Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 103712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Now, he was here.
“Touch me.” The words escaped before she could stop them.
His hand dropped immediately. “That wasn’t begging.”
Frustration and need tangled in her chest. He stood over her like carved stone, everything she wanted just out of reach. The blankets slipped lower when she arched toward him, and his eyes tracked the movement with laser focus, but still, he didn’t move.
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth.” His voice had gone deadly soft. “Tell me what you thought about in that tub. Tell me what made you say my name.”
Heat flooded her cheeks. “You already know.”
“Say it.”
She pressed her thighs together, trying to ease the ache building between them. He noticed, of course, his eyes darkening, and his hands clenching into fists.
“I thought about your hands.” The admission scraped her throat raw. “Your scars. How they felt on my neck. How they might feel in… other places.”
“Continue.”
“Your mouth.” Her voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “How it sounds when you roll your Rs and how it might sound to hear you say my name.”
“Marigold…” he said, with deliberate slowness, letting the R roll over the G into the long, lulling L.
Her eyes rolled shut. It was better than she’d imagined.
“You like when I say your name?”
“Yes.”
He made a sound low in his chest, not quite growl, not quite groan. “Keep talking. Tell me more.”
She stared through her lashes at him. “I thought about...” She swallowed hard. “I wondered if you’d be rough, or deliberately gentle. If you’d take your time or devour me whole.”
“Which did you decide?”
“Both.” She sensed a side to him very few saw. She believed he’d once been gentle, but life had made him hard.
“Which do you want?”
“Do I have to choose?”
His brows lifted. “You want me rough?”
“I want you honest. I want the real you, or nothing at all.”
He moved then, faster than she could track, lunging over her, still not touching but close enough that his breath ghosted over her lips.
“Beg me.” His voice commanded obedience. “Beg me to touch you, and I’ll end this misery. I’ll ruin you so thoroughly that you’ll never try to wash me off again.”
“I…” His words settled over like a chill. But then she frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I saw you, in the shower, scrubbing your skin. You thought you could wash me away, but you can’t get rid of me that easily, Lisichka. I’m in here.” He pressed a finger to her forehead.
“That’s not what I was doing.”
“I watched you.”
“But I wasn’t…” She looked away. Why was she telling him this? “Never mind.”
He caught her chin and forced her to meet his stare. “What then?”
Her lips pressed tight. “Ash. We were together earlier today, and he…”
Understanding dawned and his expression hardened. He drew back, now standing at his full height. “I see.”
“You’re upset.”
“No.”
“You are.”
“You belong to all of us.”
That might be what they agreed, but he was still pissed. Hunter was more territorial than the others. “I did it for you. You said you didn’t want me after them, that I should be…” She recalled how much she needed to get clean when she returned to her room. “I felt filthy.”
“You regret being with Ash?”
“No, but I wanted to be fresh. For you.”
His nostrils flared as he studied her face. “For me?”
She nodded. Pride warred with need, but need was winning. “I don’t know why. You’re not even nice to me.”
“I’m not easy like my brothers.”
“None of you are easy. But I’m trying, Hunter. Truly, I am.”
He stepped closer. “That is why you want to speak Russian.”
“I’ll never speak it like you, but I’d like to understand it better if I’m staying here.”
“You honestly plan to stay?”
“You’ve left me little choice.”
“There’s always a choice, Lisichka.”
“Well, I prefer this prison over the one my family chose.”
“Not a prison. A fortress. It’s a privilege to be our guest.”
“I believe you. But not if you want to hurt and punish me.”
“You’re braver than you realize.”
Her lashes lowered.
“Marigold.” He delicately traced a finger over her cheek.
For the first time, she truly felt the loss of herself in the mix of surrendering her family and past. “When this is over, that might not be my name.”
“But it is your name. Don’t let them take it from you when they’ve already stolen so much.”
“How did you…?”
“Ash.”
She looked down, embarrassed. “I’m not crazy.”
“No one would blame you if you were, after what they put you through.”
“You say that now—”
“I mean what I say. Today, tomorrow, a year from now. We don’t expect perfection, but we do expect you to be truthful. That’s what it means to be ours.”
She couldn’t take any more of this man. “Please.” The word came out broken.
“Please what?” He leaned closer, lips nearly brushing hers. “What do you need?”
“Touch me.” She said, stronger this time. “I need you to touch me.” She wanted him to make her irrevocably a part of this place so she could start her life over.