Текст книги "Harrow Duet"

Автор книги: Scarlett Finn

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Текущая страница: 14 (всего у книги 38 страниц)

Chapter Seventeen

Vegas was just the same, it was the only constantly-changing, exactly the same city that she had ever experienced. While the buildings and the attractions transformed, that buzz that existed in the air as you moved down The Strip was always the same.

Dax had parked at a hotel and checked them in under a pseudo-name, he’d then given her ten minutes to get freshened up. She tried to tempt him into the shower with her, but he’d been insistent that they’d have time once the deed was done.

Either he was nervous and getting cold feet, so he wanted it over with, or he was really eager to have them bound together. Picking up the marriage licence took no time at all, Dax had everything that they needed, including her ID, which she guessed he must have brought – or maybe stolen – from the Stark place.

He’d quizzed her on whether or not it was genuine, or if she was using an alias, but she assured him that she wasn’t. He was the one involved in criminal activity, not her, so if anyone had a right to suspect the other was using a false name, it was her. Except Dax made such a big deal about this being completely legitimate that she couldn’t really doubt him.

They went to a little white chapel advertising that it had a drive-thru window. The night was bright with neon, the city alive with possibility. Droves of people came here hoping to win the jackpot, Ivy was probably the only person in the whole state of Nevada who felt like she’d brought her jackpot with her.

Ivy reached for the front door handle of the chapel, but Dax caught her hand and drew her away from the entrance. In the shadow of the awning above, he pushed her to the wall and rested an arm at the side of her head. His own bowed head gave her cause for worry.

‘What is it?’ she asked. If he had decided that he no longer wanted her then she might be forced to go back to the Starks’, back to Trystan. ‘Dax?’ Cupping his face, she brought his stooped form up enough for him to meet her eyes.

‘I need you to say yes,’ he murmured.

‘What?’

‘I… I did something stupid, before I came to get you at Mauri’s.’

‘Something stupid?’ she asked. ‘What did you do?’

‘It seemed like a good idea at the time, but… now I’m embarrassed to admit that I did it.’ He got on the defensive. ‘And I’m not the type of guy to be embarrassed, I mean fuck the world. I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks—‘

‘What was her name?’ Ivy whispered, sick at the thought of him touching another woman. ‘Where did you meet her? Did you go looking to get laid or did it just happen by accident?’

Warring emotions overcame her because technically, until today, they hadn’t been together. Except at the beach house he had admitted that he cared for her and she had wanted them to have a future. She wasn’t sure that she had the right to be sick and angry, but she didn’t know if she could erase the images of him being intimate with another woman imprinted on her mind.

He frowned. ‘What?’

‘Was it after you were with me last night?’ she asked. ‘I know that we weren’t together, together, but—‘

She stopped talking when he sank down in front of her and she saw him fumble with something in his inside pocket. Unsure what it was, she was about to ask when he popped open a box and showed her a single solitaire diamond ring.

‘I bought you a goddamn ring, Minx, I didn’t fuck around on you.’

‘You bought me a ring,’ she said, trying not to swoon because his scowl told her that he wasn’t happy about this humiliation, so she covered her mouth with both hands to conceal her soppy grin. ‘Oh, baby.’

‘Just say yes or no so that we can get this shit over with,’ he grumbled, lowering his attention to the ground and she knew he was worried that someone would come upon them and he would be caught in this humiliating position.

For all of his stomping and strutting, he did respect her, and this act proved that to her. ‘I say yes,’ she said. ‘Yes, yes, yes.’

There might be something cliché about Vegas, but at the same time it was the place that they met. He took the ring out of the box and handed it to her as he stood so that she could slide it on herself. It looked like he was about to toss the box away, so she salvaged it before he could, then leapt up into his arms and kissed him.

That intimate action might have been naïve, because it took only half a beat for him to have her pressed to the chapel wall. Crouching, he ran a hand down her thigh and lifted it up to coil her limb around his hips. There was a busy street just behind him, and they were at the main entrance to a no doubt frequently used establishment. Their passion for each other had been contained for too long and her kiss had been enough to reawaken his want.

‘Let’s get this done,’ he said, backing off but keeping hold of her hips. ‘Once this is done, that’s it, right?’

‘Yes,’ she said again, admiring the ring on her hand. ‘Let’s get married, Dax.’

‘Then no one can take you away from me.’

