“Come on, tell me.”
“I love having friends to go out with and celebrate with. I love having something creative to do.”
“What else do you love?”
“I love consensual non-consent. I never would have thought I could handle it, but with you and Vandal I do love it. Being alone in the dark—being helpless—not knowing which one of one of you is which—how you will hurt me and when.”
His hand worked its way into my leggings and found the spot that Vandal had left so desperate and wanting. I gasped, bucking on his lap, frustrated at how slow he was taking things.
“What else?” he growled in my ear.
Every raw nerve in my body was aching for the orgasm that already hovered close after this interminable night of flirtation and edging.
“Come on, my little pet. Tell me everything in that pretty head of yours—give me one of your secrets you would never dare tell me in the light of day, when we were sober.”
His fingers were relentless.
I frowned, thinking hard, trying to come up with something I hadn’t told him before that would surprise or shock him—something he would be satisfied with.
His hand stilled, and I writhed in his lap, babbling for him to please not stop, whimpering at his cruelty.
“Tell me, or I’m sending you to bed like this and you won’t be allowed to touch yourself.”
I could only think of one thing he didn’t know because I’d already been thinking about it when this round of teasing started. I tried to bite my tongue, but his fingers brushed past my clit with sinister dexterity, a bare hint of sensation on my oversensitive flesh.
“Trust me, Sadie. Tell me,” his whisper drifted into my mind like an edict I was helpless to disobey.
“I think I’m in love with both of you,” I blurted.
Oh fuck, Sadie. What the hell?
I cringed, but it was too late to call the words back, and then I was lost in the pleasure of the reward he gave me.
Afterward, in the privacy of my own room, I cried.
He hadn’t said it back, of course. He hadn’t said anything at all.
Chapter 20
“So is this something you’re into, or is this legitimate research for your book?”
Zero raised his brows at me as though shocked and possibly offended by my question. “Do you actually think I would do something this disrespectful to you for my own sexual gratification?”
“Umm...yeah.”
“Woman, you wound me.” He chuckled and wound a lock of my hair around his finger, then tugged on it. “This is book research, obviously, but how many men would pass up the chance to have a human pet?”
“So it’s not me, specifically, you want. I’m just here and agreeable and convenient.”
He caught me by the chin and tipped my head up so that I would look up at him where he stood over me as I sat on the edge of his bed. “I’d fight other men to get my hands on you and keep you.” His gaze was full of an intensity that made me quiver.
In a zombie apocalypse, he meant. Still, it was…something.
There was a gagging sound, and I glanced up to find Vandal grimacing at us from the hall, looking like the words had stopped him in his tracks as he was going by. Zero waited for him to keep going, watching him with a frown, as though expecting him to apologize for interrupting us or at least to fuck off. The show of low-key male aggression was hot.
Vandal snorted but kept walking.
“Let me guess, you’d forgo having a harem because I was enough for you.”
Zero smiled lazily. “You like girls too—I’m sure I could find another pet or two for you to play with.”
“So you’re suggesting you’d be able to find not just one unicorn, but a few? Besides, what makes you think I like women?”
He shrugged, his cocky grin making him even sexier. “I can tell. Besides, it’s pretty self-evident from the book you’re writing.”
“It is?” I jumped to my feet, planning on rushing to my room to get my laptop to try to see what he saw, but he pressed me back down on the bed. “Some of the scenes are from his point of view—I have to make it sound like he’s into her. Besides, Vandal writes about murdering people from his serial killer’s point of view. That doesn’t mean he’s as into murder as Jamison is.”
“With Vandal can you really be sure?”
“Touché.”
“Instead of starting over with you running away again, I want you to close your eyes and try to remember how you felt in the basement after we caught you the last time and locked you down there with the bag over your head.”
I frowned at him but obediently let my eyes drift shut and thought back to how it had been when I was locked in the dark cellar, not knowing which of them was which. Not knowing how long it had been, or if I was really safe—cold and hungry and bound, never knowing who was going to grab me and when. The memory of their hands and mouths on my skin was still strong and accessible—how sore I’d been inside, the liquid stickiness that never had time to fully dry, the bruises on my breasts from fingers and teeth. I wasn’t sure if it had all been Zero, or if they both had a thing for biting, but I’d been covered in bite marks as if I’d been savaged by animals.
“Good girl,” Zero said, stroking my hair.
Not sure I was supposed to, I opened my eyes and looked up at him for reassurance, but what I saw there wasn’t reassuring at all. Just because he was more amiable than Vandal didn’t mean his wickedness went any less deep.
Impatiently, he tugged off my clothes, flipping me around to do it as though he had every right to manhandle me.
He threw my clothes out into the hall. “You will be naked unless I dress you. If you disobey me for any reason, you will be punished.”
My throat spasmed nervously, but there was nothing for me to swallow except for the anticipation of this new game. I could say no. The man didn’t need to do this kind of research to write. His imagination had worked just fine before I showed up to experiment on. I didn’t owe him this, no matter how much critique and encouragement he gave me for my writing.
I didn’t owe him this even though I was in love with him.
His eyes, which so often laughed, were menacing.
Oh, right. He was waiting for an answer—although he hadn’t technically asked a question.
“Yes, sir.”
He hooked his fingers under the collar he’d left on me last night and I’d been too sentimental to take off. “I own you now. I think I want to hear the word ‘master’ coming from that pretty mouth.”
I drew in a breath, trying to control the rush of heat that washed over me. I wasn’t sure why this was so hot, but I was in. I’d never really thought about the scenario before, but apparently it completely worked for me.
Not that I would make his job easy.
I stared him down, and his gaze went from menacing to dangerous.
“Are you going to cooperate or am I going to get rough?”
If we had done this right after they’d taken me out of the basement, how messed up would I be? I knew what they were capable of when they weren’t even angry. How would a captor treat me if I was being difficult?
“I’ll cooperate,” I said sullenly, my voice a croak.