Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
She raised an eyebrow. “You’ll expect to have sex. That’s what this conversation is really about, isn’t it?”
“That’s part of it, but mainly it’s so you know what to expect. I don’t want you to go in blind. And yeah, we’ll be fucking. Just the thought gets me damned hard.”
“Seriously? I think we’ve established you’re always hard.”
“Lucky you.”
Her smile broke out. “That’s true enough.” The smile faded. “But I honestly don’t know about this party situation, Keys. I’m not comfortable with the idea of having sex with people staring at us.”
“I don’t share, Lyric. I think I made that clear. I also made it clear I’ll take care of you. You’ll have to trust that I will.”
“That’s a lot of trust.” She ate a few more bites. “These women, are they going to throw themselves at you? Are they going to be in my face, making it plain they were with you?”
“For fuck’s sake, Wildfire.” He tried not to explode. She liked to bring up stupid arguments that drove him insane when the subject was important. Otherwise, truthfully, he found the habit cute. “How would I know what a bunch of bitches will do? You’re going to be glued to my side. I think we can make it abundantly clear I’m with you and no one else.”
He took a deep breath and let it out. He wasn’t a man who talked things out endlessly. He told his woman what was going to happen and expected her to comply. This endless return to his past, something he couldn’t change, was annoying, mostly because he felt guilty and he shouldn’t have to. He hadn’t been with her, so it shouldn’t matter what he’d done.
“You’re doing it again,” she announced, giving him that superior, snippy, haughty tone he loved. Bog, but he loved her attitude.
Deliberately, he heaved another long-suffering sigh. “I’ll bite, although I know I shouldn’t. What am I doing?”
“You’re making this about you. It isn’t about you and your slutty, man-whore ways. I was around you for months and watched you practically petting your cock right in front of the world. Do you think I didn’t know what I was getting into when I agreed to an exclusive relationship with you? I knew you wouldn’t be the one with the doubts about me. I would have those doubts about you.”
Keys didn’t like it when she was making sense. Especially when it was imperative he get his way.
“As we both know, I have problems. Low self-esteem is one of them. It doesn’t go away because you tell it to. So when I don’t want to face other women who have the body you always preferred in the past, it isn’t about you, it’s about me.”
As always, she told him the strict truth, even when she found it painful. And she did find it painful being so honest with him. That was Lyric. She put herself out there, made herself vulnerable. She gave him herself. But not all. He was greedy. He wanted all of her.
“When I wanted to tie your hands above your head, you said no. Why?” They had done other things, things he thought would be much scarier to her. Since that moment, he pinned her wrists often, holding her still while he took her. She didn’t fight or complain—if anything, she got off on it. But tying her hands had been a hard no.
“I said we could revisit it.”
He heard the wariness in her voice. Lyric loved sex almost as much as he did. She was very adventurous. She focused wholly on Keys and followed his instructions, only hesitating briefly. He knew she didn’t like cuffs. Her hands had been tied behind her when she’d been put in the coffin. The experience had been a terrible one. His first thought had been that tying her hands was a trigger because of that. Now he was certain it was something altogether different.
“Babe, you’re allowed to say no to anything I’m introducing to you. There are a thousand ways to have fun. I’m just trying to understand why that particular kink might be disturbing to you. It seems mild compared to other things we’ve done.” He chose each word carefully, making certain his tone was casual. Conversational.
She pushed her plate away. “Declan and his horrible friend stripped off my clothes and tied my hands above my head. I felt…” She broke off. “I never want to feel like that again.”
Keys shut down all expression. Code was working on finding out where Declan was hiding. Or rather, where he felt safe. Declan had money, and he surrounded himself with security. He lived in a high-rise penthouse, owned the building, and those sharing the building worked for him.
“Did Declan call this Russian by name?”
She sent him a wary look from under her long lashes. “Yes. It was Yaman Kuzmin. Mostly, Declan called him Kuzmin. He had dead eyes. He didn’t mind in the least what Declan wanted him to do to me.”