It seemed that that was his biggest fear. He took her into the chapel as she considered the gravity of what he had just said. None of the details mattered to her so she let Dax deal with it all. All that mattered to her was that he hadn’t let go of her hand and his determination to do this hadn’t wavered.

Once they were joined in matrimony there was no way that Mauri could make her marry Trystan, so not only was Dax protecting their love, but he was protecting her as well. This could cost him dearly, but he’d made the choice, just as she’d told him he would have to. Dax had chosen her and she had to make sure that he never regretted his decision.

The wedding was quick, their eyes and hands remained locked throughout the ceremony, and when it came time to say “I do” neither of them hesitated. This was it. They were now man and wife; she was Mrs. Ivy Harrow.

Tonight she had learned that romance wasn’t completely lost on Dax, though tradition certainly was. As was proven when he opened their hotel room door and strode in, preoccupied by other things that were on his mind. Ivy didn’t step over the threshold, she just caught the door before it closed then cleared her throat.

Dax glanced back, still stuffing the key card back into his wallet. ‘What?’ he asked.

‘You’re supposed to lift me up.’

‘Why?’ he asked, tossing his wallet onto a side table. ‘What’s wrong with you?’

‘There is nothing wrong with me,’ she said, torn between losing her patience and laughing. ‘It’s tradition.’

‘What’s tradition?’

‘That the groom carries the bride over the threshold. Really, Dax, you’re not off to the best start with your husband duties.’

‘No?’ he asked, swaggering back to her. ‘Maybe I’ll gain points when I perform other duties.’

Crouching down, he tossed her over his shoulder and hoisted her into the hotel room in the most un-traditional pose possible. But when he threw her down on the bed and kicked off his shoes, she decided that she couldn’t care less about tradition, at least none other than the consummation part.

‘Maybe I plan to play hard to get,’ she teased.

‘You don’t have a choice when it comes to putting out,’ he said, yanking his tee-shirt off over his head.

‘I don’t?’

‘No.’

‘Because we’re married now?’

‘That,’ he said. ‘And until we’ve consummated the marriage it can still be annulled. We don’t want Mauri trying to pull that one on us, do we?’

Now that the deed was done he was much more relaxed and it was nice to see him back to his comfortable self. In front of Bruno, and the other mobsters, he was cold and aloof because it suited the image. But with her it was a different story.

This was like being back in his bedroom in the beach house, where they could tease and argue, and know that they were safe with each other. The masks came off, the games ended, and they could just be. Dax gave her safety. All of her life she’d existed in an unsecure state, never sure when or where the next pay check was coming from; or if she’d have enough money to eat and pay bills the next day. Now that she had this love, none of that mattered, because every challenge would be faced together, she finally had somewhere to belong.

‘I guess I have no choice then,’ she said.

Sitting up, she pushed down her dress and then elevated her hips to shimmy out of it. Ironically, she was still wearing the underwear that she had chosen for her wedding day, which this turned out to be. When she lay back down on the bed, Dax remained standing. As much as she enjoyed basking in his flattering gaze, she worried about how all of today’s events had affected him.

‘If you’re having second thoughts…’ she said, wanting him to know that he could still back out and she wouldn’t hold him against his will.

‘No,’ he said, loosening his jeans. ‘I’m just wondering why we didn’t do this a month ago.’

‘Because someone was sure it would all work out in the end,’ she said, holding up her arms to invite him down onto the mattress with her. But he didn’t come. ‘It turns out that you were right, just maybe not in the way that you thought.’

‘We’ve still got a long way to go.’

‘I know,’ she said, sitting up and pulling down his jeans to hurry things along. ‘But let’s not worry about that tonight.’

Taking hold of the thick appendage hanging before her, Ivy kissed his head and ran her palm along the length of his shaft. Taking him in both hands, she licked and sucked at his penis until the beads of his pre-cum were dripping out onto her tongue.

‘You keep doing that and I’ll end up consummating with your face,’ he murmured.

Ducking down, he picked her up under her arms and raised her higher on the bed, until her head landed on the pillows. He came down on top of her, already massaging her breasts, and when they were horizontal his fingers joined his lips. He sampled her nipples from every angle and with every part of his mouth.

The heat of climax teased at her and she gripped at his waist, bringing her legs up and around him, as high as she could, hoping that he would take advantage of the invitation to penetrate her. But he shifted his position higher and kissing her mouth she was further teased by his silken rod poking and stroking her abdomen.

