Page 52 of Owned

Until now.

Maybe that was why I was stalling.

“This doesn’t have to be a struggle, Avril,” I said, cool and relentless. “Let us help you.”

Bastian’s lips brushed her neck, the barest contact. “He’s good with his promises, isn’t he, sister?”

Bastian held her like a lover. Like an enemy.

Like he was both and couldn’t care which.

The pulse beat in her throat, fast and wild, and knew it was only a matter of time before she gave in. He dragged the dagger down, a snake’s slow slide, savoring the way it made her tense beneath him. I couldn’t decide if he was torturing her or me.

I almost smiled.

The room contracted around us, oppressive and intimate, until there was nothing left but the three of us and the promise that she would break.

But Avril wasn’t the fragile bird she’d been when she first arrived at Withermarsh.

She was something different now.

“You want me to give in to the Grimoire?” she asked.

“We never said it would be easy,” Bastian crooned, and I heard the admiration beneath his mockery.

“I— If it’s the only way—” she said, and though her voice shook, it held its own kind of strength.

Bastian released her, pushing her forward, and then caught her again.

I let her think the decision was hers. I let her think there was a choice.

Bastian wound his fingers through her hair, tugging it so her head tilted back and her sweater slipped down to expose her shoulder.

The cut on her collarbone was dark and perfect. Barely a drop of blood spilled.

“It’s the only way,” I said. “If you want to survive, you have to do your part. You have to be strong enough—”

As I observed, Bastian continued to touch and caress her before he pulled her down into his lap in a chair.

She didn’t struggle, and her head fell back as Bastian fumbled with his belt to free his cock.

Her lips parted as her dress rode up her thighs. She sank down on his hard length with a groan, and Bastian grinned as he gripped her waist.

The dagger clattered to the stone floor as he turned his focus to Avril’s movements as she rose up on her knees and then eased down again—slow and deliberate.

Bastian’s breath hissed between his teeth as she moved and her breaths became ragged.

I circled around the chair and gripped Avril’s throat. Her eyes widened, but didn’t leave mine as Bastian thrust up into her.

“Make your choice,” I demanded. “You can have it all— or you can have nothing and we’ll leave you to Lucian’s mercy.”

Bastian grunted as he fucked her hard, and I flexed my hand around Avril’s throat as she struggled to take a full breath.

Pleasure mingling with pain.

Bastian cradled her like a porcelain doll, his hands both gentle and destructive as he pulled her arms behind her back and held her wrists tight. She was bare-shouldered and trembling, her skin pale and luminous against the shadows.

“Just say the word,” Bastian grunted. She was strung between us, poised on the precipice of her own undoing.

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