Page 129 of Nanny and the Beast

“You don’t know what’s good for you, do you?” I ask. “Because if you did, you would be running for the hills by now. You wouldn’t be waiting in my bedroom wearing a dress I want to rip down the middle.”

She licks her bottom lip as she waits for me to touch her.

“You might be a virgin, but you’re a little slut for it, aren’t you?” I say. “I put my cock inside you one time, and you can’t help but come back for more.”

Her eyelids are heavy. “Klaus, I?—”

I lean down and press my lips against hers. Everything inside me explodes at once. A million fireworks, followed by deafening silence. All that exists is color.

“You don’t know what you do to me, Emma,” I say.

“Then make me understand.” She wears her heart on her sleeve. And she’s so brave about it, like she’s not afraid of getting hurt.

“I’m no good for you,” I say, even as I tug harder on her hair to rake my teeth down her neck. “When I’m done with you, I’mgoing to leave you in pieces. That’s all I’m capable of. Why don’t you understand that?”

“Because this doesn’t feel like something I should be running from,” she says, shivering in my hold. “It feels pointless to resist it.”

“I didn’t like the way he was looking at you, Emma,” I say, sinking my teeth into her delicate neck. “I didn’t like that he thought he could have what’s mine.”

“Who, Elliot?” she asks. “We were just talking.”

My hand squeezes one of her soft breasts, drawing a moan from her lips.

“I don’t even like hearing another man’s name on your lips,” I say. “Not when I know that your little pussy is wet for me.”

She’s shaking before me now, trembling with need.

“I told you to wear a coat,” I say. “Why didn’t you wear a fucking coat, Emma?”

“Because I didn’t want to,” she says.

“I don’t like other men looking at you,” I say. “You don’t know the thoughts you elicit in men just by existing.”

“What kind of thoughts do I elicit inyou?” she asks.

I press my mouth against her ear. “The kind that should send you running for your life. But for whatever reason, you’re intrigued by my insanity. Maybe it’s what you like most about me.”

I slip my hand inside her corset to cup her full breasts. I toy with her nipple as I watch the rapture play out on her face.

“I like you,” she says, blinking up at me. “I like everything about you, Klaus.”

I pinch her hard nipple, tugging her even closer toward me.

She doesn’t know it yet, but she just signed her fate.

29

EMMA

"You just walked into the lion's den, Emma," he says. "Don't you know that you're about to get devoured?"

There's an intensity in his eyes that should scare me. It's so different from anything I've ever experienced. But I meant what I said to him earlier.

It feels right to be with him.

"I don't mind," I whisper.

His calloused hand moves to my other breast, toying with me until I'm aching everywhere.

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