Letting her hand go, I pushed her shoulder. “Lie down.”

She swayed in impudence, but I increased my pressure, giving her no choice. Tumbling backward, her legs stayed locked together, hiding what I wanted to see. Her small breasts bounced making my mouth water.

Fuck, why was I taking it slow with her?

She was mine to do anything I wanted. Torturing myself wasn’t my idea of a good time.

Her eyes imprisoned mine, wide but unafraid.

She fascinated me, even though she wasn’t sexy with her skin and bones, I found her resilience such a fucking turn-on.

I wanted her. I wanted to let myself loose and do what I’d dreamed about last night.

But I wouldn’t…not yet.

I had much more important things to claim. Plus, as much as my life was full of sin (and I asked for no apology for what I was), I refused to be like Alrik. She had enough assholes in her life. While she belonged to me, she’d learn that a bastard could still be a gentleman.

Lying on my side, I propped myself up on my elbow and ran a fingertip up her naked side. Her hard nipples turned to pinpricks while her discoloured stomach panted for oxygen. I didn’t say a word as I trailed my touch over one rib, then two, creeping closer to her breast.

With each inch, she shut down a little more. I sensed her pulling away, her mind leaving, whatever mechanisms she had in place to endure such torture tugging her into its safe haven.

I stopped.

She didn’t breathe.

“Relax.”

She shot tighter than a cello string.

“I see you don’t like that word.”

Her head turned, granting me turbulent but mutinous eyes.

“Or maybe, you don’t trust that word.” I couldn’t fucking blame her. Holding my hand up, I deliberately placed it on the bed in the small gap between our bodies. “Okay, have it your way. No more touching. But you do owe me, Pim, and I never forget a debt.”

Her forehead furrowed.

I didn’t know in denial or confusion, but I enlightened her anyway. “The rule I gave you: what I do, you must do. And what you do, I must do.” I lowered my head, skimming my nose over her cheekbone. “Are you forgetting I touched myself?”

The mattress rocked as she inched her hips away. It wasn’t much—barely noticeable—but I noticed.

And I wasn’t fucking happy about it.

If she thought she could avoid touching between her legs, she didn’t know my expectations for utmost obedience.

“Do you always oppose the man in your bed or just me?” My hand lashed up, looping around her throat. “You just made me break the no touching rule so soon. Don’t make me break the other rules keeping me in line tonight.”

Her eyes locked onto mine, pooling with panicked uncertainty.

“Ah, that’s intrigued you.” Loosening my fingers, I didn’t threaten to throttle her, merely held softly, trapping her mind in her body rather than flying free. “I have many laws that run my life.” I bared my teeth. “Want to know a few?”

I waited for her to nod, to blink—to do something that could be a signal for yes.

But she was too good.

Or too terrified.

She’d gone iceberg white, her eyes as complex as snowflakes.

“You don’t like your neck being touched?” I removed more of my weight but didn’t withdraw my fingers. “Does he strangle you…is that why you’re looking at me as if I’ve grown horns?”

She didn’t respond in any way, but her pulse gushed like a riptide beneath my thumb. “Don’t focus on where I’m holding you. Focus on why I’m holding you.” My thumb caressed the side of her neck, tangling with the escaped hair I’d secured. “Focus on my questions.”

Shadows formed below her eyes as she struggled to override whatever torture she associated with her throat.

Keeping her mind active with other things, I asked, “How long have you been silent? I’m rather impressed. You avoided my question and ignored your body’s will to reply—even with the small slip showing your dread.”

Her lips pursed, drawing every fucking attention directly to her mouth. Somehow, she transformed from frozen fear to strong stubbornness. Her skin coloured with fight again, burning beneath my touch.

Heat swelled between us. Poisoning desire and consuming intoxication sucker-punched me in the chest.

I wasn’t the only one who felt it.

The zinging awareness grew heavier as we both tried to ignore its presence.

Whatever inhuman part of me she intrigued turned drunk and crowded with complicated things.

I hadn’t come here for a connection. I hadn’t claimed her to feel. I’d borrowed her to steal her secrets.

That was all.

And that’s exactly what I plan to do.

“I’ll tell you what.” I licked my lips. “You answer one of my questions, and I’ll answer one of yours.”

She swallowed, her neck working beneath my imprisoning fingers.

“You don’t believe I can hear your questions?” Trailing my touch to her sternum, I pushed on a yellowed bruise. “I can. Just like I can tell you things about your master. Things I have no doubt you’ve wanted to know for a while. Do you know why he’s letting me use you, even when it angers him? Why he lets me claim his prized possession? It’s because you might be his favourite toy for now, but what I’m building for him is worth more than a girl, more than money, more than a life. It’s a ticket to power, and for men like Alrik—that’s the only thing he craves.”