Grievous (Wanted Men #5) - Nancy Haviland Page 0,108

and see no one staring back at her.

“Stop for a minute and talk to me,” she begged as he brought her across the room. “I want to know you’re aware of what you’re doing.” Rather than try to pull away this time, she did the opposite. She turned into him and grabbed his face. “Look at me. See me, damn you! Can’t you hear what I’m telling you? Can’t you see how I feel about you?”

He looked into her eyes and she allowed him to push her back against the structure. She didn’t struggle anymore. She didn’t cry out. She wasn’t tense and thinking of a way to escape. She was breathing hard as she gave in and allowed him to lift her arms. As their gaze held, something deep in her body thrummed, pulsing to life.

“Stay with me,” she whispered as the first shackle bit into her wrist. “I won’t leave you again. I’m sorry, Lucian. I thought you deserted me.” Her other wrist was secured.

“My men prevented my brother’s murderer from dying last night so that I can torture him for the rest of eternity.”

She swallowed the bile that flowed into her throat and wondered how she could have fallen in love with such an uncivilized kook. “I hope that helps you find some closure.” Shit. That was a stupid thing to say. She went on. “Markus would be devastated if he knew what his death was doing to you.”

He shook his head as if ridding himself of a thought he didn’t want. “I have him. And I will keep him.”

“How did you not kill him?”

He grabbed her jaw and pushed his mouth into her cheek. “I held onto an image of you wagging your tail for me.” He rubbed against her face. “Remembering you in that way brought me down every time. Now, I will play with him. Toy with him. Break him into pieces that will destroy his mind.”

The way he’s destroying yours. “Let me help you,” she begged as he moved back. “Stop acting like I’m invisible and be with me right now. Feel something more than what that bastard has put in your heart.”

His hand slid down to clamp onto her throat. “You are so far from invisible to me, Yasmeen. Do you not see that yet? You fill my vision. My mind. You consume me to the point where nothing else matters but getting to you. Getting on you. In you. It haunts my every waking hour. And you tried to take yourself away from me.”

Even when he was thrilling the hell out of her, he had to go ruin it by bringing them back to being nothing but sexual partners. It was as if emotion didn’t live in him. Or if it did, he didn’t recognize it for what it was. But how could that be?

“I’m more than just a body,” she insisted as he secured a strap around her ribs below her breasts and another across her hips. “There’s more to me than holes to pleasure yourself in.”

What he said next killed her hope dead.

“I cannot see that.” His touch on her forehead was feather light. His fingers sifted through her hair and gently spread it out around her shoulders.

She searched his face and felt moisture slide down her cheeks.

“You are crying again,” he said, a warning heavy in his tone.

She looked away to hide her pain and felt more moisture fall.

“I cannot see that!” he thundered.

Her lids fluttered, terrified because the last time he’d shouted like that, he’d destroyed a dinner set. He went down and pulled her legs apart to fastened her ankles, then clicked a latch and effortlessly tipped the weighty X on an angle. Just enough so her feet were off the ground. He left her, slamming out the door, but returned almost immediately. His suit jacket was gone, and he was carrying a small knife.

She was dead. He’d lost it completely. “No, Lucian. Please…”

He carefully and meticulously cut her clothes from her body, locking stares with her as he sliced through her bra to allow her breasts to spring free. Due to a combination of the cold and his nearness, her nipples were peaked, her breasts tight. With a moan, he tossed the blade and got rid of the ruined fabric. He knelt on one knee and pressed his face against her inner thigh. He did nothing but rub into her chilled skin for a long minute as he murmured in Romanian. The gesture was affectionate