Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 126485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 632(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
“I didn’t commit deceit.”
His eyes flashed with anger and he pushed to his feet and stalked toward me. The clanging of the chain on the concrete floor raised the little hairs on my neck. “What would you call it then? You worked with the police. You talked to them about me and my clan behind my back. That’s betrayal in my book.”
“They approached me. I didn’t go to them. They made me believe that you were responsible for Imogen’s disappearance, that you’d had slept with her before we met.”
“Jealous?” he sneered.
I had been a tad jealous but mainly sad and even a bit disgusted. I’d felt as if I was replaceable too. None of this mattered now.
“I never slept with your sister nor had I talked to her before I went looking for her on your behalf.”
I froze. He found her?
“I went to see her in Miami when I was meeting with Sergej. As expected, she was about to set sail with a rich Russian and didn’t give a fuck that you were looking for her.”
I swallowed hard. “You told her I was searching for her.”
“I did and that you were sick from worry, but she just didn’t care. She wanted to enjoy herself with her rich sponsor. I didn’t tell you because I thought it would only hurt you. I guess I was a stupid idiot.”
“I’m sorry. If I’d known, I would never have followed the police’s orders, but Desmond made it sound as if you had killed Imogen and that my family and I needed protection. They promised me protection.”
“I am the only protection you need!” he growled.
Not anymore. Now he was the danger. Could I make him forgive me? I made a mistake, a very stupid, grave mistake. “I didn’t know it back then. I never told them anything of importance.”
“Because you didn’t know anything. That’s why they made you hide those bugs.”
“I wouldn’t have told them even if I did. And I didn’t put the bug in the warehouse or in your office. I could have done it if I’d wanted to.”
Why hadn’t I? It would have been the logical choice. But I never even considered it. Maybe because deep down I’d never wanted Lorcan to go to jail?
Lorcan shook his head, his fingers tightening around the chain. He raised the baton and I flinched, expecting a hit. Instead, he ran the tip of the baton down the valley between my breasts, along my sternum, my belly button and then over my mound, briefly brushing my clit before dropping the baton. My lips had parted in astonishment, and to my utter shock … lust. Even hanging on chain, at my brutal husband’s mercy, my body longed for every drop of pleasure he could offer.
His eyes locked on mine. “I spent the last few hours thinking about what I should do with you, how to punish you for this betrayal. Death would be the logical choice.”
A heavy stone settled in the pit of my stomach. But fear of dying wasn’t the only thing I felt. What really surprised me was the sense of guilt that had overcome me when I saw how disappointed Lorcan was. And then a new worry hit me hard. Finn. “Please don’t hurt Finn. I beg you. He’s an innocent boy. He doesn’t deserve to suffer.”
“He’ll suffer either way. If you die, another one of his closest people will have left him.”
I swallowed hard. Oh God. Sweet Finn. He didn’t deserve any of this. “Please don’t hurt him.”
Lorcan shook his head with a disgusted look. “I know you don’t think much of me as proven by your readiness to believe I’d sleep with your sister and you, but I’m not that kind of monster. Finn is safe. I’ll pay for his flight back to Dublin where he can live with your mother again.”
My eyeballs burned from relief but also fear for myself. I’d never really thought about death, but now that it was so close, I knew I wasn’t ready to consider it.
“But then I realized I don’t want to lose you to death.” He picked up the baton and brought it up between my legs, pressing it firmly against my pussy. “Not yet and maybe not ever.” He ran the baton along my slit, causing my core to tighten and my body to warm from within, elevating some of the coldness I felt.
“I have to punish you. There’s no way around it,” he murmured, talking more to himself than to me as he watched the baton stroke my slit. He put the chain and baton down on the floor then carried a chair even closer but he didn’t sit down. Instead he moved so close his body’s warmth seemed to wrap me in a gentle cocoon.
He gripped the neckline of my dress and ripped it open until the piece of clothing came apart and fluttered to the floor by my naked feet.