Page 62 of Saved

You’re mine...

Mine.

It wasn’t that I was surprised by his possessive streak—his performance since he’d stirred had helped me to realize the way he saw the dynamic between us—from refusing to let me leave the cabin to the outrageous spanking he’d delivered, but there was something so menacing about hearing the intention plainly from his lips.

Iwashis.

End of story.

But I had news for the huge man pinning me in place by the bed. It wasn’t even close to the end.

Iwouldn’t be the ending he’d written for me.

“Nothing smart or sassy to say?” He tilted his head, apparently bemused by my silence.

Staring at him, I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn’t find the words. I hadplentyto say, but nothing that would empower me out of the large Eli-shaped hole I’d fallen into.

“Come on... Have you seen it out there?” His free hand reached for my left hip and squeezed gently. “Even if I let you leave, you’d never make it more than a few hundred feet in those snow drifts. You must see that I’m right.”

My focus flitted past him reflexively to linger on the view out of the small window. I didn’t have experience in the conditions to know if he was right, but the fact I’d failed to pack the correct attire lent weight to his theory.

“It would be totally reckless of me to let you do that.” His voice had morphed into that silky purr again, the one he no doubt thought would seduce me. “You’re my responsibility, remember?”

“I wouldn’t quite put it that way.” My breathing had sped up, matching my pulse and acknowledging the knowing glint in his gaze. Evidently, Eli had decided getting me back into bed was the plan, but I wasn’t agreeing to another tumble in the sheets while I was bound and he was being so obstinate. “I paid you to look after me in the forest, but none of us anticipated this happening.”

“True.” The fingers of his free hand slid to circle my right nipple. I gasped, paralyzed not only by the gesture but the sinking feeling that there was really nothing I could do to resist his touch. Worse, the pulsing need at my clitoris only grew as his circles slowed, the tiny nub of nerves willing him to keep going until he tugged the beading tissue between his thumb and forefinger. “But we’re making the best of a bad situation here, little girl.”

His eyebrow arched, inviting me to defy him as his hand moved to fondle my whole breast.

“I wouldn’t call what happened by the firethe best,sir.”

He could throw his weight around as much as he liked, but I wouldn’t allow him to whitewash what he’d done. Choking me with his cock had been cruel, even if my pussy had relished the degradation. We hadn’t discussed him treating me that way, but then, we hadn’t talked about anything that had transpired since the sun had risen.

“Oh, is that right?” His grasp on my sensitive tissue tightened a fraction, as though I needed a reminder of which of us was bared while the other was dressed, and which of us was tethered while the other was free to do as he liked. “Do you have a complaint, little girl?”

His mouth neared, and for one heart-stopping moment, I thought he was going to kiss me. I froze, unsure how I felt about the intimacy. Would I tell him to bugger off and risk remaining in his ropes, or did I welcome his lips and the promise of the tenderness he’d so far failed to give me? “Because if you do, I’m going to need that complaint in writing.”

“In writing?” I stared into his eyes, caught between the absurdity of his suggestion and the simmering raw energy stirring between us. I sensed its magnetism, pulling me in his direction even when logic implored me to run. “I don’t think that will work, sir.”

How the hell was I going to put anything in writing until he released the ropes? As it was, my arms were starting to ache at their predicament. He couldn’t keep me bound forever.

But even as that reasonable line of argument filled my head, I sensed the way his fingers were weaving their magic at my chest. Each grasped caress tightened the tangle of need inside me, obscuring my judgment and making it difficult to recall precisely why I was so angry with him.

“Oh, yes... definitely in writing.” He grinned, no doubt conscious of the effect he was having on me, though his tenting trousers conveyed his interest too. “And I don’t even think we have a pen between us, so... I’m afraid I won’t be able to accept it.”

The hand at my hip brushed along my midriff, rising to tug at my other nipple. I bit back on the groan that threatened to escape my throat at the provocation.

I shouldn’t have liked the way his fingers felt on my skin, should have rejected any trace of his advances, but as I craned my neck to look into his eyes again, I already knew that wasn’t what I was going to do.

“What a surprise.” My voice was husky. “I didn’t think you’d listen to anything I had to say.”

“I’m listening.” The hand at my right breast skimmed north to settle at my nape, his fingers stroking the back of my neck in a simultaneously soothing and unsettling gesture. The fact that he could hold me there without objection incensed me, but at the same time, a distant part of me wanted to lean into his strength and believe he trulycouldlook after me. “I’m just not promising to act on what you say.”

“Why?” Succumbing to the latter need, I inclined toward the large hand cradling my neck. “Why not listen to me for a change?”

He ran his tongue over his perfect line of white teeth. “You paid me to be in charge. That means you’re not only my responsibility, little girl. You’re my property.”

“What?”

---