Page 19 of Her Royal Master
I held out my wrist.“Can’t I wear it here?”
He shook his head.“A collar goes around your neck.It’s a symbol of submission that I require you wear.You belong to me now.”
I nibbled my lip, ignoring the spike of pleasure in my chest.Why should hearing I belonged to him excite me?He’d already made it abundantly clear.And he didn’t mean permanently.It was for the duration of the voyage.But I must’ve wanted to belong to him, because I did as he asked, lifting my hair and turning around for him to tie the black cord around my neck.
I hated it.My throat spasmed the moment the cord touched it, my tongue seeming to swell until it was too big for my mouth, cutting off my windpipe.I dug my fingers under it to pull back and earned myself a swift slap to the ass.
“Hands on the top of your head.Now, little girl.”
Little girl.The term was condescending and demeaning and… hot to me.Which made no sense.If Derek had ever called me little girl, I would’ve smacked the side of his head and given him a lecture on women’s rights.What made it so unbelievably thrilling from the mouth of the Devil Duke?
I liked being at his mercy.
No, I freaking loved it.
What in the hell was wrong with me?I was a career-oriented woman with control issues.Could it be all this time the secret button to arousal for me was dominance?
All the time with Derek I’d held the reins in the bedroom.I’d said when I wanted sex and refused when I didn’t.And our lovemaking had been lukewarm at best.With Darius, control had been stripped from me from the very start.It had terrified me, but had also ignited a level of lust, of passion, I hadn’t known existed.Without the layer of control—thearmorof control—I became nothing but a willing body, eager to receive.
I hadn’t moved, and Darius growled, stalking away and taking the cord with him.
A sigh of relief puffed from my lips, but it was too soon.When Darius returned, he carried a roll of black tape.Twisting my arms behind my back, he wrapped the tape around my wrists, securing them at my lower back.I fought for a moment, not because having my wrists taped frightened me, but because I wouldn’t have them free if he choked me.
Fuck.He was going to choke me with that cord.
As if he recognized I needed soothing, Darius pulled my hair back from my neck and pressed his lips to my shoulder.“Easy, American.You can trust me.I know you’re scared.”He reached around the front of me, holding the cord out in front of my face.“It’s just a shoelace.This thing would break before it could choke a girl.And strangulation isn’t my game.Not today, anyway.With you, probably not ever, although I like a challenge.”
Waves of cold flooded my body.Was he talking about auto-asphyxiation?Or whatever that sex kink was where people died from choking during sex?All rational thought fled my brain as sheer terror enveloped my body, swallowing me whole, drowning me in darkness and cold.
“Shh, you’re okay, baby.”Warm arms held me tight, Darius’ voice murmured in my ear.“You’re shaking, sweetheart.Take my strength.I have you.I won’t let anything bad happen to you.I promise.”
I fought to slow my heart rate and regain control.“I’m sorry,” I squeaked, embarrassed at how easily I turned into a quivering ball of fear.
“No breath play.I’ll accept that hard limit from you.”He stroked up and down my arms.“But if I kept you, angel—if you were mine forever—someday I’d cure you of this phobia.You’d beg me to have my hand around that lovely throat.”
If you were mine forever.
The words sent a pang of longing through my chest.Three days were all I had with this man.This complex, dominant, wonderful man.I hadn’t allowed any shadow of hope for more to enter my mind.Until he spoke those words.
Damn him.I wanted to be his forever.
And that was utterly impossible.
Laughable.
Ridiculous.
I was disposable to him.Even if hekept mea while longer, it wouldn’t last.These things never do.He wasn’t going to marry an American journalist from a lower middle class single parent home.Please.
So yeah.I needed to erase any and all images that sprang in my head of what it would be like to bekeptby Darius Halsburg.
“I’m going to put this on you now.You’ll feel it, but it won’t squeeze.Just like a necklace.”
“I don’t wear necklaces,” I squeaked.Or turtlenecks.Or shirts with small collars.
“What happened to you, baby?Did someone hurt you?”His voice sharpened at the end, like he couldn’t quite maintain the calming tone he’d adopted.“Give me a name.”
“No,” I barely managed to speak as I controlled my reaction to the cord which he’d laid gently over my skin.“Nothing happened.I’ve always been like this.”
