Page 13 of Hearts Of Darkness

“What is this place?” I mutter, drawing my knees up to my chest. I’m frightened and disorientated. I’m a long way from home—from my mother, my father. Safety.Please, let them still be alive.I need to get out of here. I need to see them again.

A low hiss escapes from his lips. “We talk later.”

His words are terrifying. ‘Later’ means that anow and presenthas to happen first, as rough and painful as it might be. There is no tenderness in this man’s eyes, only lust and hunger.

He sits down on the edge of the bed to take his boots off, snapping the mosquito net shut around him as he does. His frame makes a deep indentation in the mattress, and the movement sends ripples through my body. He’s still wearing his jeans, and I can see the strain of his erection against the thick material.

Lightning-quick, he turns and jerks my white sheet away from me.

“No!”

I try to scramble out of reach, but he catches my wrist and pulls me back to him.

Bastard!Does he really think I’ll submit to him that easily?My chest rises and falls with indignation as I fight to free myself, pounding my fists against his chest.

“Let me go!”

He just chuckles. “There it is,” he muses, gazing down at me with a curl of his lips. “There’s that fire I covet so much.”

“Fuck you!” I slap him hard across the face, the ugly sound ricocheting off the white walls of his cavernous bedroom.

With another hiss, he yanks me closer, and I cry out as his fingertips brand my skin with his fury. There is no scenario here that will end favorably for me. The next few moments will define my life forever.

“At least tell me where I am first!” I gasp out.

“I said,later!” He grasps my jaw between his fingers and wrenches it upward. I’m terrified by the expression that greets me, daunted by the sheer physicality of him. I have to calm this man somehow. I have to get out of this alive.

Trembling, I place my free hand on his chest. His skin is like burning embers beneath my fingertips. “Not like this.”

He doesn’t respond. Did he even hear? I try to take my hand away, but he moves swiftly, imprisoning it there with his own. I try again, but his grip is too strong, so I just kneel there facing him, his rich scent intermingling with my fear, trying to appeal to whatever compassion still lingers behind those jet-black eyes. Hoping it might lessen the amount of pain he wantsto inflict on me.

“Stop fighting this,mi alma,” he murmurs, his endearment rolling smoothly off his tongue. “Let me show you what true pleasure is.”

My core starts to pulse—hard and insistent—awakening a base need deep inside me. To my disgust, I find myself torn between lust and hate.How can I want him after all the things he’s done to me? After the terrible things he could still do?

He goes to kiss me, catching me off-guard, inclining his head and pressing firm, warm lips to my own. They part instantly, ignoring all my thoughts. Encouraged, he releases my wrist and cups the back of my head to deepen our connection, deftly stroking his tongue in and out of my mouth and giving me no option but to accept him.

Instinctively, I return his touch with a heat of my own. My arms curl around his neck, and he roughly cups my bare breast, trapping my nipple between his finger and thumb and twisting. I cry out as the sensation shoots straight to my core, intensifying the burning ache. I want to grab his hand and force it downward to the place I need him the most.

“Where am I?” I repeat breathlessly, tearing my mouth from his.

“Paradise,” he growls, unbuckling his belt and ripping open his zipper as he guides me back down to the bed, never breaking contact with my body for a second. Trailing rough, hungry kisses all the way across my jawline.

I force my eyes open, gasping in surprise as he tips my head to look at him again. Up close, I cansee the flecks of gold around his irises, but there’s no warmth there, only a need to claim what he thinks is his…

Something shatters inside of me. I’ll do anything to save my father, but if this man takes my body like this, I know a part of me will die forever.

I wrench my head away. “Please… Don’t.” At the same time, my tears start falling, tearing the breath from my lungs, and blinding me to the fury that has descended over my captor’s face. I sense every dark part of it, though. The atmosphere in the room has switched from heavy and charged to black and menacing, breached only by the broken sound of my despair.

His body weight is unbearable. His hips are still pinning me to the mattress. I want to push him away and scrub my face clean of his kisses. I feel dirty and violated. I hate myself for allowing him inside my mouth, for letting him steal inside my defenses all over again.

He stares at me for the longest time before releasing me and rising from the bed. I hear theswishof the mosquito net as it’s angrily pushed to one side.

I try and compose myself, swiping the heel of my hand across my face, over and over.

Is this a reprieve?

Is there a trace of kindness still left in this man?

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