Page 81 of Owned

“I love you.

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Atlas

The lights abruptly went out and beyond the dais came the rustle of people moving, leaving the room. I barely noticed. I felt like I’d been hit over the head with a baseball bat, my skull ringing, the aftershocks of that fucking orgasm still pulsing through me, not to mention the words she’d just said.

I’d turned my face into the hollow of Rowan’s throat, the scent of aroused woman and jasmine everywhere. Her body was hot and soft and pliant beneath mine, her arms around me, her fingers moving slowly in my hair.

I love you.

There was a tightness in my chest, the possessiveness inside me still roaring, still desperate, as if the orgasm had only heightened rather than calmed it, and all I could hear were those fucking words.

I love you.

I was lying fully on her, no doubt crushing her with my weight, and I had to move, had to process that statement somehow, but her arms tightened around me as I tried to move.

“Don’t,” she whispered. “I like having you on me.”

“I’m crushing you,” I said.

“No, you’re not.”

But I couldn’t get rid of the feeling of heaviness, as if there was an anvil sitting on my chest. As if it wasn’t her I was crushing, but myself. And the baby…Jesus Christ, the baby.

I pulled away, untangling myself from her, but she kept reaching for me. “Don’t go, Atlas.”

I sat up anyway, only for her to lift one leg and slide into my lap, sitting astride me, facing me. The lights had come up again, the spotlight shining down on us, illuminating the dips and hollow of Rowan’s lovely face. Her eyes looked black in the light, holding mine in a direct stare.

She was naked and had just had sex in front of an audience, yet there was no shame in her expression. No hiding in her posture. She looked as if she’d found a well full of untapped power somewhere and it was now being channeled through her.

I love you, she’d said, as I’d pushed inside her, that same, powerful gaze holding mine. No shame in it, no hiding. Giving me the three words that should have made anyone feel vulnerable, and yet it only came across as strong.

“Thank you,” she said, softly, clearly. “Thank you for that.”

My heartbeat was pulsing in my head, a steady drum deafening me. “For what? Forcing you into public sex?” The words came without any thought behind them, a smokescreen to lessen the blow of the three words she’d said to me. And it was right, though, wasn’t it? I’d manipulated her into displaying herself, showing her in all her beautiful vulnerability to a crowd of horny fucks who didn’t give a shit about her. And for my own private titillation.

Your father would have been so proud.

“You didn’t force me, Atlas,” Rowan said steadily. “I was doing it for you, to give you something that no one’s ever given you.” She smiled, brighter than the spotlight above us. “To give you something only I can give you. And you know what that makes you?”

“No,” I said roughly.

“That makes you mine.” She eased herself closer, pressing herself against me. Her hot little pussy pressed against my cock, which was already starting to get interested again. Because that was what she did to me. She got me harder than any woman ever had. “You think that was for you,” she went on. “But it wasn’t. It was for me. It was me showing the world that this powerful billionaire, this incredibly beautiful, strong man, was my slave. He was hard for me, he was desperate for me. He wanted only me.” She held my gaze. “No other woman gets to have you ever again, Atlas. You’re mine now. You own me and now, I own you.”

I reached out, gripping her shoulders tightly. “Don’t you ever say those words to me again.”

She didn’t flinch at my rough hold. Only looked steadily back, and she didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “You mean ‘I love you’, right?”

“Yes,” I forced out between clenched teeth. “No one said anything about fucking love.” I spat the word at her, let it drip with the poison it contained.

“Correction,” Rowan said as if I didn’t have her in what must have been a painful grip. “I said it.”

“Why?” I demanded. “Love was never supposed to be a part of this.”

She shrugged as if it was no big deal. “Maybe you should have said something about it at the beginning then. Not that it would have made any difference.”

“Rowan.” I gave her a little shake, as if I could shake that look in her eyes right out of her. “Love can never be part of what we have, understand? Never.”

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