Enough.
I couldn’t hold out any longer.
Now that I was done with a full day’s worth of enduring meetings and being in charge, I was ready to take this further with Sloane and show her how she would be mine.
She furrowed her brow, backing to hide behind the chair she’d been sitting in. As if that piece of furniture could keep her safe.
That was exactly what I had been doing. Keeping her safe. Protecting her from assholes like her boss or any other man who’d try to hurt her.
I tugged at my tie, trying to remember not to rush this. Not to hurry so I could savor every second of her submission. Because she would give it to me. She would submit. I didn’t blame her for being startled and defensive with my lingering in here and taking my tie off.
Enough of this.
It’d been agony staying away from her for two weeks, but I saw how much she’d needed to simply be. To eat and sleep and not worry. Her exhaustion worried me at first, but the more that I saw her nourished and provided for, I embraced the pride at being able to do that for her.
Watching her relax and breathe easier was my first reward, but that wasn’t the only reason I’d kept away for fourteen fucking days.
She opened and closed her mouth. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the top of the chair. Seeing her flustered was a goddamn trip.
Oh, you still want to be stubborn and carry on with this silent treatment?
I tilted my head to the side in question, amused and curious how long she’d hold out. With my tie undone, I let it hang over my neck before I started pulling off my jacket.
Two fucking weeks, she’d been here. Relaxing, sleeping, probably getting bored. I originally planned to give her just enough distance and time so that she would lower her guard, but the wariness in her bright green gaze now proved that she was still the survivalist, fighting to stay on her feet.
Again, she opened and closed her mouth. Seeming to think twice about speaking, she let her gaze fall as she watched my hands.
Moving on to my shirt, I released one button at a time.
Too fucking long.
Every day, I obsessed with the secret that I was keeping her in my room. I’d slept in the living room on the couch, tormenting myself with not touching her. No one in the house knew she was here, only the maid and the two men who were with me the night I took her. No one would tell my brothers or grandmother that she was here, either.
Sloane was my secret. And I was fed up with this distance.
She cleared her throat, and I almost smiled at her losing this silent stare down.
She’d crack first.
I knew she would.
But it was a shame she had tried this silent treatment crap at all. We could’ve been talking all this time. Fucking too.
Or maybe not.
I planned to give her time and space to adjust to being my mistress here, but I’d also been too busy to spare any attention for her. If I wasn’t away meeting with men and spies as I stayed on top of the investigation of my father’s poisoning, I was tied up with calling the shots and making all the decisions as the boss in charge. My brothers and grandmother helped. We were a team. As the interim boss while Father recovered, though, I had a bitter taste of the responsibilities that came with being the top leader of the city’s most powerful family.
It stressed me out, pushing me to need this night with Sloane.
My grandmother’s persistent reminders about having an heir aggravated me too.
“What are you doing?”
I let a lazy smile take over my face. I won. She caved to the pressure of quiet between us, and I knew it would be only the first victory I’d have with her tonight.
I answered her by pushing my shirt off one side before shrugging out of the sleeve. “I’m here to show you why.”
The tendons and muscles in her neck flexed as she swallowed. “What?” It came out as a whisper as she lowered her alarmed stare to my bare chest.
I wanted to know what she thought of my tats. Of how I kept my body fit and trimmed to rule like this.
Did she still see me as a killer? A monster?
Or was she able to change the filter in her mind to view me as her hero? The lover who’d saved her?
“Why?” She licked her lips and frowned.
“You wanted to know why I took you,” I reminded her as I tugged out of my other sleeve, satisfied when she couldn’t look away from my body as I peeled my clothes off.
She sharpened her gaze and scowled at me as she instantly met my stare. “You waited two weeks to tell me?”
Oh, fuck. You’re perfect. She wasn’t docile at all. She’d keep me on my toes every inch of the way.
“I’m not going to tell you.” I let my shirt drop as I toed off my shoes. Lowering my fingers to my pants, I indicated to her how far I’d take this reveal. “I’m going to show you.”
“You kidnapped me just so you could…” She blinked, staring without pause as I unzipped and lowered my pants.
My cock sprang free, jutting out and pointing directly at her as I shoved my boxers down too.
