A slow smile spreads over his brutish face as he turns around and leaves the French doors. I let go of Claire and watch him walk toward the front door. He takes the door handle and pauses, turning around.
“I really don’t see what you saw in him.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
That eerie smile spreads, and then he finally opens the door. It slams shut.
I watch it for a while, not quite believing what just happened. Then I turn around and see her standing in the middle of the foyer, worrying her lip with her teeth.
“You want to explain to me what the fuck that was?”
She inhales a deep breath. “He’s just—”
“Did you fuck him?”
I don’t think I could take it if she said yes, but there’s no doubt that it’s a possibility. The way he looked at her.
She recoils. “No!”
“This looks really bad, Claire.”
“I didn’t fuck him,” she yells in my face. “I never had any interest in him.”
So the asshole was trying to get into my woman’s pants all year, wasn’t he?
“How am I supposed to believe you?”
“He’s just a creep. I never wanted anything to do with him, but I needed him to help hide me. To feed me information.” Her eyes narrow, sensing my unspoken question. “I had to be nice to him, that’s all. I couldn’t tell him to fuck off.”
“Are you sure he got the message, because he said he wanted you to fucking live with him and raise my kid—my fucking kid!”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Damn straight.”
Her shoulders tense under my hands and I sweep my fingers up her neck and chin, resisting the urge to claim her swollen lips. My cock pounds with need. I have to fuck her again, to reassure myself that she’s mine.
“That piece of shit had his hands all over you.”
I need to get out of the house and see John about this, but I don’t trust leaving her here.
“You think I liked it?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know who the hell you are anymore.”
Taking her upper arm, I lead her across the foyer and downstairs, where I already prepared a soundproofed room. A pain lances down my scar, the old ache resurfacing to haunt me again. It took five of them to hold me down. Five toothbrushes sharpened into knives stabbing my chest.
“Please, don’t.”
She digs in her heels when she sees the carefully padded walls.
“Luc, I swear to God, there’s nothing between Frank and I.”
The well of unease rises inside me. “The fact that you use his first name doesn’t exactly help your cause. Get inside.”
“Please don’t kill me.”
The look on my face is scaring the shit out of her. I hate it. I’d rather see her begging for my cock. My arms wrap around her waist and I pull her into my chest. Every inch of her curves press into my body, and my cock responds enthusiastically. Blood rushes to it, emptying my brain until all I can think about is the girl wearing a thin little summer dress and how easy it would be to fuck her.
“I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to fuck you, but first I need to run some errands.” I plant another row of kisses on her creamy skin as my cock slowly swells with blood. “You’ll stay here.”
There’s a hook on the ceiling with suspended cuffs. I imagine her with her wrists held high, standing on her toes and her tits on display for me. Instead I walk her toward the bed.
“What the hell is all this shit?”
“They’re all toys I’ll be using on you.”
I give her shoulders a little shove, and she sits down on the bed, throwing me an ugly look. “This isn’t funny.”
“Do I look like I’m laughing?”
Her cheeks burn. “I’m not letting you handcuff me down here while you leave our son alone.”
A fierce glow emits from her eyes, and I know that she’ll fight me within an inch of her life for her son. I stoop down to her level and sweep my hand around her cheek, overcome by a sudden desire to kiss her. Her pulse jumps in my fingers as I capture her lips in mine. My chest flushes with warmth the moment she responds, the fragrance of her hair soothing me. She tastes like me. Her sigh makes my heart pound faster.
Fuck. I gotta go.
I pull back slightly and give her another kiss that’s way too brief. Her eyes are still closed when I pull back.
“He’ll be taken care of. I have a nanny coming.”
“I’m his mother. I can take care of him.”
“I don’t trust you wandering around the house. You’ll stay here and wait for me to get back.”
Her eyes flash as I grab one of the chains attached to the four-poster bed and slap the handcuff around one of her wrists.