in a vice grip.
“Finding out the truth since I can’t trust a word from your lips,” he growls, shoving open a heavy wooden door and dragging me into a dark room.
He lets go of me only once we’re inside. For a second, I’m left breathing hard in the pitch black. Gods, does he mean to lock me in here?
But then he flips on the lights.
“On the bed,” he demands.
I freeze. Every muscle in my body freezes. “Y-You’re not serious,” I stutter as I take in the stark, almost medieval looking room. Stone floors. Stone walls. The only exception to the monastery design?
The medical bed in the center of the room. Complete with restraints.
He gets in my face, his dark brown eyes burning. “Just how far are you willing to go to save your father’s company?”
I glare up at him. “You want me to say it’s okay for you to tie me down and rape me?”
“No,” he chokes out, sounding furious. “I’m a doctor and I want you to prove you haven’t been whoring yourself out to Adam Archer, as you claim.”
My mouth drops open as he continues. “You can walk out that door right now if you want, princess.” His massive arm shoots out and points towards the door we just came in through.
Damn him. Gods damn him.
“You’re a sick fuck,” I spit in his face. And then I stomp towards the bed and lay down, my arms crossed stubbornly over my chest.
There’s a beat of silence, and then his footsteps sound on stone as he follows. I force myself not to close my eyes as he looms over me. The other thing about the room that’s modern: the lights overhead. There’s plenty of light.
So much light that when the Beast—what I’ve taken to calling him in my head—reaches into a cabinet underneath the bed and pulls out scissors, I can see exactly what he’s doing.
And when he proceeds to reach for the hem of my sweater and starts to cut it up the middle, I know he can see all of me as he exposes me to the open air.
My eyes shoot to his as my breaths get shorter but he seems suddenly calm. Clinical? No, just extremely focused on what he’s doing, I think. This is officially the craziest freaking thing that I’ve ever done in my life. How the hell did I get myself into this situation?
I’m not sure of anything at the moment, but before I even really wrap my head around what’s happening, he’s opened my top and exposed my bra.
My breath hitches and his eyes finally move up and meet mine. All the hostility from moments earlier is gone. There’s…gentleness there? No, that can’t be right. He’s a beast. A monster who’s threatening everything—
“I won’t hurt you,” he says, his voice still gruff but softer than I’ve ever heard it. And then his huge, warm hand takes my wrist, drawing my arm away from my body. He peels my now open sweater off of my arm and then, slowly, gently, his eyes still on mine, he lifts my arm above my head and secures it in a padded wrist restraint.
He leans in close as he does it and when I next breathe in, all I inhale is…him. Pine and leather, but warmed by his body heat…it’s like nothing I’ve ever smelled before. My body wakes up at the scent and I blink in confusion as he secures my other wrist.
“W-why do you have to tie me down?” I ask breathily, trying to gather my wits back.
“No questions,” he says and I’m stupidly relieved at his answer. What if for once, for once in my whole stupid life, I didn’t question everything to death? What if…what if I just let this…happen? Would it really be so bad to just, I don’t know, give up trying to control everything for once?
So I don’t complain or question as he moves down my body with those damnable scissors of his and cuts my leggings off. The soft material gives easily and soon he’s pulling the shredded material from my body. I shiver, left only in my panties and bra. It’s cold in the room, there’s no denying that. But…I don’t think that’s where the soul-deep quiver is coming from.
I’ve never been naked in front of a man before.
The Beast can think whatever he wants, but I’m a virgin in every sense of the word. I’ve never done…anything. Ever.
And his eyes aren’t gentle looking anymore. They’re heated and his