Page 39 of Monster

“What kind of clothes?” she asked.

I jiggled the bag. “Just take it.”

She sauntered over to me with those swaying hips of hers and yanked the bag away from my grasp. But, she didn’t even peek in the bag for three seconds before she dropped it on the ground.

“No,” she said curtly.

I blinked. “You’ve got one shot to try that again.”

“All right. Let me be clearer, then: I’m not wearing anything you buy me.”

My eye twitched. “What makes you think you have a choice?”

She snickered. “Other than the closet and three drawers full of clothes you’ve brought down here for me over the past few weeks?”

“Days.”

She waved her hand in the air. “Whatever. Feels like weeks.”

“Years, even.”

She whipped around and glared up at me. “Then, let me go and I’ll be out of your hair.”

I slid my hands into my pockets. “If I let you go, you’re dead within the hour.”

“I’ll take my chances if it means staying away from those clothes.”

“Let me guess: not a Teddie fan, are you?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Like I’d wear that for you, even if I was that kind of a ‘fan’.”

I slid the back toward her with my foot. “At any rate, pack them away somewhere. They are now yours.”

She sat back down in defiance. “I’m too respectable to be wearing some of those things in the first place. I’ve never owned lingerie quite so…”

I smiled fiendishly. “Revealing?”

She rolled her eyes. “For starters.”

I walked over to her and bent down, allowing my hands to drop to the mattress. I leaned forward, watching as she matched my movements and leaned back so far her back almost touched the bed. She propped herself up on her elbows as her eyes widened. My eyes danced across her face and down her bosom while my nose took in a whiff of her natural, musky scent.

Then, my gaze found hers. “You speak of respectability, Miss Pettigrew, but that means nothing to me. Your station in life means nothing when you’re with me. And by the time I’m done with you, I won’t have to put you on your knees because you’ll drop willingly. Understood?”

She blinked. “That’s your grand plan?”

I paused. “What?”

She snickered. “Your grand plan is to make me want to have sex with you? Really?”

“I’m not sure I’m following.”

“What you just said. Having me on my knees willingly, and all that shit. Did you really spend all of that money and chain me down here like an animal just to get me to submit to you? Because I can tell you right now, that shit isn’t happening. Ever.”

I licked my lips. “We’ll see who has the last laugh.”

She scoffed. “If your women are laughing through sex with you, then you’re doing something wrong.”

I reached out and gripped her chin. “You really are a feisty little thing, aren’t you?”

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