Page 224 of Forbidden Lessons

Pine needles snapped in two and ground in the dirt.

Not on me.

On her.

This isn’t the first time Heavenly’s been at Rooke’s house.

I turn to the opening beside his bedroom wall where he disappeared, and he reappears like magic, a box in his hands. He takes his seat at the foot of the bed again, lifts a finger to his lips, and then takes out a slip of black satin and tosses it onto the bed near Haven’s hip.

It brushes her hand, and she flinches at the touch. “What’s that?” she says through an uneasy laugh, trying to feel the fabric.

I snatch it away, grab her wrists, and bind them together as quickly as I can.

It’s a familiar motion. Muscle memory.

How many times have I done this to her?

Countless.

She’s usually screaming at the top of her lungs by now, begging someone to save her.

But she’s silent now.

So still on the bed under me.

“No, wait. Please,” she says quietly, almost a whisper. Her collar clinks as she shakes her head. “I don’t like this.”

Rooke comes into view, holding his glass of bourbon behind his back, pointing with the other. I follow the line drawn by his finger, then reach out to touch the intricate carving on the wooden headboard.

There are three small lattices spaced in a line along the carvings. They’re just big enough that I can push some of the satin through and pull it out again. It looks more than sturdy enough to hold her.

Like a ring on the wall of a dungeon.

I seize her bound wrists and wrench her arms up over her head.

“Ow!”

The satin slips through the hole, and I put my finger through the lattice to grab it, pull it. Satin whisks against oak as I yank the fabric out.

“That’s too tight,” Haven says, flustered now, shimmying her head against the pillow like she’s trying to dislodge the blindfold, her collar rattling. “Please, Bastian. I don’t like this.”

When I glance up at Rooke, he has his glass by his lips, one finger pressed to his mouth like he’s fighting back a laugh.

Our eyes meet, and a surge of such intense fucking lust shoots through me I’m pretty fucking sure I’d have come in my pants if I wasn’t on molly.

I drop my head, grabbing the top of the headboard to catch myself, my other hand going around Haven’s throat, right over her collar.

It happens so quickly, I don’t even know what I’m doing until I squeeze.

Until she screams.

Chapter 68

Haven

“Last chance, Heavenly.”

I look up into Kai’s sparkling green eyes, concern etching a deep furrow between his wild eyebrows.

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