Page 31 of You Only Love Twice
"Then buy another one."
Am I going to have the chance?
"Just what are you intending to do?" she asked suspiciously. Flirtation or not, she refused to give this bastard a single piece of her. "Because the answer is no."
"Nothing."
He stepped back, allowing her to turn and face him.
"Did you really think it was going to be so easy? That I would soften for your pretty words, for the soft gasp on your lips?"
She'd thought he'd been falling into the smoky lure of her trap, but as he wrenched the dress out from under her, she realized she'd been mistaken. One look at the hard planes of his face told her the truth; she alone had felt the flush of heat through her veins as a need long dormant rose within her.
Obsidian's cold eyes met hers.
He curved his hand around her throat, a faint, threatening caress. "Every word from your lying little mouth only confirms my suspicions. You're manipulative from the top of your head to your toes. Sex is merely a weapon to you. Every word you utter is a lie. Thank you. For reminding me exactly who you are."
She clutched his hand.
They glared at each other, his thumb stroking her throat, and God damn her but she felt it all the way within.
"I'm not the only liar," Gemma spat, feeling like he'd stripped the ground out from under her feet.
For a second her body had betrayed her, desperately wanting his hands on her naked flesh, but it was more than that. Somewhere within the scarred ashes of what remained of her heart, she'd felt something stir.
You're happy he's alive.
And he hates you.
It was more than she could bear in that moment.
His cheek tensed, then he looked away and let her go.
"You won't be going very far without your gown or boots." He hauled the hessian sack toward him, and Gemma's gaze shot to it as something within it clanked.
"What are you doing?"
He withdrew a long chain with a manacle on either end. "You've already proved a simple cell cannot hold you."
Gemma tried to dart to the side, but his arm locked around her waist and he hauled her back against his chest, her stockinged feet kicking helplessly.
He took her down, pinning her to the marble slab in the center of the room. There were a dozen ways she could have gotten away—a thumb to his eye, two sharp fingers stabbed into his throat—but some part of her softened.
To escape right now meant she'd have to seriously injure him, and she wasn't certain she had it in her, especially not after his recent revelations.
Besides. Obsidian wasdhampir; she wasn't convinced she could actually flee without somehow killing him.
Better to wait.
He thought stripping her down to her corset made her vulnerable. Ha. More fool him.
"Damn you." She kicked out at him, making a convincing act of protest. It wouldn't do to give in too early. He might grow suspicious.
Capturing her foot, he locked the manacle around her ankle and set the other end through an iron ring at the base of the marble slab.
By the time he pushed to his feet, both of them were panting.
Gemma flinched at the cold marble beneath her and wrapped her shivering arms around herself. "It's freezing in here without my gown."
