Page 18 of Dominion

Oh, crap, she’d made him mad. He was going to put her in the trunk. She tried to stop screaming, but she couldn’t get control.

The car door opened and the pillowcase came off with a whoosh. He reached for her and she cowered, thinking he would strike her. Instead his large hands grasped her head, cupping it, stilling her. His palms were over her ears, muffling her sense of sound. The forced quiet gave her a strange sense of security, as if she was cocooned safely by those hands, protected.

He was leaning over her, his brows drawn together with the same expression he’d worn when he thought she’d been hurt. Pained—like her panic attack had caused him pain. And he’d shrugged off his own bullet wounds. Which… what the hell had happened to them? He wasn’t even bleeding anymore, nor did she see any sign of a bandage under his tight-fitting t-shirt.

“You’re claustrophobic.” It was a statement, rather than a question.

She nodded rapidly, still unable to catch her breath.

He began to fold the pillowcase lengthwise. She jerked away when he held it up to her head, but he persisted, wrapping it over her eyes like a blindfold. It wasn’t long enough for him to tie in the back, though.

“I won’t look. I’ll lie down and I won’t look, I promise,” she promised, still shaking like a leaf.

He ignored her, pulling out the duct tape. Once more, he positioned the pillowcase over her eyes, then wrapped the duct tape all the way around her head, securing the fabric like a crown around her head. “There,” he said. “Lie down.”

A wedge of fresh fear shot up and she groped wildly for him, her fingers landing on his t-shirt, which she wrapped up in her fist. His heavy hand dropped onto her nape. He muttered a curse, then pulled her out of the car.

She panicked, twisting wildly in his grip. “Not the trunk. Please—not the trunk. I’ll be good, I promise.”

To her shock, he wrapped his arms around her and held her against his chest. He didn’t say a word, but there was no mistaking the intended comfort. She clung to him, her body trembling against his hard muscled form. She drank in his strength, the solidity of his body. Inch by inch, her body relaxed.

“You’re not going in the trunk,” he said gruffly. “You’re riding up front with me.”

“Oh.” She willed herself to stop shaking as she took a deep breath. He released her from the embrace and wrapped a firm arm around her waist, guiding her forward and around the car. He followed her head in with his hand as she sat, the way the cops do on crime shows. His weight pressed against her and she heard the click of her seatbelt.

Returning to the driver side, he climbed in. She heard the rustle of movement, then he grasped her head and pulled her down until it connected with his thigh. He’d put something soft over the center console—a sweatshirt, maybe. She appreciated the thoughtfulness. “Stay down,” he said, a note of warning in his voice.

She brought her bound wrists to his leg and wrapped her hands around it, as if he were her security blanket, and she just needed to feel his warmth to stay calm.

He put the car in gear and backed out, one hand still on her nape holding her down. Except then his hand began to move. His fingers threaded into her hair and closed into a fist, tugging slightly but not hurting her. They opened and closed again.

She held perfectly still, not wanting him to stop. She imagined his hands gripping other parts of her body, his touch rough, his grasp firm. What would it be like to be taken by him? Did werewolves have sex with humans? The image of him rolling with his opponent in wolf form, all snarls and teeth, returned to her.

What was he going to do with her? Maybe it was Stockholm syndrome, but she wanted to believe he would take care of her. That he wouldn’t harm her.

But what about Melissa? She was someone’s prisoner right now, too—if she was still alive. Had she been harmed? How had her captors treated her?

Ashley needed to escape Ben Stone and get to her sister with the laptop before it was too late. She needed to get her head back in the game and come up with a plan, right away.

Ben didn’t meanto make love to Ashley’s hair with his hand, but once he’d buried his fingers in the glossy, thick mane, it became a compulsion. He stroked along the back of her head, twisting it up into fistfuls and releasing it. Damn, he wanted her.

He’d smelled her arousal when he’d put her in the corner. It had shocked him. He’d just scared her to the point of fainting and then spanked her until her ass turned rosy and she still wanted him? His cock stiffened at the thought. What about this human woman affected him so strongly?

She shifted her position, pulling her hands away from his leg and moving her feet. She was probably completely cramped in the position in which he’d put her. Her foot tangled with her purse where he’d thrown it on the passenger side floor.

It took him a moment to realize she was stealthily moving the bag closer to her. He watched, waiting to see what she was up to. She made another shuffling movement and used it to shove the bag up underneath her hands.

Bile rose in his throat, the wound from her earlier deception still raw. He willed his breathing to stay in control as she rolled her body forward, her face pressing into his leg. Her bound hands dropped into the bag, as if idly hanging there. When they emerged, she clutched her phone.

He pulled the car over to the side and threw it in park. In a swift motion, he hauled her torso further over his lap and whipped up her skirt.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded, snatching the phone from her hand. Yanking her panties into her crack, he landed several hard spanks on her sit spots with it. It was a stretch to reach her backside in the awkward position, but he managed it, punishing her already red bottom while she writhed and squirmed beneath him. She had a wide, thin phone and its plastic case made a satisfying thwap each time it connected with her rosy flesh. “Dammit, Ashley! Was the claustrophobia just a big ruse? Were you just tricking me to earn my sympathy?”

“No,” she shrieked. “No, it wasn’t a trick. Stop, please. Ouch!”

“I will stop when I have made my disgruntlement clear.”

She wriggled over his lap as he continued to spank her. “Ow, stop!” She sank her teeth into his left thigh.

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