‘Just fuck me, Dax,’ she exhaled, dragging her nails up and down his back.

He kissed her mouth and she was so frustrated that it took his tongue a few attempts at entry before she unclenched her teeth. ‘You’re tense,’ he said, pressing moist lips to her cheekbone, then her ear. ‘You’re not nervous are you, babygirl?’

But he knew exactly what was wrong with her because he was the one doing it. ‘You said I could handle tonight’s action,’ she said, remembering what he’d said in the car.

Trying to push him onto his back was futile, Ivy needed him to comply or she’d never be able to overpower him, so she needed him to choose to submit.

‘Maybe later,’ he said. ‘This here is a husband’s job.’

If she’d been asked on the night they met if she thought Dax was the commitment type, she’d have bet her life that he wasn’t. But now that she knew about his dedicated work with Mauri for all of these years, two decades, and about how long he’d been frequenting fights on the underground circuit, she knew different. This was a guy that when he was determined to be loyal, or he enjoyed something, then he was happy to throw himself into it full force.

‘We’re actually married,’ she said, gazing at the ceiling beyond his shoulder. ‘We’re married.’ Having not imagined herself in this position, Ivy needed time to let the development sink in, and then something occurred to her. She smacked the heel of her hand into the pressure point of his shoulder to get his attention. ‘You’re not gonna screw around on me.’

‘Was that a statement or a question?’ he asked, teasing her nipple between his teeth.

‘It was as statement. If your dick thinks about sniffing around any other pussy then I’ll chop it right off and carry it around in my pocket. I mean it, Dax. I don’t care how big and hard all your friends think you are, you are not allowed to—‘

‘Jeez,’ he said, abandoning his work on her body to elevate his head. ‘We’ve been married ten minutes and the nagging has started already. Keeping you happy is gonna be a full time job, Minx. I’m not interested in going out there to chase tail.’

‘Good,’ she said, broadening a smile then tracing the stems of ivy on his bicep. ‘Not many guys would do what you’ve done for me tonight, Dax.’

‘I haven’t done anything yet,’ he said, prodding his engorged head into her folds. ‘You keep waffling shit, which puts a guy off his game. In fact…’

He didn’t finish that thought, instead he rolled off the bed with his usual catlike finesse and pulled something from one of the closets. Raising herself onto her elbows, Ivy tried to see what he was doing. On his return to the bed Dax held something behind his back. Except Ivy was so distracted by the view of his intimidating erection nodding at her as he walked that she forgot all about her curiosity as to what it was he concealed.

Straddling her hips when he crawled over her, Ivy expected him to take immediate, intense action. ‘What have you got for me, big boy?’ she asked.

‘It’s not for you, it’s for me,’ he said.

Intrigued, her eyebrows slid upward, but her curiosity was quickly quenched when he brought his hand around to reveal a strip of cotton elastic. He unwound it with a single flick, then doubled it to tie around her head, gagging her to prevent further vocal disruptions.

‘That’s much better,’ he said, gripping his cock and stroking it while his other hand petted and pinched her breast.

Grumbling behind the gag, Ivy tried to ask him if he would need her mouth, but he couldn’t decipher her words. When his lips curled with satisfaction she relaxed and let her weight sink into the bed.

‘There’s a lot of shit coming and we don’t know how it’s going to go down,’ he said, dipping to bite her nipple so hard that she squealed at the jolt of torturous pleasure.

Her whole body seemed to be connected by strings. Every fibre of her was connected to another seemingly unconnected point through invisible rods of rubbery steel that conducted the current of his touch like zipping electricity. Each caress made her want to scream out and purr, both at the same time.

‘There’s one thing I’m sure of, one thing that you should worry your little head about while I deal with the rest of the crap going on in our lives.’ She couldn’t ask him what because of the gag, so she waited for him to answer. ‘Every night your bed, and your pussy, are going to be filled by me. I’m going to fuck you every night and every chance I get because you don’t need that spirit of yours to defend yourself anymore, Minx. It’s mine. Every part of you is mine. And that spirit which loves to spar with me and spit out at the world, that belongs to me now too, and I want you to use it. You’re going to use it to think about sex, use it to pleasure yourself on my dick every time I give you the opportunity.’

