Page 14

I wake up early, while it is still dark outside, and to my horror, I find that I am lying wrapped in Leon’s arms again. He is lying on his back, one arm behind his head and the other wrapped around me. I am snuggled up against his chest.

I must have rolled against him in my sleep. Immediately my cheeks flush bright pink with heat, and as quickly and gently as possible, I roll off him back onto my side of the bed and bury my face in the pillow, trying to quiet my breathing.

He doesn’t stir awake, which is a huge relief.

I do my best to go back to sleep because it’s still so early, but my head is too full of questions and thoughts I shouldn’t be thinking.

His body is too close to me. His scent is too close to me. He is just altogether too close to me, and it’s clouding my judgment.

Ever since talking to Chiara yesterday and realizing that Leon hasn’t actually tortured me at all, I can’t figure out what I’m doing here. I can’t figure out what he wants from me.

Now today, we are supposed to go shopping and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why he would want to take me shopping.

Finally, I give up trying to get any more sleep and quietly climb out of bed to get ready for the day.

I shower, get dressed and head down to the kitchen to make coffee.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, I note that it’s around the time Leon usually gets up, so without giving it too much thought, I make him a cup of coffee as well.

I pick up his coffee and turn towards the kitchen door to carry it upstairs to the bedroom. I’ll come back down to have mine in the library, I think.

But when I turn, Leon is right there, topless in grey sweatpants. My eyes trace over his sculpted torso, admiring every inch of him, and suddenly I feel incredibly embarrassed that I made him coffee. He glances at the mug in my hand then looks around me, noting the second mug on the counter.

“Needing an extra boost of caffeine this morning?” he asks curiously.

“Um.” Shit . I feel like a fool.

“Um?”

“This is yours,” I finally admit, putting it on the counter near him.

“Mine? You made me coffee?” He tilts his head in disbelief as his eyes narrow down at me.

“Yes.” I shrug, trying to act normal.

“Were you going to bring it to me in bed?”

Fuck . “Yes,” I sigh.

He is grinning, and it’s annoying the hell out of me, because when he grins, he looks so freaking sexy.

“Anyways, I’m going to have mine in the library. Enjoy yours,” I mutter quickly, wanting nothing more than to escape this awkward situation. I step around him and he watches me as I walk out.

“Sasha,” his voice calls me back.

“Yes?” I ask abruptly.

“You forgot your coffee.” He gestures with his chin towards where I left my own coffee standing on the kitchen counter. My cheeks flush with heat and I rush over to pick it up. Without a word, I hurry past him and disappear as fast I can.

I stay hiding in the library until Penny comes to call me.

“Sasha, Leon is waiting downstairs for you. He says he’s ready to go.”

So he is still taking me shopping.

“Thank you, Penny.” I stand up, putting the book I was staring at and not actually reading down on the small coffee table.

I head straight downstairs and find Leon waiting at the front door, holding it open for me. We walk out to the car in silence, and he holds the car door open for me.

Once I am seated, he leans over me to clip my seatbelt in. I bite my lip as his scent washes over me, and I have to turn my head away to avoid my face brushing against his.

Then he climbs into the car and starts the engine, pulling out of the driveway and heading into town.

We drive in silence for a while before I realize we are not headed to the mall in town.

“Where are we going?” I ask nervously. Maybe this was all some kind of manipulation.

“To the mall.”

“No we aren’t. The mall isn’t this way.”

“We are going to one outside the city. It’s just as nice. I don’t want to risk anyone your father knows seeing me taking you shopping.”

“What difference does that make?” I ask, confused.

“I’m supposed to be torturing you. I want him to continue to think I am torturing you in private. He can’t know I am taking you out shopping,” he says, annoyed.

“So everything is still about my father?” I ask a little too abruptly.

“What the fuck else would it be about?” he snaps back at me.

I bite my lip, knowing it’s never a good idea to push a man when he’s angry. Images of my father flash through my mind.

I shrink back into the seat feeling hurt and upset. I somehow, between yesterday and today, managed to convince myself that Leon was taking me shopping because he liked me, maybe—I don’t know. I don’t know what I was thinking.

But at the end of the day, everything is always just about his revenge plot against my father. This isn’t about me. He doesn’t give a shit about me. All he cares about is using me to get to my father.

I’m probably just some form of amusement for him in the meantime.

I bite back a sigh as my thoughts churn.

Fine.

He’s obviously paying. And he suggested this shopping trip. So I can have my own fun, and I know exactly how I’ll make this outing as annoying as possible for him.

We pull up outside a mall I haven’t been to because it’s too far outside of where my father would ever allow me to go.

We walk inside, and straight away, I enter the first shop I see. A shoe shop.

Leon follows me.

I start picking up shoes. Shoes I don’t need. High heels, sneakers, boots. I don’t even try them on. I just carry them to the counter and wait for him to pay.

He doesn’t say a word, just hands the woman his card and tells her to keep the parcels behind the counter for his guy to collect.

In the next shop, I start looking at the most expensive dresses I can find. I choose more than I can carry and go the counter, and again, wait for him to pay.

Again, he doesn’t complain. I bite my lip. I want him to be annoyed at the amount I am spending, but he isn’t even flinching.

“Aren’t you going to try anything on?” he asks casually.

“It’ll take longer. What do you care?”

