Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 46803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
“You like pain, don’t you.”
It’s not really a question.
“What?! No!” I deny the accusation hotly, even as my cheeks flush with embarrassment.
I’m starting to be able to breathe properly now. I thought I was getting myself under control, but now his words are sending me spinning again. The truth is, I do like pain. Sometimes, in some ways.
Even now, I’m starting to like the feelings that are beginning to seep through me. Now that I’m no longer actively being hurt, I’m left with the remnants of the collar’s effects. There is a low, hot pulse running through my body and flashing across my cheeks. My muscles twitch a little, acclimating to the reality that nothing is there, and that the impulse that made them react as if there was is gone.
I’m left with heat and humiliation. I’m left with tingles and excitement. I’m left with shame and more than a little sexual charge. In all my squirming, my hips are grinding, my thighs are squeezing together, my nipples are hard, and my breath comes in short little gasps. I do like pain. And now that it has stopped… I do like that pain I just experienced.
There’s a part of me that wants to jump out the door again. I kind of want to feel that hot flashing sensation again. I could sneak out the door just a little, get a little hit, then come back in, and then I could…
The alien crouches down and reaches out, capturing my chin with his big clawed fingers, and directing my attention to his bright blue gaze.
He is so much larger than I am, and even in this crouched position, he looms over me all scales and fangs and power. I feel fresh thrills running through me. I want to fight him. Not like men fight. I don’t want to punch or hit. I don’t even want to bite. I want to resist. I want to keep him from taking what he seems to think is his. I want him to feel the frustration of being unable to subdue me, even though I am smaller and weaker and human and female.
“What is your name?”
“Stella,” I say for the second time, immediately wishing that I lied. I don’t think he needs to know my real name. That gives him a little extra sliver of power over me. Fuck.
“My name is Kahn,” he says. “And I am your trainer. I have trained many humans before you. I know how to break resistance. I know how to punish disobedience.” He leans down and pulls my chin closer to him at the same time. “And I know when a girl likes pain.”
My blush makes my face feel as hot as my ass did when his collar was working its twisted alien magic on me. He sees me. I don’t know how, because nobody I have ever known has ever really seen me and it seems very strange that an alien I only just fucking met would know anything about me.
“What are you? A mind reader?”
“Yes,” he says. “Our entire species is able to read minds. Not human ones, however. Your thought processes are too simple. Too animal. To read a human’s mind, all you need to do is watch their bodies. Yours is betraying you with every breath you take.”
“Whatever,” I say.
I hate how lame that word feels. It’s supposed to indicate how little I care, but it sounds weak and as though I care very deeply.
“Are you paying attention to me, human?”
“Why? You needy?”
I’m being rude, and that’s because I don’t want him to think for a single fucking second that I care if he hurts me. I don’t want him to think pain will stop me. Yeah, I like it sometimes. I’m a little bit of a freak that way, but everyone has their limits. This collar dropped me. It can stop me. I refuse to openly admit that, though. The second you let anything male think they can hurt you and get what they want, they never stop hurting you. You have to make them think you’re impervious to pain.
This alien might be big and mean and cruel. He might think he’s better than me. But I’m smarter than him. I’d put money on that. Even if he is a fucking mind reader.
He makes a snarling sound of annoyance.
“Let me go. Don’t waste my fucking time or yours. Because I’m telling you, big guy. I’ve beaten bigger, smarter, meaner things than you.”
“I am an alien of the likes most of your species has never seen.”
He is big, that’s true. And yes, he has tusks and fangs. And yes, he has the bluest eyes of all time, and when he looks at me it feels like I’m being regarded by a deep and intense iceberg of a man — because for some reason I keep thinking of him as a man no matter how alien he is. His hair is thick and blue, swept to the side in a way that makes him look restrained and refined.