Page 55 of Ashes of Sin

But I need to be free.

Yet, if I could stay locked in here for days with this man—not while he’s yelling at me—I probably would.

Because what I have to go home to is a nightmare.

There’s something else going on this morning, though. The way he held me all night as we slept. The circles his fingers drew on my body as he cooed me to sleep.

The way he held my face and gazed into my soul as my last orgasm peaked. “That’s it, baby, come. Feel me filling and owning every inch of you.”

“Maddox,” I’d gasped.

“No one but us, Kyra.”

“No one,” I’d cried as my body convulsed and he’d thrust into me so hard it drove us up the bed. His hand palming the wall and our mouths grinning at one another.

“I got you.” He smirked.

“I know you do.” I’d wrapped my arms around his neck, feeling for the first time in my life like I was somewhere safe. Where I belonged.

With my kidnapper.

He turns, now clothed, and glares at me. Does he not realize how huge he is? His body might be divine, ripped with muscles and a scattering of sexy tattoos, but he’s very intimidating. Especially when his anger is directed right at me.

“If you love my father, then Kyra Fox, that makes you a cheating whore!” Maddox stalks to the door, then he turns.

I blink at his nasty words.

Is he hurt?

This man is so confusing.

His father obviously hurt him as a child, and from what I know of Pierce Sterling, I’m not surprised. I wish Maddox would talk to me. Not that there’s anything I could do, but he has to realize that kidnapping someone is a felony, and this isn’t going to end well for him.

Sooner or later, someone will find me.

As weird as this sounds, and perhaps it’s some reaction to the sex hormones racing through my body, but I don’t want to see him locked up.

Or I’m projecting.

Clearly, freedom is something I crave.

I need to go home. To face my future and marry Pierce.

“You have to let me go.” I pull my knees up and drop my forehead on them.

When he doesn’t reply, I glance up and catch the emotions in his eyes, just before he blinks them away.

Oh, my god.

It wasn’t just me. Maddox felt something last night, too. More than just sex. More than just pleasure. A connection between the deeper parts of us that should never have come out to play.

But they did.

We fucked. We laughed. We cried out.

A bonding that I’ve never felt with anyone else.

In that millisecond before he blinked it away, I damn well saw it.

---