Page 76 of Clawed
Devastatingly smart and alluring, he’d captured her in more than one way, getting into her head, as well as between her legs.She sensed she needed to see where the growing connection between them could lead.To watch him walk away from her in handcuffs again would mean she’d never get to find out if the fiend she’d known at the surgery could turn out to be a friend as well as a lover.They had all the component parts of compatibility after all—attraction, intelligence, and incredible sexual alignment.If he could learn to respect her boundaries rather than ripping through them, perhaps there was a future for their fucked-up coupling.
I must be mad.
Her lips stretched around the ball gag in her mouth as if to answer.There was no doubt in her mind, shewasmad.That was why she’d asked for more time with her tormentor, why she’d climbed willing onto the dental chair and remained passive while he’d removed the cuffs and bound her back into the chair’s confines.
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‘YOU LOOK FUCKING HOT.’He’d smiled as he tugged on a pair of trousers he’d found tossed in the corner of the lounge.‘I can’t believe I’m leaving you, but the police will take care of you until I can.’
‘You have no choice.’She’d told him before he shoved the ball back between her teeth.‘Don’t let them catch you.’
She shook her head at the memory.She’d actually willed her captor to go free.
‘I won’t.’He’d pressed a gentle kiss on her crown.‘But I promise, once all of this is over, Iwillfind you.’
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THAT FINAL LINE PLAYEDover in her head as the hinges of the front door finally relented, and two cops burst into the room.She screeched around the gag, allowing the myriad of her pent-up emotions to be released as the female officer ran toward her.
“Jesus!”she shouted.“It’s okay, Ma’am.We have you.You’re safe.”
The cop turned back to her colleague, barking orders at the startled-looking man.“Go back to the car and get a blanket for her.And call this in.Looks like an abduction.”
Time shifted in strange pockets as the cop tugged the gag from Hannah’s lips and started work on the straps holding her limbs.She recalled the initial moments of her liberation the first time around, those events playing out simultaneously in her head as the cop freed her.Hannah had been so happy to see the police that day at the dental practice, but as the male officer threw a cold blanket over her, there was less relief.
She was free again, but worried about Lawes and how far he’d have got with no shoes and only his willpower.She was suddenly faced with a new and equally disturbing reality.The police would be full of questions about what had happened to her and how she’d ended up there, and she’d have to come up with answers.
“You’re okay,” the female officer reassured, as she helped Hannah down from the chair and removed the collar at her neck.
Hannah watched her discard the leather and attached leash, anxiety knotting in her tummy as the ensemble fell to the floor.She should have been relieved at the liberation, yet the loss of the leather tore at her insides.
“We’ve called an ambulance.Let’s sit you down before it arrives.”
She guided Hannah to the chair Lawes had once perched on, an image of her antagonist bursting into her mind as she settled on it.Her backside was still sore from the hairbrush he’d wielded, and fidgeting on the hard seat, she realized there was no escaping his ghost.Lawes might be gone, but he was not forgotten.
She’d never forget him.
“What’s your name?”The officer was asking.
It took a moment for Hannah to tune into her words, her gaze rising to stare at the door Lawes had left through.That had been the final time she’d seen him, an image of his shirtless, muscular form burned into her psyche for, what she suspected, was all time.
“Hannah,” she croaked, the emotion rising in waves inside of her.“Hannah Bowman.”
“It’s okay, Hannah.”The cop offered her what she presumably thought was a comforting smile.“You’re safe now.”
Safe.
The word resonated.
Was that what the disturbing, empty feeling was?
“Thanks.”Hannah pushed the reply out, even though it seemed all the oxygen in the room was fast disappearing.
In the surgery, things had been easier, blacker and whiter.Lawes was the aggressor and she the innocent.That time around, he’d done more than only rule her.He’d got into her head.He’d started to tug at her heartstrings...
I can’t be falling in love with him.Her jaw tightened, tears burning in her eyes.He hurt me, held me against my will, and humiliated me.I can’t have love for him.
Yet deep down, her feelings were less certain.
