Page 1 of Take Me

CHAPTER

1

“Have you ever been choked?” Nikolai asks, sliding his hand onto my neck with a featherlight touch that sends a flurry of shivers down my arm.

“No,” I gasp as he positions his fingers on my pulse points.

“Do you know what happens if I press here?”

I shake my head as I pant through parted lips, my pulse pounding against his fingers.

“I can take yourbreath awayin two ways. If I press here, I’ll shut off the oxygen to your brain.” He snaps his fingers. “In a matter of seconds, you’re out.” He moves across my skin until his palm rests in a snug fit around my throat. “But if I press here.” He gives a slight squeeze that tightens at the front of my neck. “I’ll shut off the air that goes into your lungs.”

He tightens further, and his breaths grow heavy as he revels in the power of controlling something as crucial as my ability to breathe. The pressure in my head builds as the blood gathers there, but what is far more frightening is the constriction on my windpipe. I can still breathe almost normally, but the threat is stark and obtrusive.

“It will take a lot longer before you pass out this way.” Caressing my arm with his knuckles, he speaks in a gentle tone. “I’ll get to enjoy your struggle as your strength slowly drains from your body.”

Fear becomes a speedy swoosh in my veins.

I shouldn’t let him do this. I really shouldn’t.

Five days of hot sex is no way near enough to let a man twice my size put me in such a vulnerable position. Especially not one I’ve just met at some Romanian bar and don’t know anything about—except that he’s Russian and loaded, which is a major red flag in itself. But I also shouldn’t have let him tie me down or spank me after four days. But that ship has already sailed.

“Do you trust me?” he asks in his delicious, accented baritone, leaning so close that his hot breath tickles my ear.

His strength is carefully controlled as he presses a little harder, restricting my breath to small gulps of air. And maybe this is why I nod. It’s a minuscule motion against his massive hand, but I mean it. I trust him not to harm me. That measured control feels safe.

“Hmm,” he rumbles, satisfied with my response. “Then maybe I should take it a step further.”

A tiny mewl is my only response before he clamps his other hand over my mouth and pinches my nose between two fingers.

Terror crawls across my skin even as heat spreads through my core.

I inhale hard against his hand, hoping for a crack between his fingers—a tiny opening at the edge. But no such luck. His hand is massive, the seal tight.

I writhe against him to test how helpless I am, and the result is the same. My strength is no match for his. I might be fairly strong for my petite size, but it’s like comparing a rabbit to a lion. He’s over six feet tall with a natural broad build and well-defined muscles.

So I accept defeat and sink into him, seeking his strength to balance out thefeeling of being a tiny flower in a field full of trampling feet.

“You don’t have any control.” His voice takes on a dark edge that makes me doubt if I really did read him right—if his control isn’t more dangerous than safe. “If I want to end you right here and now, I’ll just hold on a little longer. There’s nothing you can do about it. Not even with your hands free.”

Doubt swirls in my mind as the need to breathe convulses in my lungs. I groan against his hand in an effort to let him know I’ve had enough. He has read me well enough during the last few days of kinky exploration, always pausing when he hits a limit, so he will this time too.

I hope.

“Go ahead,” he coaxes. “See if I’m right.”

“Mm, mm,” I whimper, trying to shake my head. This is not fun anymore. I really need to breathe.

He releases my throat to stroke my hair. The gesture is gentle and loving, but the hand over my mouth remains. The loss of his grip on my neck should give me a chance to break free, but when I jerk against him, there’s no give.

Panic builds in my oxygen-starved system, and I put in all my strength as I struggle against his strong body and shoot my hands up to yank at his arm.

But it’s still no use. With one single hand, he has me in a vise, and the other hand seems to mock me with the fact as he keeps caressing. Blurry spots form in my vision, and the strength seeps from my limbs, rendering me even more helpless.

All I can think is that I shouldn’t be here. Stupid, stupid me. I fell for a charming businessman, went with him to his hotel, and let him introduce me to a world of kink I’d always dreamed of exploring but never dared to. I put my trust in him because he seemed convincing and in control of his dark urges.

And now I’m going to pay the ultimate price.

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