Page 152 of Brutal
Longer this time.
I don’t look away.
I don’t step back.
I don’t give him an out.
“If you’re going to control everything,” I say, my throat tight from his grasp, “then at least be honest about what you’re doing.”
“And what’s that?”
I hold his gaze. “Keeping me exactly where you want me.”
His grip tightens. I swallow against the tension. The pressure. He’s bruised me before on my neck, on my shoulder, on my ass.
Perhaps this is what he truly wants. Me. Here. His. Trapped in a castle with a beast.
“You want honesty?” he says.
“Yes.”
He moves close, brushes his stubbled cheek against my jawline and heads to my ear, biting down hard on the lobe. “Then don’t pretend you don’t want to be here,” he whispers.
I clench my jaw. “You don’t get to tell me what I want.”
He slides his tongue over the outer shell of my ear. I suppress a shudder.
“You walked toward the door,” he whispers. “You stepped into me. You didn’t stop me last night.”
Heat floods my body.
I swallow again against the tension around my throat. “You didn’t give me a reason to.”
He pulls back. Something flashes in his eyes. Something dark. Something possessive.
“Careful,” he says.
“Or what?”
“You won’t like what happens next.”
My heart is racing now.
But I don’t step away.
Not from him.
Not from this.
“Try me.”
That does it.
He moves.
Fast.
One step.