Again, she tried to grumble, because she wanted to fight and tell him that she didn’t need to be looked after. Ivy wanted to yell that she could be at his side to deal with any shit that might come their way because she didn’t want him to feel like he was out in the world alone; she knew how debilitating that could be. Except with the gag in place, nothing but grunts and mumbles came out. Ivy tried so hard, but all she succeeded in doing was dribbling on herself.

Dax might have taken this in the wrong way because he laughed and bowed again, to lick the saliva trail that ran from the corner of her mouth, then he dipped his mouth to her ear. ‘Does that turn you on, babygirl? Does the idea of dedicating your life to my cock make you drool? Knowing that’s how you feel about it makes your husband very happy, I’m gonna make sure you get constant access.’

Tumbling off her body, he stole a pillow from under her head to prop up his own then bucked up to make himself more comfortable. After that, he scooped up her body and kicked her legs apart with his. She didn’t have a chance to straddle him comfortably, or find her own place, because he rammed her body down onto his while thrusting upward and he plunged into her so deep that her squashed cervix was bruised in the intrusion.

But he kept on going, holding her at a height that gave him maximum offensive impact for his onslaught. He fucked his way up into her, driving faster with each insertion until her legs became so weak that she struggled to match his fervour.

Never had her centre been so sensitive. Webbed with pain and equal all-encompassing pleasure, she almost forgot that the muzzle was over her mouth. She kept calling and squealing each time he stabbed into a new or perceptive spot.

Their eyes met and the chill of those ice blues brought her to a crashing climax. Sucking in a breath so deep that the gag became concave, Ivy managed to huff the syllable of his name. Dax lunged on, prodding further into her repeatedly, desperate to reach his own summit.

He tossed her backwards so that she landed on the bed between his thighs. The unexpected move left Ivy searching for her bearings, she was anchored again when he landed on her and penetrated her with a vigorous plunge. Every inch of him occupied her and when he was all the way inside, he stopped, locking his eyes to hers, he stayed static.

Mumbling, she tried to move, but he locked their pelvises and just stared. ‘I’m gonna fuck you all night.’

She wanted to tell him that he could and that didn’t mean he couldn’t come. The longer he remained where he was, the more she was convinced that he was trying to prevent himself from getting to orgasm. Whether it was a test of stamina or restraint didn’t matter to her, she just wanted him to have the same completion that she had.

‘I’m the last man who will ever be here, inside you, like this. Mine is the last dick that your pussy will ever swallow.’

That possessive reality made her wriggle and she wanted to kiss him, to reassure him while reminding him that her pussy would be the last space that his dick would occupy too. But his hand appeared between them and the undulating motion of his fingers around her clit joined the gentle rocking of his pelvis and her eyes slipped shut.

All coherent thought abandoned her and Dax was all that filled her head, her heart, and her intimate passage. This man had chosen her, married her because he loved her and to protect her from being taken by another.

Knowing that she had hit the jackpot, the pulse of his throbbing dick sent her over the apex of pleasure again and this time he couldn’t resist. Ivy clamped down around him so tight that he was unable to move, and neither of them were able to breathe. The volume of his slick seed pumped into her and she felt every quiver of him as he loaded her with his DNA. Each ounce of fluid was plugged in place by his cock which remained corked in her even after he was no longer stiff, and he had folded himself around her.

But she didn’t move because she didn’t want him to leave her body, or this space. Ivy was exactly where she was meant to be, exactly where she belonged.

Chapter Eighteen

They ordered room service, watched some bullshit TV, and had sex again. After that they went down to the casino for a while. Every time Ivy caught a sideways glance at Dax she had to remind herself that he belonged to her because it seemed so unreal.

Anyone on Dax’s trajectory cleared the path so that he could walk in a straight line without interruption. Yet, he was oblivious to the intimidation he exuded. He strode with the same manner he would adopt on an abandoned beach, it made no difference to him that he was actually on a crowded sidewalk or in a mobbed casino. His superiority was more than just a case of height and formidable form. His expression was clear, he didn’t scowl, yet he managed to maintain an intensity that made it impossible for anyone to know what he was thinking.

He existed in a bubble, no one could penetrate it; no one would dare enter the personal space that was restricted behind the invisible barrier. It was as if he had his own transparent security team ensuring no one could touch him. No one except her.

Ivy had been accepted into his bubble and as much as she wasn’t privy to all of the details of his past she knew that this was a rare occurrence. Not that history mattered now, they were married, and she wouldn’t let any other woman into her husband’s inner bubble because she’d make sure that he never needed anyone else.

