Page 51

“One,” I said.
Fuck, she marked so beautifully.
“I was going to give you five,” I murmured when she was silent, “But if you want to be stubborn, it will be ten.”
“Two,” she bit out as the bamboo cracked across her skin a second time, her breath slowing to an even rhythm.
She counted the next two as I crisscrossed them without a flicker of reaction as she sank into the moment.
“Where is your head right now, Sweets?” I asked, dealing the last welt across her arse, my gaze fixed on the beautiful lines, unable to deny myself the pleasure of seeing it. She took the bite of the bamboo silently, her body relaxing between each strike as her breathing slowed.
“It’s quiet.”
I smiled, stepping forward to run my hand over the hot, raised marks. “Is that what you were looking for?”
“Yes.” The word was barely more than a breath, and I rewarded her with a soft kiss on her shoulder.
“That’s my girl.” I squeezed the crossed marks on one thigh. “Now tell me why you are angry with me.”
“Because you are fucking infuriating.”
A smile tilted my lips as I kissed behind her ear.
“Is it because I’m letting you go?”
“Because you fucked me then discarded me, just like everyone else does. You looked at me like I meant something, but don’t want me.”
There it was.
Oh, my love. How incredibly wrong you are…
I ran my hand down her body as I stepped onto the spreader bar behind her, keeping it firm against the floor as my fingers slid into the mess between her legs. That got a reaction, and she whimpered as I ran a firm finger over her clit.
“At what point did I say that I don’t want you?” I asked against her neck.
“You told me never to come back,” she breathed, pushing her hips back into me and away from my assault on her clit. “Fuck.”
“Did I say I didn’t want you?” I pushed, rocking my hips forward into her arse and forcing her firmly against my touch.
“Same fucking thing,” she hissed, her thighs shaking as she squirmed against me.
“Don’t put words in my mouth. Did I say that, Octavia?”
“No!” she blurted, and I curled my fingers, sinking two into her.
“Does this feel like I don’t want you?” I snapped. I had dared to hope and convinced myself I was insane. She had no reason to want to stay…yet I had seen glimpses of something in the wayshe looked at me. But I would never be able to trust it because I had never given her the choice.
“Just because you want my body doesn’t mean you wantme,” she flung back. Her body clenched around my fingers as I curled them within her. “I let you mark me, so I had something of you to keep.” She gasped as I pressed the heel of my hand against her clit, not giving her a second of relief from the onslaught. Her legs strained against the bar, and I pressed down harder on it, forcing them to still. “I wanted something I can touch to remember your hands on me,” she said. “But they will heal and fade, and then you’ll be gone.”
I grappled with the wave of territorial anger that her words evoked in me. “You want something to keep?” I removed my hand, dripping with her arousal, and stepped around to face her, dragging the makeshift blindfold from her eyes.
She glared at me, panting. Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were shining with unshed tears.
“Answer me!”
“I want to keep you!”she yelled. “Andfuck youfor it! How dare you make me feel like this then tell me to fucking leave!”
I’d give her something to keep. Etched in her skin like she had crawled under mine the moment I met her. I snatched my tags, yanking until the chain snapped from around her neck as I stalked toward the kitchen and turned on the burner. The stovetop flames roared to life, and I placed the metal tag over it, her words running through my head on repeat.