Page 14 of Split

“Didn’t we come to an understanding last night?” he growls, his rough hand clamping down over my bare mound. “You’re here topleaseme, wife.”

I squeeze my thighs together, as if that’ll somehow stop him from going further. “Roman…”

“Sir,” he corrects, then shoves his hand down farther, plunging a thick digit inside me.

My inner walls clench at the intrusion, my mouth gaping open to gasp for air.

“I knew it,” he declares smugly, pumping his finger in and out a few times while humiliation scalds my veins. Then he abruptly retracts his hand, pulling it out of my shorts and bringing it up to my mouth, wiping his glistening finger against my lips. “You’re soaked.”

I recoil with disgust and he lifts his hand away from my mouth, bringing it up behind my ear where I hear the telltale slurp of him sucking my arousal off his finger.

I cringe, another shiver racing up my spine as I struggle to discern the sensations raging through my body and mind.

Anger.

Outrage.

Shame.

Disgust.

Fear.

Desire?

He reaches down between my legs again, shoving his hand beneath my shorts to stroke his fingers through my slick folds. “I’ll bet you don’t even know why this makes you so wet,” he murmurs, teeth nipping my earlobe as his other hand finally leaves my throat, sliding down to grope my breast again. “Fearand arousal are two sides of the same coin, pet.” He pinches my nipple harder than the last time, causing me to suck in a gasp through my gritted teeth. “Much like pain and pleasure.”

What the hell is happening to me right now?

I hate this man with every fiber of my being, yet my body seems to be reacting to him on its own accord. A flood of heat rushes south, my breath coming out in short, staccato pants as he rubs the pad of a finger against my clit.

Wesley wasn’t very adept at the intricacies of female anatomy. Sure, we touched and explored and experimented, but his clumsy hands were never able to provoke this type of reaction from my body. Roman plays my clit like the strings of a harp, creating a symphony of sensation that my mind can’t even process beyond cravingmore.

“It’s maddening, isn’t it?” he hums, applying the perfect amount of pressure behind his ministrations until my legs tremble. “To hate something, yet want it so much?”

“Fuck you,” I breathe, my hips grinding senselessly in time with his movements. The coil in my belly is winding tighter and tighter, my muscles clenching as I climb the precipice of release.

And then, just as I’m about to tip over the edge and go freefalling into my climax, hestops.

Roman flattens his hand, patting it against my pussy. “You’ll get rewarded when you learn to behave, pet,” he murmurs, pulling his hand out of my shorts.

My mouth falls open in shocked indignation, my lips opening and closing like a fish out of water.

I want to scream, curse, burn this damned house to the ground…

Instead, I just lay there, furiously fighting to catch my breath as Roman releases his hold on me and slides out of bed. I punch my fists against the mattress to sit up, turning my outraged expression on him, but he just pivots away and pads towardthe door, his silhouette disappearing into the cover of darkness beyond my bed.

I hear my bedroom door creak open and close behind him, followed by the metallic scrape of the key turning in the lock. Then he’s gone in the night, leaving me in a puddle of my own shameful desperation.

8

“Clara, can I ask you something?”

“Of course, Mrs. Volkov,” she replies, pouring coffee from the carafe into the cup on the table in front of me. Whisps of steam curl from the rim of the mug as she pours, the familiar scent drawing me in like a siren’s song.

I’m not sure I’ve ever been so excited to drink a cup of coffee in my life. I wasn’t able to sleep a wink after Roman’s late-night intrusion, and I’m definitely feeling it today.

Clara slides the cup closer to me once she’s finished pouring it and I eagerly wrap my hands around the porcelain, lifting it to my mouth to take a sip. I brace myself for the liquid to scald my tongue, but once again, it’s the perfect temperature.

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