“So I could fuck your sweet cunt again,” I finished for her when she struggled to speak so candidly. She was a stripper, but surprisingly shy to talk about anything gritty now.
“You…” She blinked, lifting her focus up my naked body as I stepped out of my pants. “You wanted me just to—You’ve kept me captive all this time so I’d be your sex slave?”
I smirked, enjoying every second of her shock. “I took you so you could give me an heir.”
In a flash, she snapped her head up and pierced me with an unreadable expression of alarm. She wasn’t scared, but wary.
“What did you say?” she asked, breathing faster. Her breasts rose and fell faster, teasing me with the peek of those generous swells her tank top couldn’t fully contain. Despite the distance between us, I saw how her eyes seemed darker, more dilated, as she took me in.
You heard me.
I approached her, beckoning her to come closer to me and get out from hiding behind that chair.
“I want you to give me an heir,” I repeated. Her purpose was clear—to me, at least. “I want to breed you and see my child grow… here.” Lowering my hand to place it over her stomach, I was mesmerized with this sexual tension snapping and sparking between us. The air was charged. I felt every zing and tingle of my skin in contact with hers, even through the thin layer of her shirt.
“An heir?” she whispered, stunned.
I nodded, tugging the hem of her shirt up. She hadn’t run. She wasn’t going to flinch and freak out. I could tell. With her standing too still, though, I wondered how my claim would make her so… nervous.
“We’ve already fucked, after all.” I lifted her shirt without her protesting at all as she stared at me.
She stammered, unable to speak.
“We know how good it can be.”
I dared her to argue that point.
“Why not have a second go of it since it was so…” I pulled her shirt higher, slowly, relishing the goosebumps that showed on her bare skin. “Since it was so good the first time?”
Gripping her shirt with both hands, I tugged it up until her breasts were bared. I never left her with any lingerie, and right now, I could reap the rewards of that stroke of genius. Letting the material bunch above her tits, it emphasized how hard her nipples were for me.
She was wary. And nervous.
But so, so turned on.
“Wasn’t it?” I taunted, lowering one hand to cup the fleshy globe and rub my thumb over her peaked nipple.
Sucking in a breath, she finally flinched. I followed after her as she stumbled backward. The lust in her eyes hinted at how torn she was. While she wanted to run from what I told her, her body was betraying her. She wanted me.
And I waited to see if she’d keep this challenge alive between us.
“No.”
I grinned. It was almost as though she’d read my mind. I didn’t want her docile and too submissive. I wanted her to make me work for it. I was on edge from wanting her when she was within reach. I’d denied myself these past weeks. But now, I wanted to make her cave.
“No, Maxim. This isn’t—”
I lunged after her, holding her close. Heat spread from the small of her bare back into my hand as I flattened my fingers over her smooth skin. Flush against me, she teased me with the twin pokes of her hard nipples against my chest.
“Have you forgotten?” I growled, dragging my nose along her jaw and ending with a kiss below her ear. She canted her head back, giving me access and probably unaware of what she was doing.
“You’re not going anywhere,” I reminded her.
“But…” She thrust her hands between us as if she could try to push me away. “We can’t just—”
I kissed her hard, punishing her with the demand of my mouth over hers. It silenced her as I pulled her shirt higher. Only breaking the kiss to force the fabric over her head, I quickly used it to capture her hands behind her back.
Muffled murmurs of protest didn’t leave her lips. I kissed her again, rough and commandeering to silence her as I wrapped her hands and left them secured together behind her. Satisfied that I had her hands bound, I stepped back.
Her lips glistened, parted as she panted for air after that kiss. Relishing the fire in her green eyes as she glowered at me, I stepped back and grabbed the hem of her shorts. One swift yank down bared the rest of her to me.
“Maxim, I don’t—”
Another kiss shut her up.
Walking her back to the bed, I overcame her attempts to step aside and dodge me.
“Wait—”
Again, I kissed her quiet, and like every other press of my mouth against hers since I’d come in this room, she replied in kind, grunting with the effort to match my urgency and kiss me back just as hard.
“Max—”
This time, I ducked, cutting her off with a squeak of alarm as I picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to the bed.
