Page 33 of Lesson In Forgiveness

Would it be so bad to have someone to lean on for once? Wasn’t that what she craved each time she snuck into Grit’s hotel room to watch him sleep? It wasn’t about casing a hit; when he slept, even when he was awake, he exuded a kind of peace she yearned to snuggle into, close her eyes, and just absorb into her own ragged system.

“That’s a lot,” she managed to say, her throat clicking audibly as she swallowed. Trying to adopt a cocky tone, she forced her mouth into a smile faker than her favorite wig. “How about we aim for one?”

“All or nothing, Tabitha.”

“Two?” she asked hopefully.

“All or nothing.”

Baring her teeth, she resisted sinking them into his exposed throat and biting through something vital. He was stubborn, but then so was she. “What if I choose nothing?”

His face fell into neutral lines. “I feed you, help you get dressed, and call Jasper to tell him he should expect you in Phoenix later this evening. Until the threat to your safety is terminated, you’ll remain in his custody.”

Pfft, that wasn’t much of a deterrent. The holding cells in Atticus’s headquarters were insufficient to hold her. A day or two to come up with a plan, and she’d be free without too much hassle. She wouldn’t kill whichever hapless guards her brother assigned to her, of course, but it had been far too long since she’d had the pleasure of hearing skulls crack together.

“It’ll be an easier visit than you believe,” Grit told her, the bastard reading her thoughts effortlessly. “You’ll be sedated before you leave here, again when you land. Morning and night. Jasper isn’t as distracted as you think he is, little tiger. He’s well aware how dangerous you are, and he’ll take the necessary steps to protect anyone who comes in contact with you, just as fiercely as he’ll protect you.”

Huh. Yes, well, that might throw a wrench in her plans. She’d break any hand that came at her with a needle, followed by an arm or two if she was feeling malicious, but all it took was a second’s distraction and she’d be mindless and drooling before she knew it.

“I don’t want to be your sex bunny.”

Surprise widened his eyes before they lit with laughter. “No one can mistake you for a bunny, Tabitha. You are a tiger, through and through. Besides, I think earning intimacy with you will take time and a lot of that trust you’re understandably reluctant to offer.”

The heavy sensation in her belly abated. She went limp beneath him, relieved that the painful tension in her back and shoulders gave her a reprieve. The ache in her core, however, continued to simmer where no touch could reach.

“Am I to be kept in these binders and sedated?” she asked. “Same prison, different cage?”

“That begs the question, are you going to behave? Promise me you will, that you won’t stray from my sight, and I’ll remove the restraints.”

The binders were her biggest obstacle. He’d chosen well, she admitted grudgingly. They fit almost perfectly without discomfort, were cleverly designed for the predicament bondage, and she couldn’t remove them by dislocating any of her digits. The buckles were damn near welded into the material, so her only way to get out of them was to literally chew through the leather.

G.I.Dom wasn’t going to let her do that.

“I don’t like—”

“Shush. What you like, what you want, and all the don’ts will come later. I’ll find out for myself how far I can push you, little tiger, at my own peril.” He trailed kisses down her cheek, his nose trailing in their wake. “All you have to tell me now is whether you’d rather go to your brother or stay here with me.”

“This is… frightening,” she hissed as though afraid her enemies might hear her and use the weakness against her.

“I know. The truth is, it’s going to get worse before it gets better, Tabitha. I’ll never harm you, but this journey is going to hurt. I’ll ask things of you that have been done before without care, open wounds that you’ll fight like hell to keep closed.” He hummed low in his throat. “Though you won’t want to believe me, I’ll give you pleasure in spades.”

Copper stung her mouth. She wasn’t interested in pleasure. When the time came to take his cock, she’d do so with as much grace and self-control as she could muster. Embarrassing herself further by begging, crying, fighting wasn’t going to happen; she’d use all her father’s lessons to make damned sure she at least maintained some semblance of her dignity.

Tabitha shifted beneath him, her breath hitching as the thick length of him rubbed over her pussy. Belatedly, it dawned on her that her panties were wet along the gusset, soaking up the secretions a man made when he was erect and unfulfilled.

“Fine, I’ll stay. Only because I don’t particularly care to be drugged out of my head for the rest of eternity,” she informed him dismissively, “and I’d hate to murder my brother if he tried to knock me out.”

“Always a good reason. So, ready to seal the deal, little tiger?”

She jerked her bound hands to make a point. “Well, I would, but I’m a bit tied up for handshakes right now.”

Grit laughed. “You are, but that isn’t how I intend to do this.” His lips touched one corner of her mouth, then the other. “A simple one, for now. If you want more, then you take it.”

Simple what? More what?

The kiss was soft, no more than a testing feather of his lips across hers before they pressed firmly.

No, no, nope.

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