my feet to allow him further access. He tangles his fingers through my hair and yanks, a mixture of pleasure and pain that has me yearning for more of whatever this is.
He spins me around so that my back is crushed against his chest. “Happy birthday, Nevie,” he whispers. He tugs at my hair, turning my head toward him.
He presses a quick kiss to the corner of my now swollen lips.
And then a rag over my nose and mouth.
4
Neve
Everything in my body hurts. My muscles ache as if I just took an advanced yoga class when I’ve never even started with the beginner’s course.
Darkness spins around me. I wrap the bedlinens in my fist and clench my eyes shut until the spinning stops and I’m slowly able to open my eyes once more.
I release the comforter from my grip only to realize it’s not mine. My comforter is a feather duvet. This is a super soft and probably expensive cotton.
Where am I?
“I’ve always liked watching you sleep.” A voice rings out in the dark.
I sit up only to smack the top of my head against the headboard. “Shit,” I groan, rubbing the knot at the back of my skull.
Remembering there’s someone else in the room, I try to tuck my legs up to create as much space between me and whoever it is lurking in the dark, but I can’t. My legs are tied at the ankles.
And I’m naked.
“Why am I naked?” I ask into the dark, searching my memory.
“For my viewing pleasure, of course,” echoes the same deep voice.
Chase.
Fear spikes within my rapidly-beating heart. “Why am I here? Why am I tied to the bed?”
“Tsk tsk, Nevie. I’m insulted. You mean you don’t remember last night?”
I search my pounding brain. Did I drink? No. Not even one. Never mind enough to end up choosing to be tied to the bed of a stranger.
It slowly comes to me. The fountain. The kiss.
I remember.
“Chase.”
He steps from the shadows as if I’ve just announced him to the stage. His shirt is untucked, and his dress pants have been replaced with grey sweats. “So, you do remember?” he asks with a wicked grin.
The hairs on my arms stand on end, and I’m both frightened and incredibly angry because fear isn’t all I feel. A racing wave of lust singes through my veins, infecting my every sense like a disease because that’s what this is. A disease. I’d have to be sick to want this man right now.
He pushes his hand through his messy mop of dark auburn hair.
I bite my bottom lip on instinct.
And want him I do.
I’m imagining those fingers wrapped around my hair. Tugging and pulling as he—no. This is a sickness I’m surely going to die of. I’m sure of it.
“What are you thinking, Nevie?” he asks, using a name I never gave him permission to use.
“My name is Neve,” I grate through my teeth.
His jaw tightens as he stalks toward the bed and leans over me, pressing my back into the mattress and my head firmly against the metal bar of the headboard. “Trust me. I know your name, but I’ll call you whatever I want. You’re in my bed, princess. You’re mine. Always have been.”
I turn my head to the side and notice a bandage on the crook of my elbow inside of my arm. “What’s this?” I ask.
“I needed some of your blood,” he says with a shrug. “So I took it.”
“So, you’re some sort of blood expert? A hobby phlebotomist? Or is draining someone’s blood a kink of yours?”
His eyes narrow on me, and a spike of fear surges up my spine. I know I’ve said the wrong thing and instantly regret it. “You know nothing about my kinks,” he says, his voice laced with warning. “You don’t even know anything about your own.”
He’s right, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s just admitted to taking some of my blood. I drop my eyes to my naked torso and lower my voice so as not to sound like I’m accusing the obviously guilty, but I have to know. “Were you trying to kill me?”
“Trust me,” he says, and reaching behind his body, he pulls out a long sharp dagger, using his fingers to toy with the sharp edge. “If I wanted to kill you, I think there are better and less arduous ways than a needle in your vein.” He grabs my chin and forces me to face him. “And I don’t try and kill