“We’ll see.”
I ignore that. There’s no time to bargain, no leverage to use to get what I want. “Every time I try to escape, if you catch me, I will come to your bed.” I force myself to hold his gaze, or try to. His face is bathed in shadows. “But I’m not having your child.”
“For now.”
Something akin to pure heat flares inside me. This man is standing between me and the answers. The web is starting to vibrate with the movement of predators from above. I can’t make myself look up. If I do, the scream I’m currently battling will win the war.
“I already agreed. Cut me down.”
“Starting tonight.” There is no give in his rough voice. I don’t know if he really will stand here and watch me be eaten alive by giant spiders, but he looks pissed off enough to do it.
“Starting tonight.” I yank on my arm, but all it does is make my entire body shake as my movement transfers to the web. Motion at the edge of my vision makes my head whip around despite my best efforts. I can’t stop the whimper that slips from my lips. I would happily rather battle a rampaging minotaur with my bare hands than face what’s skittering toward me on the web. “Bram, please!”
Once again, he strikes so quickly that I barely see the movement. This time, it’s me that he cuts down. I barely have a second to attempt to brace myself before he catches me in his arms and launches us into the air. It’s not cowardice that makes me cling to him, it’s self-preservation. He might actually drop me.
He wings his way back to the castle and dives into one of the vertical shafts, using a speed that makes me breathless. Apparently we’re not taking the slow way this time. It’s hard to tell when everything looks exactly the same and I’m covered in web, but I think he takes me to a different part of the castle than my room is in. He lands with a grace that irritates me, and then he stalks to a massive double door at the end of the hallway. Inside is a room twice the size of mine and appointed just as luxuriously.
I tense, but he bypasses the bed without hesitation. Instead, he carries me into the bathroom and uses one of his wings to turn on the taps. He stands there in pained silence as water fills the tub. I open my mouth, but he silences me with a severe look. “I highly suggest you don’t argue with me right now.”
He’s furious. It’s written all over his aura, the starbursts of violent red. He might look like he hates me with his expression, but at least the sickly yellow-green-brown color is nowhere in evidence. I’m not about to examine why that absence fills me with relief.
For all Bram’s anger, he holds me carefully. It would’ve been very easy for him to crush me or hurt me in some way, but even when we were flying furiously, he kept his arms in a comfortable bracket. It’s more control than I would’ve been able to exhibit in his situation. I don’t know if I find that to be a relief . . . or even more terrifying.
When the water is two-thirds full, he flips off the taps and sets me on my feet. I barely have a chance to reach for the hem of my shirt when he lightly smacks my hand out of the way.
And then the bastard cuts me out of my clothes with the wicked-looking spurs at the bending points of his wings.
It happens so fast, I’m still trying to process the fact that it’s happening at all when I’m standing there before him. Naked. Did I really think I could control this man? That he wouldn’t notice or care if I left?
I have made a terrible mistake.
I expect him to fall on me like a ravening beast, but he simply stands there and stares. It’s almost worse. I can’t remember the last time I felt this vulnerable. It takes everything I have to keep my hands at my sides and not try to cover myself—it would be ineffectual and would convey my fear all too clearly.
Finally, Bram stirs to life. With the flick of his wrist, his loincloth falls to the ground, and then he’s just as naked as I am. Now it’s my turn to stare. I knew he was larger than me, and I admit that part of me wondered if he was in proportion everywhere, but seeing it without any covering is a different experience altogether. I’d tried to convince myself that the very clear outline I saw earlier was simple a trick of the fabric.
It wasn’t. His cock is fucking huge. It’s also so hard that it looks painful. There’s something strange about the shape, but he turns and descends into the bath before I can identify what.
He takes up a position facing me, his wings sliding easily into the curves of the tub. “The web will dissolve in water. You’re not getting into my bed covered in that shit.”
His harsh words snap me out of the reverie I fell into when I saw his cock. “You’re the one who wants me in your bed. Now you’re going to be picky on how I get there?”
“Yes.”
Another time, I might dig my heels in out of sheer spite. But the truth is that I want the webs off my skin and out of my hair just as much as he does. More. As long as I don’t move, I can almost pretend they’re not there. But every time I shiver, the stickiness makes my stomach twist into knots.
Even though the tub is deep, there aren’t any stairs. It’s downright awkward to step into it, and Bram doesn’t offer to help. It’s just as well. I would throw his help right back in his face.
Except . . . the water does feel good. I slip under the surface immediately and scrub my hands through my hair almost compulsively. By the time I rise back to the surface, the webs are all but gone. Thank fuck.
But without the webs to distract me, the reality of my situation slams home. I’m naked, in a bathtub with an equally naked Bram. For his part, he just sits there with that immovable look on his face that makes me want to throw myself against him until one of us shatters.
He knows I plan to leave again.
If he catches me, he’ll bring me back again and fuck me.
I shiver at the thought, and I can’t begin to say if it’s fear or lust causing the physical reaction. If I could see my own aura, I wouldn’t be able to lie to myself like that, so it’s just as well that I can’t. Bram might have me over a barrel with this bargain, but that doesn’t mean I have to play the whimpering, terrified human to his monster. I’ll make him regret ever having me in his bed as part of the terms.
I duck under the water again to ensure the last of the webs are gone. When I rise, it’s to stand before him. The tub is deep enough that the water comes up to my waist, but that leaves my breasts on full display. He notices too. His attention fastens on my chest; he can’t seem to make himself look away.
Something almost like power surges inside me. I intended to stay out of this man’s bed, but now that the choice is taken away from me, I feel a little free As if, for the first time in my life, I don’t have to worry about being palatable to a lover. I can just be me. “You’ve made a mistake, and now I’m going to make you choke on it.”
He lifts a single dark brow. “You’re so quick with your words, and yet your actions never follow through. Do it.”
I flush at the reminder that I broke my word. Oh well. We’re here now, and I have no interest in making sure this train stays on the tracks. I cross to him before I can think of all the reasons I shouldn’t, and it’s like once I’m in motion, all my reservations fall away. I can tell myself I don’t have a choice, but the truth is that he’s not doing a single thing except sitting there, watching me with a challenge in his light eyes. He doesn’t think I’ll follow through on this. That, more than anything, spurs me on.