After a few drinks and some flirting at the bar, they made their way back up to their hotel room. Tomorrow could prove to be a big day if they went back to California, but that was a big “if” because Ivy had already made the decision to take another swing at talking him out of that.

‘Your legs working this time?’ Dax asked while opening their door.

‘What?’ she asked, strutting past him, giving him no choice except to hold the door open for her.

She went all the way into the bedroom which was a grand large room with a massive bed and although it wasn’t exactly a suite, the bathroom was big enough to have a double shower cubicle and a Jacuzzi tub. Dax had offered to take her to the GoldSpring, in fact it was the first place he pulled the car up to when they got into town, but the last thing that she wanted to do was face her old colleagues.

‘Tradition isn’t my thing,’ he said.

‘No white picket fence in our future?’ she asked.

Sitting on the end of the bed to slip off her shoes, Ivy made the decision that she would have to buy more heels if she was going to spend the rest of her life on Dax’s arm. She didn’t like that when they were walking together tonight she couldn’t kiss him or whisper in his ear without first having to tug on his arm like a child looking for the acknowledgement of a parent.

‘Get ready for bed,’ he said, striding past her toward the bathroom.

Leaping to her feet, Ivy knew that now was the time to try and appeal to his better sense. If she left it any later they’d be engaged in the physical and talking would be the last thing he would have interest in. ‘My aunt lives in Florida.’

The peculiar look that crossed his face when he stopped to peer at her told her that Dax wasn’t following her line of thought. ‘So?’

‘So,’ she said, creeping toward him. ‘Maybe we could go and visit her, we could go to the beach and laze in the sun all day.’

‘We’re in the fucking desert now,’ he said and she curled her fingers around his wrists. ‘And I’ve seen you in a bikini enough to last me the rest of my life.’

‘We could find ourselves a topless beach. I could leave the bikini at home,’ she said, but her teasing only made him frown.

‘Why would I want you parading around in front of other guys? If I want to see your tits I snap my fingers.’

‘Oh, it’s not as easy as that,’ she said. ‘You forget that I’m not your captive anymore, there’s no basement to relegate me to. I can be as mouthy as I want.’

Sidling closer, he lowered his face. ‘Didn’t I prove earlier that I control that mouth? I can prove it again right now.’

‘No way,’ she said, her smile slinking upward. ‘I’m wise to you now, big boy. There’s no way you’ll be keeping me quiet again any time soon. Next time you screw me I’m going to scream to high heavens.’

‘Screaming is acceptable, your back talk is not.’

‘You married a woman with opinions,’ she said, elevating herself onto her tiptoes. ‘Opinions that you just love to contradict.’

‘Because they’re wrong,’ he said. ‘You keep your opinions to yourself and spend more time listening to mine.’

‘Why would I do that?’

‘Because mine are the ones you should be spouting. My opinions should be your opinions. A wife should toe the line that the husband orders her to.’

Although he maintained his sincerity, Ivy laughed, because she couldn’t honestly believe that he would think a piece of paper would suddenly make her Miss. Compliant. Bruno hadn’t managed it with physical abuse and imprisonment, so Dax wouldn’t achieve it with marriage.

‘That so?’

‘You are going to be a good wife,’ he said, touching a fingertip to the underside of her chin.

‘So I should meet you at the door with a kiss after a hard day of enforcing? Have your favourite meal cooked and on the table every night?’

‘A blowjob at the door and a good spanking over the dinner table is what I expect you to submit to.’

‘Why would I need a spanking,’ she pouted, hooking two fingers into his jeans belt loops. ‘I might have been a good girl.’

‘Unlikely,’ he replied, walking himself forward and forcing her to walk backwards until he’d barged her all the way to the bed. ‘You’ve already been naughty and we’ve only been back in the room for five minutes.’

‘I have?’

‘I told you to get ready for bed, what does that mean?’

‘I don’t have any jammies,’ she said, squeezing out from the restricted space between him and the bed to cross to the closet which contained the sports bag that he’d retrieved his clean clothes from earlier in the night. ‘I don’t suppose you packed me anything to wear.’

‘Your birthday suit is all you’ll ever need in my bed, Minx, stop that fucking teasing and get over here.’

But she’d already tugged out the sports bag, so she opened it to see if he had indeed packed her any clothes. The item on top broke the spell of seduction and she explored no further. With a rubber band looped around them to keep them together, a large stack of a dozen or so zip ties stared up at her. She took them out of the bag and held them up; this time it was her turn to frown.

