizing asshole. “You’re really listing all my best attributes now.”

He gives that sadistic chuckle. “No, I’m admiring your body. Your mind and your spirit I enjoyed from the first moment we met.”

“My spirit?” I echo in disbelief. “When you—” He spanks me again, cutting off my words, and I grit my teeth as the pain spreads over my buttock. I have to breathe several times before I can continue. “…When you tried so hard to crush it?”

“I did no such thing,” he replies. “When have I ever taken more from you than you could handle?”

His palm strokes over my ass with a gentle touch, and it’s damn distracting. I want to concentrate on his words, and he’s not making it easy. My hips lift of their own accord, chasing that soothing caress. I press them back down into the mattress, hoping he didn’t notice.

“Are you saying everything you’ve done was…”

His fingers dip between my legs again, and all my thoughts dissolve at his touch.

“…controlled?” he finishes for me.

“Bullshit,” I say, clenching my eyes shut in an attempt to resist pressing back against his hand. Damn this man, he’s so aggravatingly distracting. “How can you claim to know me so well? Especially on our first encounter?”

“The one where you walked uninvited into a gala, then strolled up to a man and blackmailed him?”

“…yeah.” But what did that tell him about me?

“Then called him impotent?”

Shit.

“I don’t quite recall—”

“And addressed the same slur to a man you’d never seen before, caught in proximity?”

“He put his hands on me!” I protest. “And you did nothing!”

“I wanted to see how you’d react. You didn’t disappoint.” He runs his fingers up along my bottom, delving between the crack of my ass. I hiss in a breath, twitching. It’s so difficult to focus while he’s touching me like this. “You say I don’t know you that well, but your reaction told me enough.”

“To take me onto the terrace and bend me over a table?”

That damn chuckle comes again, then he leans over me, mouth beside my ear. “You enjoyed it.”

“The hell I did!”