Toxic - Zoe Blake Page 0,32

at least three stories high to help hold up a ceiling decorated with a spectacular mural filled with fat cherubs and pink clouds.

“It’s… ah… it’s…”

Sweeping me into his arms, Richard strolled up the wide center staircase. “Don’t strain yourself trying to say something nice. It’s gaudy and garish as hell.”

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I buried my head in his shoulder and laughed. It wasn’t often Richard admitted that something within his sphere of influence was not up to his exacting standards.

“I bought it furnished and I haven’t redecorated. You can have that honor later… but right now I’m getting you into a nice hot shower.”

“Will I have company?” I asked cheekily.

“I’m never leaving your side again,” came his earnest response as he tightened his arms around me.

I barely glimpsed the circular entrance to the master bedroom suite before he carried me down a long corridor of mirrors and doors that I could only assume were closets.

Inside the bathroom, there was even more gold and marble, but I barely noticed as Richard was busy unbuckling the belt around my waist and tearing at his jacket.

The large walk-in glass shower quickly filled with steam as I stepped inside, hissing as the scalding water hit my chilled skin.

Reaching for the bar of soap, I inhaled its masculine sandalwood scent as I lathered it between my hands and then rubbed small circles over my stomach before reaching between my legs.

Richard’s large tanned hand enclosed mine.

“Oh!”

I hadn’t heard him enter the shower. Looking down, his hand looked swarthy and almost menacing as it nestled between my soap-covered thighs. His hand moved up to cup my breast as he kissed my neck before turning me around and pressing my back against the cobalt blue tile. Raising his arms, he caged me in. Using the tip of his tongue, he teased my lips with small licks, before claiming my mouth for his own.

I placed my hands against his chest, pushing my fingers through the thick curls of inky hair that covered that hard, muscled expanse before returning his kiss. Leaning up on my toes to press my mouth more firmly against his. Loving the way his tongue swept in to swirl and capture my own.

Pulling his head back, he cupped my jaw with both of his hands.

His jaw looked tense, his dark blue eyes hard and serious.

“I will make sure no one comes near you ever again,” he vowed.

Despite the heat of the shower, my limbs went cold.

If Richard were anyone else, anyone else in the world, I would have assumed he had misspoken. I’d have assumed he meant no one could threaten or scare me again, like with the dead bird.

But he hadn’t said that… he said that no one would come near me ever again. As I knew too well, whatever Richard said… he meant.

Thinking back on the isolation of his estate, when he had me truly believing I was in the Victorian era with no access to any form of communication, friends, or help, I now wondered what an extreme version of that would be… and if I would survive.

“It was probably just a prank. I overreacted,” I stammered, trying to placate him.

Richard shook his head slowly. “No. It was a mistake allowing you to return to the modern world. One I won’t make again. You were happier without all its noise and corrupting influences around you. You were safer.”

My heart beat so fast I thought I would faint. It was happening again. This was how it began the last time, Richard taking over and dominating my life… and me letting him. Soon, once more, I would be so far down the rabbit hole I wouldn’t be able to remember what was and wasn’t real. Once more, my only reality would be him and the kaleidoscope of pleasure and pain he forced me to endure each day.

“Richard, I…”

“Shh…” murmured Richard against my lips. “You’re tired. We’ll talk about this more later.”

Somehow I knew there would be no further discussion, Richard had made up his mind.

Wrapped in a plush robe, my legs were curled up on the seat as I sat at a small round table inside the lounge area of our bedroom suite while bleary-eyed servants, no doubt roused from their beds, brought in one decadent dish after another. Raising the cloche off the dinner plate in front of me, the servant said something in French that I didn’t understand, but I knew the look of my favorite dish from Aqua Shard: