Page 147 of Her Beast

“You’ve manipulated me, haven’t you?”

She lifted her eyebrows. “Perhaps.”

He gave a chuckle that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. When he reached for her cheek, she flinched.

“Shhh,” he soothed, cupping her gently. “You wanted my attention, now you have it, Julia. What can I do for you?”

She lifted her chin defiantly—and perhaps she rubbed her cheek against his palm. Maybe just a little—and said, “Have you called her back?”

“Called who?”

Julia scowled. “Maisie!”

His eye widened briefly and he gave a bark of laughter.

“What is so amusing about that?”

“No, Maisie won’t be coming back.”

“But you’ll have some other woman?” she demanded before she could stop herself. Julia wanted to slap her own face. What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she shut her mouth?

Malcolm’s pale blue eye turned icy and cruel. “Will I fuck another whore? Is that what you are asking me? That is a safe wager, Julia. Utterly safe.”

Molten jealousy bubbled in her belly and rose up in her throat, choking her. Shehatedhim in that moment.

His gaze stripped her bare, exposing her humiliating yearning. He stroked her lower lip with his thumb. “Are you offering to please me, Julia? Hmm? Is that what you want—to be my whore?”

Shock exploded inside her like a pyrotechnic display and Julia opened her mouth to tell him to go to the devil.

But before she could speak, he pushed his thumb between her lips. “Suck.”

Her jaw dropped open in shock and he took advantage of her reaction to shove the thick leather clad digit all the way to the joint, his lips curving into an unspeakably decadent smile.

“Go on. Show me you deserve my cock.”

Humiliation, disbelief, and anger collided inside her at his crude order, but those emotions were swamped by a lust so visceral it made her head spin.

“No?” He cocked his eyebrow and began to withdraw his thumb.

Julia clamped down hard enough to make him wince. “Tsk, tsk,no teeth, sweetheart.”

Her face scalded at his mocking smile and her own shameful behavior; she should just release him now and tell him to get out.

But if she did that, he would leave and never come back. This was it; this was her last chance to get what she wanted: him.

And so she sucked.

∞∞∞

Be kind to her, Mal. She just wants to please you.

Well, look who has come back.Thank you for sharing what is patently obvious, Sukey.

It would be clear even to a dead man that Julia was all but exploding to give herself to him. Her desire to please him was insanely flattering and arousing and made him feel a hundred feet tall.

Too bad it was nothing but infatuation.

If he took her—made her his—and then continued with his plans for her family? Well, it would be his undoing. Because she would hate him with the heat of a thousand suns after he destroyed her life.

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