CHAPTER 103: ONE HUNDRED & THREE

I don’t even realize that I’m practically pressed against the door now, lips parted, knees weak. Until he pauses, wiping the sweat off his cheek with the back of his hand, and his gaze flicks to where I lean against the door.

My heartbeat slows painfully and I startle, taking a step back as he tilts his head, studying me.

It happens in a couple of seconds, but I could’ve sworn it lasted for longer. His eyes returns to the punching bag, his attacks resuming. "We’re going to have to work on that stare, Val."

"Thought you didn’t have a problem with being watched," I say and cringe at the high-pitched tone.

"I don’t," he murmurs. "But it’s different when you’ve been eye-fucking me all week."

My blood heats. Dangerous territory, Valka. "Well then, maybe you should consider giving me what I want."

I’d sworn after he rejected my very subtle advances that night that I’d rather stick my rump through a hearth than make the first move ever again. But I know what this is. This isn’t about breaking me anymore. It’s about him being right. It’s about making me plead to be touched. And while my pride is over moon, this push and pull is driving me nuts.

I push back hard, slamming the door shut behind me, cutting off the sounds from the world outside.

Lucien’s head snaps up and he pulls away from the bag, watching me reach up into my hair and free my braids. "Valka," he warns.

But I’m tired, done, with this. Maybe it’s the bond. Maybe this is one big mistake, letting my body think for me for once, but it is one I’m willing to make. I want more than the shy touches and the promises of more on date that never comes. I want this restlessness brewing under my skin gone.

I reach up to the collar of my leather and work the buttons. "Come here."

His jaw slackens. And he walks. I see it the moment he shakes off my thrall, but decides to walk to me anyway, his tightened movements switching into a predatory prowl. He looks mad.

Lucien’s hand catches my fingers, pinning them to the sides as I start to pull down my pants. "I said you could use me as a test subject. I didn’t say you could compel me without my consent."

My eyes drop to his groin, to his tenting pants. "That seems consent enough."

A blink and I’m sprawled against the weapons rack, my rump digging into the ridge of the hard wood. Lucien’s fingers burn through the leather, into my flesh. "You have no idea what the hell you’re doing."

I lean in, pressing my mouth to the corner of his. He jerks his head back, muscles pulled tight, and his nostrils flare when I whisper, "I do. You’re the one who’s being a coward. You build me up with your words and then watch me sink. Makes me wonder how any woman ever gets off around you when all you do is *talk, talk, talk.*"

His silence is nothing but an extension of his disdain as the warmth of his body creeps against my chest. "This is about getting you off? Is that all I am to you? A bloody tool to be used to please you?"

Mimicking that arrogant cock to his head, I shrug, "What else are you good for?"

Bad. A very terrible thing to say to Lucien, and I might not have uttered it, if I didn’t know he wanted me just as much as I did him.

"Valka..." His voice emerges as little more than a whisper, almost like a caress to my name. "You wicked woman. To think I wanted it to be special. And sweet."

He brings his mouth close to mine, close enough to kiss me, but every time I try to breach the distance, he pulls back. And it isn’t until something sharp and cold bites into my wrists that I notice what he’s doing, the metal locking my wrists behind me.

I jerk forward, only to the pulled back by harsh chains. I gasp, furious. "I don’t appreciate being restrained like an animal."

He ignores me completely, stripping my pants down, and despite myself, I raise my hips for him. And when I’m completely naked in front of him, he grabs me off the rack by a single arm around my waist and tugs me up.

Before pushing over the fine, thin edge of the sturdy swords stand. A grunt escapes me as he yanks on the chain around my wrists roughly, hooking it to something behind me.

"Lucien," I say, tugging on the the binds as the cool air kisses my ass. I try looking for him, but I’m restrained so tightly, I can move. My knees press against the cool ledge and my hair forms a curtain in front of my face and I begin to regret my choices when he walks around me and crouches, elbows on his knees. "I don’t like this very much. Put me down."

A dark and handsome smile blooms on his lips as he watches sweat form on my skin and form droplets on the floor. And then, he shoves something into my mouth.

I scream into the gag angrily, shaking hard enough to rattle the stand, but it doesn’t budge. And all I do, I hurt myself.

The air chokes out of me when I feel his fingers on my hips, gripping softly as something cool teases the apex of my thighs. My thighs jerk, insides clenching tight as that round object pierces through my folds and pushes right into me.

My moan eclipses the room, even through the gag in my mouth. And then, he settles low in front of me again, eyes fixed on my breasts. "How I fucking love these," he says, and I watch with horror and fascination as I note the things in his hands.

Oh my god, what is that?

He catches my nipple between his fingers and pinches until it pebbles and my eyes widen when he lifts one of those torture equipments and clamps them around my aching bud.

The reaction is instant. It is freezing cold and so tight, all the blood gathers to that single point and pain lances. He repeats the same action to my other nipple and I clench tight around the thing stretching my inner walls. Sweat rolls down my skin as I try to adjust, to clamp my thighs together or something, but it only worsens, heat curling low in my stomach.

Lucien’s footsteps retreat then. And for a while, I don’t hear or feel him.

Would you fucking believe the bastard abandons me right there, bent over the wood with my ass arched in the air, butt naked?