Page 21 of Reluctant Surrender

She stared at me, something like shock written on her face. “You won’t stop me from leaving once it’s all resolved.”

“I won’t. You’ll be free as a bird,” I said, though a dark growl in the deepest part of my soul echoed in my chest.

“Fine. I can live with that.”

“Good.” I nodded and gestured toward the stairs. “Let’s get you upstairs. I don’t need the housekeeper hearing your screams.”

She froze, color drained from her face.

“I told you what would happen if you were lying to me, angel.” I gave a pointed look at the steps. “So, unless you really do want the housekeeper to witness your punishment, I suggest you get moving.”

Chapter 10

Maggie

“You’re crazy if you think I’m letting you put one finger on me, Lukas.” I walked backward down the hall in the direction he pointed. My confidence waned as his eyes narrowed, his expression darkening with every step.

I stumbled briefly but caught myself.

“It’s not my finger that’s going to be doing the touching.” He pointed to my right. “That door there.”

“I’m serious, Lukas. It’s absurd. I know I didn’t stop you the other time, but that was… well, you surprised me. But now I’m fully in my right mind and I’m telling you there’s no way I’m letting it happen again.”

I came to a stop at the door. He twisted the knob and pushed the door open for me while holding my suitcase in his other hand.

“I won’t go in until you promise to be reasonable.” I crossed my arms over my chest, thinking to express to him that I would hold my ground. I was not going to let him push me over on this.

He stepped into the room for a moment and reemerged without my suitcase.

“Last chance to do this the nice way,” he warned, crooking his fingers at me.

I dug in. “Promise you’ll stop threatening to… you know.”

“I’m not threatening anything, angel.” He grabbed hold of my arms then threw his shoulder into my stomach. Without so much as a gasp for air, he hoisted me over his shoulder and carried me inside the room.

“Stop it!” I smacked my hands against his back, but my palms hit muscle. I doubted he could even feel my pounding.

He brought me over to the king-sized bed and tossed me into the middle of it. I bounced a few times, and once I settled and pushed my hair from my face, I glared up at him. Unfortunately, he already had a hard, unrelenting glare set on me.

“Don’t cause more trouble for yourself.” He walked to the door and slammed it shut. When he came back to the bed, his hands were already on his belt buckle.

Pure panic set in.

“No.” I put one hand out to ward him off while I scooted to the other side of the bed. “You don’t have to do this, Lukas. Seriously. I get it. I’ll be completely honest with you. No more lies, or little secrets. Full disclosure at all times.” My hand missed the edge of the mattress as I scrambled across the bed and the top half of my body took a backward dive off the side of the bed.

It was just the distraction he needed. A powerful grip wrapped around my ankle and dragged me back to him in one yank.

“No. No. No.” I kicked out, but he’d been prepared and grabbed hold of my other ankle. With one easy movement, he flipped me over on to my stomach and dragged me over the edge of the bed.

“Please. You don’t have to. I don’t want you to.” I tried to push up from the bed, but his hand went flat against my back, right between my shoulder blades and he shoved me down. He was too strong; I couldn’t wiggle away or shove upward.

“I do have to, angel. Because you need to understand there’s consequences for your actions. When you lie, when you misbehave, you pay the price.” His fingers slipped inside the elastic band of my black cargo capris and yanked them straight down over my ass all the way to my ankles.

I threw a hand back in a stupid attempt to cover my ass from his view. He’d already seen it the other day, and I only had on a black thong. He could see everything. But it wasn’t enough for him that my cheeks were already bare.

“Hope you aren’t in love with these.” He grabbed hold of the elastic on the thong and ripped it in two.

“Lukas!” I cried out and doubled my attempts to scamper back up and across the bed.

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