Page 52 of Black Sheep

My mouth dries at the sight of the unholy blaze in his eyes. “What…why…” I swallow and try again, hating my brain’s inability to form coherent sentences.

“The words you’re looking for are ‘when.’ ‘Where.’ ‘How.’”

I open my mouth but no words emerge. I can only stare as one broad thumb trails over my skin, the lazy caress belying the frenzied look in his eyes.

“The ‘when’ is right fucking now. We’re leaving this shit hole in the next five minutes. The ‘where’ is wherever I damn well decide. The ‘how’ is also my choice, although you should know the first time will probably be with you on your knees. Fucking a woman from behind is the surest and most satisfying way I get off. And I’m not ashamed to say, I need to get off pretty damn soon.”

My heart drops to my stomach, even as my temperature rockets. “Axel—”

He nods approvingly, his head dropping to sniff the curve of my shoulder. “That’s it, baby. Keep saying my name in that terrified little voice. Even if it’s as fake as fuck, I guarantee you it’ll always get me rock hard.” He lingers, the very tip of his nose brushing my earlobe as he inhales me some more.

I stanch the shiver that curls up from toes and summon every ounce of strength into my vocal cords. “I’m not leaving with you. I can’t. I won’t.”

Every cell in his body seems to clench with rigid fury. I can’t succumb to my terror because what Finnan might do to my mother if I leave without his permission is even more terrifying.

“You misunderstand me, sweetheart. This isn’t a negotiation. I’ve already done that. You are my prize. So you see, there’s no fucking way I’m leaving here without you.”

Shock hits rock bottom and bounces hard, birthing pure anger. “Well, that’s too damn bad. I don’t give a flying fuck what you agreed with your father. I’m not leaving this house.” Not when it means leaving the fate of precarious lives in Finnan’s hands.

Axel’s eyes turn into ice chips. “There’s something Finnan wants more than anything else. Even more than you. I have the power to give it to him. In exchange for you.” His gaze drops to my ribs, his chest rising on a furious inhale. “How do you think it’ll play out if I walk out of here, alone?” he rasps with a voice that’s barely human.

My brain scrambles in frenzied alarm. In the end all I can do is appeal to the monster before me. “Please…”

If anything, that drags the beast closer to the edge. My knees sag. His other hand grips my arm, holds me up to the lit fuse flaming in his eyes. “Beg for him one more time,” he dares me.

I shake my head quickly. I can’t leave my mother. I can’t trust that Finnan won’t turn off the machines keeping her alive the moment my back is turned. “I’m not begging for him. I’m pleading with you!”

A muscle jumps in his cheek as he stares at me. “Tell me why you want to stay so badly. Tell me what he has over you.”

So Axel can find my mother and finish what he started? “No.”

His gaze freezes over. “Then stop pleading. There may be other pleas I choose to accommodate. Leaving here without you isn’t one of them.”

His hands move up to my shoulders, the caress imprinting, marking me, attempting to change what can’t be changed.

But despite that knowledge burning in my heart, my body responds to the caress. Already tight nipples strain further, my breasts growing heavy as liquid fire pools between my legs. My body heated the moment I spotted him across the room. Now, with his hands on me, his earth-and-spice scent engulfing me, my pussy swells, its slickness saturating me.

Sharp gray eyes track down my body, absorbing the change. His full lips part, his breath a light pant as his hands drift down my throat. Long fingers trace my collarbone, the hollow where my heart races. The valley between my breasts.

Then, as if he can’t help himself, one hand spears into my hair, holding me still, while the other cups my breast. Kneads. Teases my nipple with a distinct lack of gentleness.

My deep, helpless shudder rips a feral sound from his throat. “Fuck.” His warm breath washes over my upturned face. “You’ve filled out in all the right places. I’m going to enjoy fucking every inch of you. I’m going to relish reclaiming what was once mine. Then I’m going to return you to him, broken beyond repair.”

The clinical outline of what he intends to do to me freezes my heart. Enough to stall the encroaching fear. Enough so I can look him straight in the eye.

“I never belonged to you.” Not this version of Axel anyway. I belong only to the boy I once thought he was. The boy who was only ever real in my imagination.

“Maybe not. But you gave yourself to me first. I was the first man to fill that snug little cunt, to come inside of you, watch you stagger around all day, dreamy-eyed with my cum inside of you. That gives me rights, baby, whether you like it or not.”

“Well, you’re going to be sorely disappointed if you’re counting on me being dreamy eyed again.”

“Dreams are for assholes. I much prefer the reality of hearing you scream my name as you plead for mercy. Mercy you won’t receive. Not until I’ve fucked you till you can’t stand up straight. That is also your new reality. Accept it.”

My mind spins with his words and the situation I can’t immediately figure a way out of. One minute ticks by. Two.

My choices are nonexistent. For now.

He watches the fight go out of me with grim satisfaction. Giving my breast one last squeeze, he releases me. “We’re leaving.”

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