As reality began to set in, I stood on unsteady legs.
I needed to get away from this man, who had more control over my emotions and desires than I’d ever had. This man who had altered me forever, showing me things I could never unsee.
Could never unfeel.
I hadn’t decided to become a slave; he’d made me one.
I’d almost had sex with him. Almost slipped the ring on my finger. Yet I didn’t know him. I didn’t know about his past, his family, or even what he liked to do in his free time.
I didn’t know if we were compatible outside of sex.
“No, no, Natalie.” He reached for me. “Don’t wake up yet.”
Some shadowy part of me didn’t want to wake. I squeezed my forehead, torn. I was dizzy from the heat, from the life-altering pleasure.
When he grasped my hand and began leading me toward the small pool, I allowed it. He wrapped his arms around me, then dropped us in.
I shivered at the temperature, but I needed it, hadn’t realized how overheated I was. He set me on my feet in the waist-high water, then leaned down to press his lips to mine.
I pushed against his chest, but he held me close, savoring my mouth with his, coaxing with his tongue to make me forget myself. . . .
Lost in bliss all over again, I was dimly aware that he was cleaning me, learning me. A big palm caressed between my legs. Another kneaded one of my br**sts. Unhurried, as if he had all the time in the world.
Right when I was becoming chilled again, he carried me out. Before I could even formulate a protest, he was toweling me off. I wanted to tell him to stop, to leave me alone. To just let me process everything he’d done to me.
But I was distracted by his low growling sounds as he tended to me—drying my br**sts, softly rubbing the curls between my legs. His shaft grew stiff again, swaying with his movements.
Were we about to start this all over again? Was I learning nothing? In all these interludes with Sevastyan, I hadn’t been Natalie. I’d been Natalya. And that brainless hussy didn’t seem to know better.
I stepped back from him, turned to search for my clothes. “I need to get dressed. We need to.”
“Don’t do this,” he murmured from behind me.
“Another command?” Snatching up a robe for myself, I tossed him a towel.
He must’ve sensed I was about to freak out, because he covered himself, wrapping it around those narrow hips. “You regret this?” His voice was filled with disbelief. “You can’t. I won’t let you.” As if he hadn’t shocked me enough today, he scooped me up in his arms.
“What are you doing?”
He sat on the bench, cradling me, cupping the back of my head in a protective embrace.
Only fair, since he’d shattered me today.
In the cloak of the steam, I nearly broke down. “How can you change me so much?” I whispered against his ear. “How?” At one point I’d thought I would lose my mind.
“I haven’t. I’ve just shown you a different facet of yourself.”
Clasping him tight, using him like a lifeline, I buried my face in the spot where his neck met his shoulder. “Why are you showing me these things?”
He said nothing.
I pulled back to meet his eyes, found it impossible not to kiss his face. My lips touched upon the askew bridge of his nose, his chin, then smoothed over the lean perfection of his cheeks. He squeezed me tighter against him, seeming to relish this attention, this affection from me.
Between kisses, I asked, “What do you want from me?”
Silence.
“Did you mean what you said about obsession?”