Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
His gaze was cold as he stared down at me.
All signs of the personable young man, the happy, carefree child, were gone.
He was a man now, and every drunken instinct I had was sluggishly telling me to get away.
“Please let me go.”
Marksen pressed both my wrists together so he could hold them in one hand.
Then trailed his fingers down my arm to my shoulder and chest.
I thought he was going to cup my breasts, try to cop a feel. Instead, his hand went around my throat and squeezed.
It wasn’t hard enough to hurt or choke me.
It was just enough pressure to send me the message he could hurt me if he really wanted to.
That was the point. To show me my life was in his hands.
He tightened his grip just enough to make my breath hitch and my lips go numb.
“Say it.”
“No,” I said, narrowing my eyes to match his glare.
“Say it.” This time he tightened his grip and pressed me back into the car.
Fine.
“I’ll be your good girl.” I expected the words to taste vile on my tongue, but they didn’t.
“That’s right, you will,” he said as his thigh pressed against my core right before his lips slammed down on mine.
I didn’t know what to do.
It was too much all at once.
His kiss was brutal and demanding and my drunken body betrayed me. My mind screamed to turn my head and break away.
This was wrong, but my body was demanding more.
He tasted of aged bourbon, sweet and complex. His lips were soft, but his tongue was unforgiving as it demanded entrance.
I didn’t think.
My lips just opened to his intrusion as the rest of my body melted against him.
It had to be the champagne and the adrenalin mixing in my bloodstream and rushing to my head.
There was no other reason for me to want to kiss him back. No reason for my body to arch into his with that damn camera between us. No reason at all for my hips to grind my core against him.
Drunken stupidity was the only thing that explained my not only letting my attacker touch me, but my participating in it, my enjoyment of the way his touch heated my blood.
His hand was still squeezing around my throat and it made me want more. It made me want to feel what else his hands could do when I was completely at their mercy.
He broke away and scowled down at me. His lips slightly parted. “You are full of surprises, Ms. Manwarring.”
How dare he!
Shame burned my cheeks and chest, but I refused to look away from him, refused to let his actions humiliate me.
Not only was he abducting me, but he’d stolen my first real kiss and then turned my body against me. I refused to bear any of the embarrassment or guilt of his actions. He had waited for me to drink too much and then decided to take advantage.
“Get in the car, Olivia.”
My gaze shifted to the left then right.
The tree line was maybe fifty feet from me.
My muscles tensed as I prepared to move, but before I could even try, he pressed his thigh against me harder, opened the back door of the SUV, and crowded me inside.
I sat as far as I could from him.
Staring him down as I used the back of my hand to deliberately wipe away his kiss.
CHAPTER 5
MARKSEN
Poor little Olivia sulked against the door.
She wouldn’t even look at me since wiping my kiss from her lips.
Part of me wanted to grab her by her hair and make her accept my kiss again, maybe leave a few bite marks or even a couple of extra fingerprints on her body. Something she couldn’t so easily remove.
It was fine. I didn’t need her happy. I didn’t even really need her compliant, though that would have made this easier. Easy would have been nice, but when it came to dealing with the Manwarring stubbornness, I knew I was signing up for a challenge.
What I didn’t expect was to find her inner fire so alluring.
Something about her begged to be taken…ruined.
I wanted to wipe away the perfect porcelain exterior, the expensive makeup, designer clothes, and proper education. I wanted to take away everything that made her a princess, exposing the woman hidden underneath the bullshit.
It had never occurred to me to wonder what kind of woman Olivia was under all the pomp and circumstance of our shared social circle.
What kind of woman would she become when all of that was stripped away?
Was she a shy damsel in distress, or a warrior in her own right?
Was she actually a prim and proper lady to her core, or was she a wanton harlot desperate for a man?
I hoped it was the latter.
The way she had looked at that statue and the fire behind the kiss we shared definitely pointed in that direction.