Page 71 of Guarded By the Phantom

She laughed shakily. “Promise?”

“Oh, yeah. I’ll make you all mine.”

Chapter 24

Barbara

The buzzing stopped. Phantom wiped my skin for the last time, making me hiss from the scrape of the paper towel. He huffed softly.

“All ready. I’ll take a photo and show you.”

I bit my lip. The thought of being photographed like this made me a bit uneasy, but as Phantom gently stroked my skin around the tattoo, I relaxed. I trusted him and perversely wanted his phone to be filled with my pictures.

Maybe I would take some of him, too.Thatthought made my belly tighten with need, and I arched my back so he could get a nice shot.

“So good,” he murmured once the camera clicked. “So pretty. Such a perfect girl. Baby, you have no idea. I want to sit at your feet and worship you.”

I gasped in shock, his words striking something raw and wounded deep within my soul. “You don’t mean that,” I whispered, hiding my face in the pillow painted to resemble him.

“Oh, I do. I’ll wrap it up and show you just how much I mean it,” he said. “But take a look first.”

I sat up and he handed me his phone. I swiped through a few full body pictures of me preening, then finally found a closeup of the tattoo. It was a beetle, small, like he promised. It looked so realistic, though. Almost like a real insect climbing up my back.

“It’s so pretty,” I said in awe. “But… it’s a beetle.”

“A little scarab, baby,” Phantom said, leaning over my back to cover the tattoo with some sort of tape. “My signature, if you will.”

I stilled. “Signature. You mean… You signed me?”

I turned just in time to see his very pleased grin as he palmed his bulge. My insides lurched with need at the sight, and I couldn’t even be angry, even though it felt… Horribly transgressive. And… And mind-numbingly arousing at the same time.

“You bet I did,” he said, slowly stroking himself through his pants. “You’re mine. Now everyone who ever has the fortune of seeing you in a bikini will know it, too. I don’t share.”

You’re mine.My heart set off into a gallop while I stared at him, barely comprehending. He hadn’t even said it back when I told him I liked him, and now, I was his? From what I knew of relationships, they didn’t progress this way. We were supposed to go on dates, get to know each other, maybe move in together after a year…

And yet, I knew Phantom didn’t play by the rules. The tattoo on my back was alive with prickles of sensitivity, his name on my skin.

“What is it, doll?” he asked, cupping my face with his bare palm. “You don’t like it?”

I hesitated. His grin shrank, the glow in his eyes dulling as he waited for my answer. I remembered his call with his therapist. How he had no idea what to do after I told him how I felt.

DidI like it? Yes, of course I did. It was hisname.Of course, I wanted it. My problem was that I thought I wasn’tsupposedto like it, but I was trying to get over that. I chose what I wanted, not what Ishouldhave wanted.

“I love it,” I said, putting my hand over his. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”

And I did. It felt thrilling to be claimed like this, to have something so intimately his to call my own.

He sighed shakily, bending low to touch his forehead to mine. His scent wrapped around me, dark smoke and that delicious masculine cologne. I closed my eyes and smiled.

“Good. Let’s go then.”

The world turned upside down as he picked me up and slung me over his shoulder with no effort at all. I gasped and then choked when he lightly slapped my butt before stroking along the thin strap of my thong.

“Someone will see!” I hissed when he strode out of the room, caressing my bare ass as he went.

“No one’s here, doll. The staff are asleep and your parents are gone. I could fuck you in every room of this house if I wanted to.”

I was about to answer when he dipped his fingers between my legs, sliding one into me. My answer turned into a moan, and he laughed darkly, taking the stairs two at a time.

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