Page 19 of Reckoning

She looked afraid now, skin too pale around her dark eyes and hair, but her eyes betrayed something deeper. After the other day, I knew underneath that fear was lust. A desire for me. I’d felt it all around me while I finger fucked her in the woods behind the house, no matter how hard she worked to keep from kissing me. And I hadn’t even gotten off, not until much later and by my own hand.

She wanted me to give her something?

Fine.

I’d give her my cock.

I’d fuck her until she might as well have never known anyone else. She needed the memory of my hard length filling her to erase any other that might have previously encroached on my territory. She didn’t believe what was happening yet, even after what I’d shown her and what I’d told her so far. She had to know she was mine.

I dragged her to her feet and pushed her toward the bathroom. “Undress,” I commanded. She didn’t have a chance to react because I moved so quickly, but she yanked away from me as I reached into the shower and turned on the water. When I faced her again, she hadn’t moved. I grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled her against me again, this time backing into the spray. “If you can’t follow orders, I’ll have to do it myself.” I pulled at the hem of her shirt, but she crossed her arms around her body.

“What are you doing?” she hissed, squinting as the water hit her eyes. Every drop of false bravado brought on by her anger was gone. She shook beneath me so hard I thought she would crack, but I didn’t care as long as I was the one to shatter her.

“There she is,” I growled. “There’s the scared little girl I’ve wanted to meet for six years.” I switched tactics and dropped my hands to her shorts, sending them falling to the floor. I reached between her legs, expecting her to open up for me just as she had before, but she slapped my hand away. I wanted to scream with frustration. Every fiber of my being ached to put this woman in her place, but she was so intent on fighting me. Even afraid, she was resolute.

“Did you miss the part where you belong to me?” My voice came out as a snarl, and I swallowed to clear my throat. I felt like a teenager, zeroed in on the woman in front of me and unable to consider anything besides the feel of my body against hers. “Remember how you came for me in the woods? You couldn’t keep yourself from climaxing no matter how much you wanted to hate me.”

I had been promised this woman for years, from the moment I was old enough to know the secrets of my own mother and hers. The day of her sixteenth birthday, when Conrad had finally found her, I saw the beginnings of the woman who looked so much like her mother I remembered from my childhood. I had followed her progress through her schooling and career with almost as much interest as I had dedicated to my own. I was devoted to learning everything about her so that I felt like she was mine even before she came to me.

“You. Can’t. Own. Me.” Did she think if she said it enough times, it would become true? She pushed against my chest, hard. Caught off guard, I stumbled back, but she made no move to run. I studied her, the way her chest heaved and her nipples stood out through the soaked T-shirt. I saw the rush of blood to her face that had nothing to do with her bruises. I saw the trembling in her legs, unrelated to her beating. I saw the way her eyes trailed down my body and rested on my cock straining through my wet pants before flying back to my face and focusing on my lips.

My fingers worked the buttons of my shirt quicker than ever before, letting it fall from my shoulders. “I think I already do.” I stepped back to her quickly, and this time, my hand was allowed to settle between her legs, finding her wet not from the water but from desire. Desire for me.

“I don’t want this,” she started to say, but her words were lost in a sigh when I pushed a finger inside her without warning. My hand went to her neck, supporting her as she fell backward against the wall.

“You’re lying,” I muttered, grinding my hardness against her belly. My finger wiggled inside, stroking her soft walls that shuddered at my touch. I pressed my thumb against her clit, and she moaned helplessly. “Have you been watching me as closely as I’ve been watching you?” I leaned down and bit her lip, taking care to avoid the bruised side of her face. I felt her lips part and moved to kiss her before she turned her head. Her hand was on my wrist, trying to force me out, but I pushed in another finger. She cried out again, jerking away before sinking down onto my fingers. “You were born to belong to me, Madeline. There’s no use in fighting.”

And for one moment, I thought she would give in. Her hand drifted not to my wrist but to my cock, pressed hard and hot against her soft flesh. Her fingers danced over the head, and my stomach clenched in anticipation. Before I could give her time to think, I withdrew my fingers and flipped her around, pressing her against the shower wall. I yanked at my belt and dropped my pants, kicking them away. Pulling out my dick, I finally lined myself up at her entrance. I was seconds away from entering her. The heat coming from between her legs was burning me, hot against my normally cool skin, and I thought about what it would feel like to have that warmth wrapped all around me, enveloping me completely, to sink into her like comfortable clothes or a warm bath. But she slipped away suddenly, taking advantage of my slackened grip to press herself into the corner of the shower and hug her arms across her chest.

The fear in her face now was different. She wasn’t just afraid of me anymore. She was angry.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she demanded. She pressed her legs together, trying to hide the signals her body was broadcasting at full volume. “You don’t know me. I’m not something you can tie up and keep around to play with when you get bored.” She dared a step forward and grabbed her shorts off the floor, tugging them back on to hide her nakedness.

I reached out and seized her arm, but she didn’t allow me to pull her against me again. Her heels slipped against the tile, and I found myself half supporting her as she struggled to fall against the floor rather than come close to me. She grimaced, then cried out as my fingers wrapped tight around her injured flesh.

“Am I not being clear to you, Madeline?” I was more angry than aroused, but that was quickly changing. Her fight made me want her even more. I wanted to show her she was nothing, not without me. I had to prove to her she had no mind and no free will, not anymore. “There is no negotiating. No more of what you want or what you feel. I own you. Completely.” I reached out to grab her clothes again, but her teeth sank into my hand, purposely biting on the bone. I yelled and dropped her. She groaned as she hit the ground but then backpedaled quickly out of my reach. I looked at the indentations her teeth left on my hand, already a fluorescent purple. I turned off the water, suddenly unable to see clearly through the rain.

She climbed out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself.

“Stay away from me. You can’t own a person. My mother proved that, and I will be no different.”

Anger had completely taken over now, and I could hear my pulse whooshing in my ears as I bore down on her. She didn’t cower this time but faced me on even footing. She knew the pendulum had swung. She knew she was close to winning this battle, after escaping me once. I grabbed her hair and wrenched her head back, but despite the extreme angle, she only grimaced.

“Your mother is nothing but a lying whore, and so are you.” I clamped my mouth against hers, but she drove her fist against my cheek. It was so weak, not even enough to bruise, but I threw her away from me. She stumbled but kept from falling.

“You can’t even defend yourself properly,” I sneered, but she was already through the door and back into the bedroom. The towel fell away as she ran to the door leading out to the hallway, but I was there to hold it closed. I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back into the room, kicking and screaming.

“Let me go!”

I threw her on the bed without answering and pressed my body on top of hers.

“I’ll let you sleep in my bed. No more rope, no more carpet.” I grabbed her breast through her shirt and was moving my other hand to her shorts, tugging them down again. “You just have to let me fuck you, Mads, and I’ll make you a queen. You can be my partner instead of my whore.”

“Never.” Her spittle flew in my face.

“Now.” I bit her neck.

“Get off!”

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