Page 94 of Seizing Control: Part One

So, it’s better that the inevitable failure happens now rather than later on.

Tightening his grip on my neck, my husband matches my warning with one of his own. “Duchess.”

“I can’t do this...”

“Do what? Kiss me again?” He locks our lips together before I can protest. His tongue swipes over the seam of my mouth. At the same time, he flexes his fingers around my neck. I gasp as my body immediately melts. Slash touches the tip of his tongue to mine, tasting me, teasing me. He murmurs against my mouth, “Promise to obey me again?”

When I try to pull away, he constricts my airway.

Battling for composure on two fronts, fighting my body and Slash’s ability to push my buttons, I find myself trapped as his hand slides upward to cup the underside of my jaw, and he forces my head backward. The rocking chair reclines as he asks, “Or is it me that you can’t do?”

“Slash,” I plead as well as I can manage when I can’t open my mouth all the way. “Please.”

“Please what, wife?”

He holds me in place so he can run his tongue along the column of my neck, from my collarbone to the place where his fingers grip me tight. When his teeth test my skin, I know that I’m going to lose this war. Slash isn’t fighting fair. He’s taking advantage of the fact that my body and mind are out of sync. As if to prove my point, my nipples furl into tight buds. The fine hair over my body stands on end. As my skin becomes electrified, I swallow down the moan that demands I breathe life into it.

I clamp my lips shut.

Shake my head.

Again, Slash tests my defences. “Tell me... what can’t you do?”

“This!” I tap into the well of despair inside me, choosing to lash out in the hopes of scaring him off. Shoving his wide chest, I grind out in a voice filled with frustration, “I can’t stand up in front of everyone and promise to have and to hold you, to love and to obey you, to forsake all others... not when... not when I still love Zeke.”

The big man pins my arms above my head.

His hand easily captures both of my wrists in one.

I hit him with a beseeching look as he traps me.

My husband stares back with titanium resolution in his demeanour. “Remind me where I asked you to promise to forsake him? ’Cause I don’t remember that bein’ part of our vows at the compound... and I certainly didn’t ask for it to be part of the dog and pony show today.”

“But that’s what you want, though?” Holding on to my anger at the injustice of the situation so I don’t give in to my base needs, I snap, “Don’t deny it, you keep telling me that this marriage is real to you—that I’m yours now.”

“Not now—” Sounding more like Zeke than ever, Slash lays down the law. “—You always have been mine... it’s just the rest of the world now knows it too.”

“You can’t say things like that to me.”

“Why?”

“Because it... it?—”

“Confuses you.”

“No. It... it...” I attempt to break free of his grasp. Slash responds by tightening his hold on my jaw. My frustration is garbled and reedy when I retort, “You’re impossible.” He grins. “You’re infuriating.”

“Try bein’ in my shoes… I’m married to the woman of my dreams, but she’s in love with my best friend.”

His raw assessment of our predicament makes me more truthful than I want to be. “I love you, too.”

“Exactly.” There’s love and hunger in his ice-blue eyes as he peers down at me. “I’m content with your love. Happy as fuck to have my ring on your finger. What’s not fillin’ me with joy is your tendency to jump to conclusions instead’a askin’ for clarification outright.” Pinching my chin to silence me when I try to argue, he continues to flay me alive with half-truths and outright lies. “Not once have I demanded you forsake him. If you think about it, I’ve done the exact opposite. I’ve promised that I’ll be patient. I’ve promised to cherish you. I’ve been tryin’ my hardest to make this as easy as I can on you...” When I widen my eyes, silently calling him out on his contradictory behaviour, Slash shakes his head. “Seems like I needa make things clearer, so you’re no longer confused.”

The man gives me whiplash.

I can’t tell if he’s lying to himself or me.

What I am aware of is his brewing ultimatum.

---