“I’m not sleeping in that bed with you again. I’d rather sleep on the floor.” Fear gives way to anger, and she walks right past me and into the closet. I go to the nightstand and pull out the handcuffs I stashed there. After what I just told her, and her reaction, I don’t feel like being forced to strong-arm her all night. Handcuffing us together is the easiest solution, that way, even if she was able to hurt me, she’d have to lug my body around.
When she emerges from the closet and sees the cuffs in my hand, she pauses. Her eyes flick from the cold metal and back to my face again. Fear. That’s all I see, and I know what she’s thinking. That I’m going to take advantage of her, hurt her, but I’m not.
Before I can say anything, she whirls around and rushes out of the room.
Fucking Christ. She’s halfway up the stairs when I enter the living room, and by the time I reach her, she’s screaming and beating her fists on the door as if someone is on the other side coming to let her out.
Wrapping my arms around her, I pull her to my chest and hold her tightly even as she kicks and screams.
“You said you wouldn’t hurt me. You lied! You’re a liar!” She continues to struggle against my hold. Throwing her head back, she smashes it into the side of my face, barely missing my nose. Pain lances across my cheek, and I squeeze her a little tighter. The urge to shake some sense into her is strong.
“I’m not sleeping with you!”
“You’re doing whatever I tell you to,” I snap.
When we reach the bedroom, I’m exhausted, my face hurts, and I’m fed up with her bullshit. I drop her down onto the mattress, and she does her best to crawl away from me, but she’s not fast enough. Grabbing her by the ankle, I drag her back toward me. Her hands claw against the sheets.
She flails against the mattress, trying to kick me, but I roll her over onto her back and force myself between her legs. Grabbing both hands, I press them into the mattress and move her arms so I can hold her wrists with one hand and handcuff her with the other.
Clicking the cuff into place, I release the wrist I cuffed and cuff the other one to my own wrist. The heat of her body seeps into mine. She feels perfect beneath me, even if she isn’t willing to be there.
“Please, Zane! Please, let me go! Please! I won’t tell anyone. I’ll just go back to my apartment, and we can pretend like none of this happened.” The way she says my name… I know it’s out of fear, but I want to hear her say it again.
She’s desperate to escape, to feel safe, but there is no safer place on this planet than right here with me. Tears pool in her eyes, threatening to fall. A tightness fills my chest cavity. I hate when she cries, and this time it’s worse because I’m the reason for those tears.
Looking into her eyes, I lean forward and say my next word with firmness. “I’m never letting you go, and the sooner you come to terms with that, the better things will be.”
“You can’t keep me here. Someone will wonder what happened to me. I have a job and friends.” I’m half tempted to tell her the job was given to her because of me and that I have her phone and can easily text her friends to let them know, but I don’t. I’m done with this conversation now. Easing off of her, I put as much space between us as I can.
“Crawl underneath the covers,” I order.
She tugs against the cuff instead of listening to me, and because I’m so fed up with her, I pick her up, hauling her against my chest and move us both the way I want on the mattress.
Once lying down, she tries to move away, but there is only so far she can go with us cuffed together.
“My wrist hurts.”
My chest rises and falls rapidly, anger and lust pumping through my veins.
“Stop pulling, and it won’t.”
“I don’t want to be cuffed to you.”
“I don’t want you to act out, but you continue to, so I guess neither of us got what we wanted. Now go to sleep, or I’ll find something to gag you.”