he came down next to her again. He hadn’t even left. He was toying with her. Playing this cruel, brutal game where she still wasn’t clear on the rules.
“You will apologize for removing my gift. Or I will make you watch.”
Watch him have sex with someone else. Just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse; he introduced Lucian Fane’s brand of worse.
With his scent surrounding her, bringing peace and chaos with it, another part of her died. “I hate you.” She whispered the lie without taking her eyes from the toilet base. “I hate you to the point where I will vomit if you touch me again.”
“Then get ready to be sick because I have missed you.”
She was scooped from the floor and lifted into his arms as he stood. Her blurring gaze landed on his mouth, and all she could see was him using it on another woman—was that how he’d made her come? By eating her pussy? Or had he been fucking her?
The pain she just couldn’t contain anymore came out on a strangled cry. She arched and jerked until he all but dropped her. Barely waiting until she was upright, she ran for the door. She had to get away from him. Away from here. She fell on the handle and wrenched with all her might.
Locked.
“No!” she wailed as she jerked on it. “Please! Open!” Her shoulder nearly dislocated on her next try.
Her hands were pried off the handle and her world spun when Lucian threw her over his shoulder, saying something she didn’t hear. He clamped a strong arm on her legs but couldn’t stop her flailing fists from landing a few hard shots before he flipped her onto her back on the bed. She screamed when she saw him coming down on top of her.
“No! No more! You will not do this to me!” She tried to claw her way to the edge of the mattress, but he snaked an arm around her waist and yanked her back.
“Stop this, Yasmeen.” He threw his leg over her hips and pinned her hands on either side of her head. “Calm down and hear what I am telling you.”
She shoved her head back into the pillows and arched her back, trying to dislodge him. She twisted and writhed, and all the while she screamed. Tears poured down her face as she begged him to let her go.
She suddenly found herself moving again. Once she was on her feet, Lucian held her back tight to his front and fitted his hand over her mouth.
“Such a vocal little thing when you are unhappy,” he murmured, sounding almost amused as she struggled to breathe through her stuffy nose. She whipped her head to the side and dislodged his hand when she couldn’t get enough air. She filled her lungs and didn’t waste it by shouting anymore.
He forced her to the connecting door and ripped the tapestry out of the way before turning the knob and throwing it open. He stepped into the next room with her, and gripping the hair at her nape to angle her head to the left.
Two women and a man were dressing. One was counting money. Sorin was standing at the door, looking ready to kill them all.
“I do not fuck whores,” Lucian said into her ear. “But I am not above paying them to fuck each other in my home. And because I am a generous tipper; when I tell one of them to shout my name while her partner makes her come, she does it, and she does it loud enough so that my willful pet hears her.”
He turned her and closed them back into their room before releasing her and walking away. For hours and hours, he’d punished her by forcing her to listen to the sounds of what she thought was him fucking two women.
She brought her hands up and wiped at her wet face. Her breathing had slowed along with her hammering heart. Because she just didn’t know what else to do, she went over to perch on the edge of the bed. He was in front of her makeup table, watching her.
“Before you sit, go have a shower. You will feel better.”
Without a word—she didn’t have any left—she straightened and went to shower. After drying her hair, she came out wearing a robe because she hadn’t brought a change of clothes in with her.
“Feel better?”
She nodded.
“I laid something out for you. It is in the closet. Put it on, please.”
She