Page 55 of Sinister Games

CHAPTER17

LIZZIE

My head turned at the sound of the small bell chimes. A group of students filed in through the narrow café door, bringing a burst of early fall wind with them. Letting out the breath I was holding, I continued spinning the now empty disposable coffee cup in my hands. I had already shredded the cardboard hand protector. The pathetic bits and pieces lay scattered across the table.

Once more the bell sounded. This time it was just an older couple.

Pushing the cup away, I checked my phone for the thousandth time that morning.

Me: I’m sorry, Richard, but I can’t see you anymore.

Richard:

What was I expecting? An I’m sorry I kicked down your door and fucked you senseless last night text?

I had woken up this morning tucked snugly into my bed. Looking around the bedroom, everything was neat and in order just as usual. Walking into the main part of the flat, I was stunned to see the door perfectly intact on its hinges. Going up on my tiptoes, I snuck a peek out the peephole. No men in black fatigues guarded the entrance. If I wasn’t so sore between my legs, I would have seriously thought I had imagined the whole thing. Even with my bruised thighs, I still wasn’t entirely certain it had happened.

I became convinced when I returned to my room. On the pillow next to mine was the purple bejeweled bird pin Richard had given me yesterday. Only one person could have left it there.

His little bird.

I still hadn’t quite wrapped my mind around what happened last night. The fact that it was absolute obsessive insanity, I had a firm grip on. It was my feelings about that insanity I was having a hard time with. Against my absolute sane and sober better judgment, I loved it. Damn me to hell for being a complete idiot, but I loved every minute of it. There was just something so intoxicating about driving a man like that to madness.

What girl wouldn’t want a man so crazy with want for you that he kicked down a door to get to you?

Kicked. Down. A. Door.

The sex was mind-blowing. Never in my life had I just been taken over like that. I wasn’t me; I was a body being used, abused, and treasured all at the same time.

The bell chimed and I jumped.

More students.

There was no denying I was half expecting to see Richard charging through that door at any moment. I wasn’t exactly disobeying him. It was more like I was thinking about disobeying him. Sitting at a café across from uni, my class started in thirty minutes. I hadn’t decided yet if I was going to go in.

I knew Richard demanded I quit school but he couldn’t possibly have been serious. It was ludicrous.

Probably just an angry utterance in the moment. Still, Richard hadn’t really struck me as the type of man to say things he didn’t mean. Could he have been serious about my visa? Did he have the power to get me a resident visa? Probably. Jane mentioned that as a duke he was also a member of the House of Lords so I guessed it was possible. Even if it was true, what did he expect me to do? Lie around all day naked just waiting for him to come and fuck me?

My thighs clenched at the tantalizing thought. For a moment I allowed myself to think what a life under Richard’s control would be like. Sitting around just waiting for him to come and pleasure me. Not having to worry about school or a job. Always having pretty couture gowns and jewelry. I would bet he even had one of those gorgeous English estates out in the country. It would be like living inside a Victorian movie.

The idea was tempting, but it wasn’t like he had actually offered any of that. No, he had just ordered me to stop attending school. Easy for him to say; they probably wouldn’t even give me my tuition back.

Collecting all the scraps of cardboard, I shoved them into the empty cup and rose to throw it away before returning to the table to grab my messenger bag. Tilting my chin up, I strode through the door, across the street, and stopped dead just outside the university grounds.

Dammit.

Looking around, I tried to spy Richard in every man in a suit who crossed my path. Strangely enough, it felt almost as if he were watching right now. Waiting for me to screw up and walk into that school, so he could drag me out and punish me for disobeying him.

Was it fucked up I was actually turned on by the idea?

I wondered if he’d sling me over his shoulder. Or just drag me out by my hair.

Jesus, I needed help.

This guy had me all turned around. I no longer knew myself or what I was capable of. Worse than all of that, I thought I had truly gone and done the unforgivable.

I had fallen in love with him.

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