“I don’t. I was just asking. Isn’t that how people normally shop?”

“Hmph,” I huff, marching towards the next shop.

Fine, if the amount of money I’m spending isn’t going to bother him, I have another idea in mind. I know men want their women to dress conservatively and be respectful, so I’ll purposefully go against that.

That is sure to piss him off.

He wants to parade me around in front of his allies at parties, but how would he like it if I looked too provocative?

I walk past a few shops, Leon silently following me, until I find a shop geared towards clubbing. I start collecting really short dresses—glittery, high slits, low scooping fronts and backs that dip almost to my ass.

This time I’m going to try them on, because he’s going to have to wait and watch.

He throws me a glance when I tell him I’m going to the changing room and he should wait on the sofa. “Now you suddenly want to try them on?”

“Well, isn’t it what you wanted? I wouldn’t want to go against what you want,” I say sarcastically.

He sits down, his thick legs spread open, his arm draped over the back of the sofa. He looks totally at ease.

Well, let’s see how long that lasts when he sees what his wife is going to be wearing.

The first dress I slip into is so tight I have to hold my breath just to get the zipper up. The neckline plunges all the way down to my belly button, and the hem barely covers my ass cheeks.

As casually as possible, I walk out of the changing room to look at myself in the long mirrors near the sofa.

I select a pair of killer black stilettos and bend down a little too far to slip my feet into them. I hear Leon clearing his throat loudly, and when I glance in the mirror, I can see him shifting his position on the couch. Good. I hope he’s not happy about this.

I stand up and spin slowly in front of the mirror, pretending to look at myself, but my eyes are on him.

Then I march back into the changing rooms and come out in a dress with a ridiculously low cutback. The top of my ass is visible, almost as much as the cheeks, which are falling out of the short style.

I parade around again.

Leon is shifting in his seat. I grin, happy this is working.

He looks—

Except he doesn’t look horrified at all.

In fact…I watch him as his eyes darken and his bites his lower lip. His hand drifts over his crotch, readjusting himself.

What the hell? He is enjoying this.

I hurry back into the dressing room.

That was not my plan.

However, my plan was to make him uncomfortable, and I guess I’m just going about that in a different way.

The next dress I choose has cut-outs over my ribs and back. It’s revealing but still incredibly sexy. I pair it with white stilettos and walk confidently into the waiting area where Leon is sitting.

His eyes are on me, and I can see exactly what he’s thinking.

I glance down at the buckle of my one high heel that I purposefully forgot to do up and slowly bend down with my back to him, clipping the buckle into place, knowing he can see everything.

When I stand up and do my usual slow spin in front of the mirror, I can see his cock is hard and pressing again his pants.

He leans forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands knotted in front of him.

He is struggling.

He is fighting desire, and I absolutely love seeing him so uncomfortable.

Slowly I walk towards him, and he looks up at me, the muscles of his jaw are feathering. I can see his forearms flexing and relaxing in agitation.

“What do you think of this one?” I ask as seductively as I can.

He lets his eyes trail up and down my body, taking in every inch of me.

The problem is that as much as I am torturing Leon, I am also torturing myself. It’s turning me on seeing him so attracted to me.

But I have to let him know that right now, I am the one in control. I am the one making the rules in this moment.

I step even closer, my legs brushing against his. He leans back against the sofa, unable to hide his rock-hard cock and how it’s stretching the seams of his pants.

“Just to be clear,” I say in a dark whisper. “I know how to torture, too. And before anyone ever tortures me again, I will make sure that I torture you in ways you were not expecting.” I glance down at his cock and smirk.

He clears his throat and glares at me with eyes so blue they might freeze me to death.

Then I turn around and walk back towards the dressing room, swaying my hips and flicking my hair ever so slightly.

I grin as I step into the booth, but then get the fright of my life when I realize Leon is right behind me.

He grabs the top of the door before I close it and pulls it open. He steps inside and locks it behind himself.

The look in his eyes is purely animalistic.

I’ve pushed him too far.

He grabs me around the waist and slams me up against the wall of the changing room, grabbing the dress and pulling it up.

His lips crash into mine and I feel like I should push him away or shout or try and stop him, but I can’t. My body has gone wild. His mouth moves against mine and all I can think is how incredible his body feels pushing me against the wall.

My pussy is throbbing with desire.

He grabs a handful of my hair and pulls my head back, growling against my ear. “I might let you think you are in control for a minute, but, little flower, you don’t stand a chance against me.”

As he speaks, he is pulling his pants open and freeing his cock, which springs out, massive and throbbing, standing erect. I gasp when my eyes fall on it. The thick veins that run along his shaft are pulsing.

He kisses me again, but now I can feel his cock pressing against me and I lift my arms to wrap them around his neck and pull myself closer to him.

This is not what I planned. I want to be in control. I have to find a way to stay in control.

He grabs my wrist and pins it behind my back. Then he grabs my hips and spins me around, bending me forward over the bench. I am not in control.

His fingers slip beneath my panties, and he rips them off without any effort at all.

I cry out in shock and his hand clamps over my mouth.

His fingers dip inside me and I feel myself rocking back against his hand.

“You’re fucking dripping,” he snarls. Then his fingers are gone and I’m dying inside, desperate to relieve this intense lust I feel.