What the hell is she talking about?
I don’t even get to ask because she’s attacking again. Her tiny hands might not have much strength behind them, but her slaps sting, and when her nails catch me on my neck, digging into the skin, I hiss. My hands circle both her wrists, and I press them against her chest.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I growl right into her face, feeling the warm blood on my skin. My cock is so hard it presses against the zipper of my pants, wanting to be unleashed. Her violence only makes me want her more.
Horror fills her eyes as she gazes up at my neck.
Yes, you did that, my queen.
“The other night… you left, were gone all night. You didn’t want me, so you went somewhere else.”
A light bulb goes off in my head. I can’t stop my lips from tipping up at the sides. “Jealousy looks very good on you, and I must say, if it’s always going to make you act this way, I may make you jealous more often.”
“I’m not jealous,” she says angrily, struggling against me.
I laugh in her face. “You are, and that’s okay. I like it. It turns me on, makes me want to strip you down and taste you all over.”
The fire in her eyes calls to me. “As if I’d let you do that, knowing you were with someone else.”
Curling my own lip, I tug her to my chest and grind my groin against her. “If you must know, I wasn’t with anyone else. I was taking care of business. No one’s pussy has my attention like yours, sweet Elena.” I bite her earlobe hard, and pleasure fills my chest when she lets out a soft whimper.
“You weren’t with someone else?” she whispers, almost as if she doesn’t believe it. I knew when I left that she felt rejected, but I had to leave and get out of the room and away from her before I did something I couldn’t finish.
“No. I wasn’t. I turned down sex because I had work that needed to be done, and it couldn’t wait. I had to force myself to leave this room, so I didn’t fuck you straight through the mattress.”
I release her wrists when I see her features soften. She really thought I left to have sex with someone else. Taking a step back, she gives me one more look, something close to guilt flashing in her eyes. Before I can latch onto that look, she’s rushing into the bathroom and closing the door behind her.
Sighing, I walk over to the bed and sit. Bringing my hand to my neck, I trace the raised marks with a finger and smile. Great, just when the last scratches had healed up.
Fierce, determined, and so fucking beautiful. Pulling my hand away, I see the small smear of blood on my fingers.
A few moments later, Elena returns to the bed, crawling up onto it, settling into her usual spot. I feel her gaze on my neck as I cuff her wrists back into place. She hasn’t given up, it’s obvious, but she’s done fighting for now.
“Would you like to eat?” I ask, moving the tray between us.
“Yes,” she murmurs.
I nearly grin as I pull the top off of her plate. The savory smell of tomatoes and Italian seasoning fill my nostrils—spaghetti with meatballs.
Elena’s eyes glaze over, and she licks her lips. She must be starving. Grabbing the fork, I twirl some noodles and a slice of meatball onto it and bring it to her pink lips.
Eating shouldn’t be seen as sexual, but the way that her lips pass over the fork as she devours the food I’m offering her, turns me right the fuck on.
We continue this motion, me feeding her, and offering her small drinks of water in between, with her actually eating until the entire plate is empty. Leaning back against the pillows, she groans. I move the tray and place it on the chaise lounge.
“I’m so full, I think I might explode.”
“I wanted to tell you that I’ve decided to move the wedding up. It will be in a few days, and I hope by then you’re behaving better.”
“A few days?” She squeaks. “Why have you moved it up?”
“Your father’s motives mostly. You’ll be my wife by the end of the week.”
She doesn’t say anything to that, not that her objecting would change a damn thing. I would still marry her even if she begged me not to, though strangely, she hasn’t fought me on that at all. Being locked in the room, handcuffed, and trapped, yes, but everything I’ve asked her to do, she has done.
Stripping out of my clothes, I walk into the bathroom. I start the shower and jump in, washing my hair and body quickly. When I’m done, I walk out of the bathroom without even a towel slung around my hips.
Elena pretends as if she’s not looking at me, but I can feel her eyes roaming over my naked form, and I swear I can see her cheeks turning pink even from a distance. She is an enigma. One moment she wants my touch, and the next, she wants to claw my eyes out.
Walking into the closet, I find a pair of boxers, tug them on and return to the bed. I slide beneath the sheets and turn away from her.
“Good night, Julian,” she huffs, tugging against the cuffs. “At least one of us gets to be comfortable.”
“Be a good girl, and the cuffs might not be needed.”
“What do you mean might not be needed?”
“They might not be needed to restrain you all the time, only when I want to restrain you.”
“There is something wrong with you.” She twists and turns, ruffling the sheets with her movements.
“You have a lot to learn, sweetheart,” I whisper and turn the light off, blanketing the room into darkness.
“So do you, like this isn’t how you get me to listen to you.”
Rolling over, I face her, and even though it’s dark, I can still make out some of her features. “You ran, knowing I would punish you for it. That sounds like the only person who has a listening problem is you.”
She sighs. “I ran because I thought you were going to hurt me, and I wasn’t going to run initially.”
“Then what were you going to do?”
“I thought you were with someone else, and I was upset. You rejected me, and then I heard your men talking… they said you moved the timeline up. I thought you were going to kill me or do something worse. I panicked.”
I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but I understood. Deep down, I got why she ran, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a slap to my face. Had it been during the day, or one of my men had found her, it would’ve looked bad for me. Worse yet if she got away.
“I understand, but a punishment is a punishment.” Fluffing my pillow, I rest my head on it and do my best to ignore the heat of her body calling to me.
I don’t say anything else and let my eyes drift closed. My body itches to bring her closer to me, to hold her in my arms, but lately, she’s been feisty, refusing to let me touch her, and I don’t want to rehash anything with her. I just want to sleep.
Eventually, her breathing evens out, and I decide to let the exhaustion pull me under.
The sound of someone crying fills my head, lifting me from a foggy sleep. Soft whimpers fill my ears, and I roll over to find Elena with her eyes squeezed close, struggling against the cuffs, her tiny body trembling.
A nightmare. She’s having a nightmare.
Gently, I grasp onto her shoulders and give her a tiny shake. A sob breaks from her lips, and her cries get louder when her eyes blink open.