Page 113 of House of Cards

“Same reason we haven’t held hands or told each other our star signs,” I snap out.

She watches me with those gorgeous hazel eyes, fingering the neckline of her red silk robe, and then cracks up laughing.

This feels like a fever dream. Her tumble of messy brown hair, the way her eyes scrunch, the hand that shoots up to cover her mouth as she laughs.

Zoey. The perfect, beautiful mess who’s making an even bigger mess of my life. How can this woman not realize she’s a match to the gasoline inside my soul?

I slam my hand against the emergency stop, halting both the elevator—and Zoey’s laughter—in its tracks.

She gasps when I pin her against the elevator’s bronze wall. A sound that cuts off instantly when I close my fingers around her throat. She grabs my wrists, sinks her fingernails into my flesh.

I lean in, murmuring down to her. “Told you, kitten. The harder you fight, the tighter your leash.”

Panic flares in her eyes as I squeeze harder.

A gasp, then a choke, rattles out of her plump lips.

Lips I desperately,desperatelywant to kiss now that she’s planted the thought.

Fuck, who am I kidding? I’ve been wanting to kiss her since the first time she told me to fuck off.

I tip my head down, breathing over that tempting mouth of hers. I can still picture my cum streaked across her blushing skin. Can still feel her wetness coating my lips and tongue and chin?—

“You’ll have to squeeze harder if you want to shut me up,” she rasps.

A swell of frustration surges through me.

It’s so fucking strong, I’m overcome.

Again.

My fist slams into the metal wall beside her head, and Ifeelher body jolt with shock. I push away from the wall, hit the emergency stop again, and tug my clothes straight as I turn to face the door.

There’s a dent in the wall. She makes a point of looking at it, then at me.

“Was it something I said?”

“Enough, Zoey.”

My eyes track the shiver that tears through her, relishing every moment of her sudden fear.

Jesus, why am I so pissed off?

Because I’ve wanted to claim this woman the moment she ran from me, but I fight that need as hard as she fights me.

She’s my toy now. My responsibility.

Mine to kiss, mine to fuck.

Mine to break.

To discard.

…remember to dispose properly of your toy this time…

I lean in so I don’t have to look at her frightened eyes anymore.

But now her smell fills every breath I take.