Page 205 of The Enslaved Duet

Sherwood jerked, immediately bending to do up his pants in preparation to flee.

I stepped up behind him, quick and silent as a shadow, my knife in my hand around his torso and up against his jugular.

I could feel the pound of his pulse jar the blade.

“Hello, Sherwood,” I greeted lightly as he froze. “Remember me, the Golden Fox?”

I was surprised that he relaxed slightly, his voice a relieved murmur when he said, “Slave Davenport, how interesting to see you here.”

“I suppose it is for a man like you who believes himself to be invincible. Why would you think any one of your abused slaves would rise up to kick you in the balls like you deserve?”

“Is that what you plan to do, kick me in the balls?” he asked with a thread of amusement in his tone I wanted to cleave in two.

He didn’t take me seriously even then with a blade against his neck. He didn’t respect me or the threat I represented because of the simple fact that I was a woman, and therefore, I was nothing.

Anger coursed through me lava hot and just as corrosive.

“Metaphorically maybe,” I said through my teeth. “I was just going to cuff you and wait to watch the police take you away, but now I’m not so sure. Maybe I should show you the same thing you showed me years ago. A complete and utter lack of mercy.”

“Don’t take your training so hard, every slave must be broken. You cannot tell me you weren’t happy as slave to Thornton. It seemed you were very much in love with him,” he taunted.

I hadn’t known hatred had a taste, metallic and chemical like kerosene spilled over my tongue. My words ignited as they left my mouth, breathing fire. “It was the threat of love that made you order Knox to whip my back to shreds and then do the same to Alexander. It was the threat of love that made you reduce women to fucking animals in The Hunt, and it was the threat of love that is holding a knife against your throat now, Sherwood. You never stood a fucking chance.”

He moved them, bucking his head back against me to dislodge my hold. But he was too tall, the base of his head only crashed into my forehead, and though it hurt, it wasn’t enough to disable me. Instead, I used his off-balance momentum to curl one of my legs around one of his and press until he squawked in pain and folded to the ground. I pressed my knee hard into the middle of his back, my hand still around his throat so that he buckled farther, falling on his belly to the ground.

I wrenched his hands behind his back and took the cuffs out from where I’d hidden them between my thighs so that I could lock him up.

There was a scuffling in the hall, and strong voices crackled over the radios.

I ignored them to lean forward on Sherwood’s back and whisper in his ear. “How does it feel to be bested by a woman?”

He cursed at me, but I only laughed as I got up, leaving him on the floor as I stepped away and police swarmed the room.

“Hey, Sherwood? You never know, maybe someone will makeyoutheir slave in jail,” I taunted.

And fuck, did it feel good.

Much later, after the calamity had cleared and police interviews were conducted, after we’d shared a celebratory drink with Dante and Salvatore in a little bar in Brooklyn, Alexander and I had gone back to my apartment. It was vacant because Giselle had gone on a last-minute Christmas trip to Paris, and Alexander took full advantage. His mouth was on mine the moment we opened the door, my dress was unzipped down the front and my breasts were in his hand by the time we made it to the kitchen. He didn’t even take me to the bedroom.

Instead, he pushed me chest down over the cold marble island with my hands behind my back and my legs spread luridly so that the cool air of the apartment brushed over my sex.

“Stay,” he ordered, swatting my ass so hard I hissed.

The sharp sting melted into a pleasant ache as he moved away, walking around me to do something out of my sight. I kept my cheek pressed to the marble, unwilling to disobey him even to sneak a peek at what he could be collecting.

I knew whatever it was, even if it first brought pain, it would ultimately lead to a mind-bending orgasm.

My body was already primed with heady adrenaline from successfully taking down the Order in three separate international locations. The war wasn’t over by any means—there were still criminal trials to be had and evidence to be sorted through—but the greater threat was eliminated, and I was fucking ecstatic over it.

From the way Alexander had practically mauled me in the car and on our way into the apartment, I sensed he felt the same.

He returned to his place behind me and crouched down, his breath wafting over my wet pussy, his hands finding my ass and kneading hard into the flesh there.

“So fucking beautiful,” he said in his low, heavy Dominant voice. “So fuckingmine.”

I gasped as he rasped his tongue from the top of my cunt all the way up over my ass. It felt as though he’d pulled a zipper and wetness went pooling out over my cunt in its wake.

He played a thumb roughly in the new dampness and then moved away.