‘What’s this?’ she asked, rising from her crouch. ‘Why do you have these?’

‘They’re mine,’ he said as though they held no significance.

‘Why did you bring them? What use do you have for them on our wedding night?’

Having never considered herself an insecure person, this unfamiliar wave of timidity and doubt came with a flourish of nausea.

‘I plan to be prepared,’ he said.

‘For kidnapping other women or—‘

‘None of your business,’ he said. ‘I do what I want and I don’t answer to you.’

‘No, you answer to the man behind the curtain. You have all of this respect for Mauri Stark, but all I see is him sending you out to get your hands dirty. I haven’t seen him do any work at all. He’s taught you to subjugate and—‘

‘What’s Mauri got to do with this?’

‘You feel the need to go back there, to apologise for falling in love with me! I mean how dare you think that—‘

Storming over to her, Dax snatched the zip ties and tossed them onto the bed. ‘We’re going back there, if I have to sling you into the trunk of the car and—‘

‘No! We are not going back to those people. I was dragged to that beach house and held prisoner so that you and your buddy could make me into the perfect wife for… for him. But it didn’t turn out that way, did it? You were my only sanctuary,’ she said, uninvited tears burned her eyes, but she grit her teeth and carried on, determined not to let them fall. ‘I don’t know why you let me in, why you chose to show me mercy when—‘

‘Ah, hell,’ he said, turning his back on her. ‘Don’t get into all that romantic hero bullshit. You were a decent lay who—‘

‘That doesn’t explain this, now,’ she said, moving across the room and around his body so that he had to look her in the face. ‘You married me! You brought me here to marry me for a sole reason: to prevent Trystan from marrying me. You’ve made it impossible for him to do it because my name is already on a piece of paper with yours.’

‘Yeah, I get it, we did the commitment bullshit already, now strip down for me, put on a show.’

Backing up to sit in a corner arm chair, his relaxed pose was one of a man waiting to be entertained, and in a far more intimate way that a standard lap dance. ‘I’m not going back there, Dax,’ Ivy said, unwilling to let the issue go as he wanted her to.

‘I already told you, I’ll go to the mansion and—‘

‘No. I’m not going back to California to watch you turn yourself inside out for them. It’s not worth it.’

‘It’s not worth it for you maybe,’ he said. ‘But after everything I’ve done for you—‘

Tilting her head she let out a whine, ‘Aww, yes, thank you so much for making me strip naked in front of strangers and parade around doing your chores. I especially loved the part where you left me down in that dungeon to rot for days, happily allowing your buddy to grope and ogle me to his heart’s content. Is that what I have to look forward to in my future?’

‘It’s not gonna be like that, babygirl. I’m gonna talk to Mauri and to make him see that—‘

‘I’ve heard this before, Dax,’ she said, shirking her sarcasm. ‘You weren’t man enough to stand up to him then, how can I believe that you will be now? For whatever reason you’re afraid of him—‘

‘I am not afraid!’

‘Whatever, Dax,’ she said, crouching to pick up her shoes. Before she’d stood upright again he was out of his seat and coming toward her.

‘What the fuck do you think you need those for?’

‘I’m going to take a walk,’ she said.

‘No you’re not,’ he said, lashing out to grab her wrist.

Ivy tried to pull away but his strength was far superior. ‘I am not your captive anymore, Dax. You’re going to have to learn that you won’t always know where I am. We won’t always exist in the same space. Let me go, please.’

‘I told you that you’d never be free,’ he snarled and with one yank her body clashed into his.

He got hold of her other wrist and because she knew she couldn’t pull free, she tried to back away. But he followed, carrying on until she fell backwards over the sports bag she’d discarded on the floor.

Dax’s muscles bulged as they contracted to seize her weight, though his act of catching her wasn’t altruistic. He hauled her up and slammed her into the closet, wrenching her upstretched arms so high that the tips of her toes almost didn’t touch the floor.

‘Let me go,’ she whispered, sensing that this was about more than them being physically apart.

‘No,’ he huffed with a sullen edge. ‘You’re mine. You stay. You go where I go.’

‘You can’t truly love me until you trust me, Dax. You have to be able to watch me walk out that door and know that I’ll come back to you.’

‘No.’

‘Do you think that I’m going to run away? I’m not. If I didn’t want to be with you then I wouldn’t have married you.’