Page 356 of Tempted By her Daddies

That wasn’t what she wanted to do. She didn’t want the last thing she saw on earth to be the hatred he had for her.

“Pet, we can wait all night for you to open your eyes.”

Pet?

That made her open her eyes more than anything else would. He tightened his hold on her. “Are you owned?”

What?

What was he talking about?

“Are you owned, Pet? Do I own you?”

She still didn’t understand. Why would he want to own her?

“I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do. Are you owned, controlled, protected? Are. You. Mine?”

There was a throat clearing behind him.

“Salem is using the wrong word,” Roman said. “He means are you ours?”

That . . . that had come from Roman? She had been expecting him to protest that they couldn’t own her.

“I don’t understand. How can you want that now? After everything?”

“You are only to answer the one question, Pet. Are you owned by us?”

She didn’t know what it was for a start, thought her eyesight was going weird. It became all blurry, hard to see. Then the tears drifted down her cheeks. One after another.

“She’s crying, Salem,” Alexei said.

“I see it.”

“She never cries,” Roman added, sounding panicked. “Maybe you should let her go.”

Salem kept his gaze on her.

Steady. No hesitation.

“No. I’m not going to let her go. Letting her go is actually the last thing I want to do. Is it, Pet? Because that’s not what you want or need. What you need is for me to hold on tight. Becauseyou’re scared and you’re uncertain and you’re deep in the self-blame game. So what you need to do is give it all to me.”

She shook her head.

“Yes. I can stand here all night until you admit the truth. That you are owned. And until you give all that self-loathing and self-pity and anger to me.”

A sudden fury took her by surprise, washing through her and making her hot. She grasped hold of his wrist with both hands, tugging at him.

She could take things further. Force him to let go.

Well, try, anyway.

However, there was no way she ever wanted to harm him.

“Let me go.”

“Give it to me,” he demanded.

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