I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my piano wire. Something I’d used numerous times to wrap around a throat and end the frantically beating pulse, lungs screaming for the oxygen I deprived.
My eyes roamed down her throat, the beautiful curve so delicate and exposed. I was easily able to end her life and that was why we were here right now. I needed her to trust me completely and put her in a position that made her defenseless.
As I approached the bed, her breath quickened and she tensed. She didn’t move although it was a fight, a fight against herself. Because that was what this was. It wasn’t me she feared. It was the memories that haunted her.
I leaned over the bed, my hands slowly wrapping the thin, smooth wire around her wrists several times, locking them together. I knotted the ends around the rung of the headboard, not tight, but enough that she’d be unable to move more than a few inches without the wire cutting into her wrists.
Her breath came in short gasps and she paled. I didn’t fuckin’ like it.
I ran my fingers down her arms to her shoulders then over to her throat, feeling her swallow beneath my touch. “You can do this, London.”
She didn’t answer. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I continued to trace gentle paths along her neck and collarbone. “You’re stronger than what was done to you. Don’t let him have you.” Him was generic because I didn’t know, and never wanted to know, how many hims there’d been.
“I’m scared.”
“I know. But we’re going to change that.” I cupped her chin and waited until her eyes steadied on mine. “No other man is inside you except me. Mind or body.” I brushed my thumb across her lips. Lips I was going to finally taste soon. “I need you to give yourself completely to me, not because you’re forced to, London, but because you trust me to only give you pleasure.”
She pulled a bit on the wire and her eyes widened with panic. “Kai. I don’t like it.”
I flattened my palm on her chest just above her breasts and felt her heart beating erratically. “Keep your eyes on me. I need you to see me. Know it’s me. Only me. Always.”
I stood up straight and slowly undressed. Taking my time, I stepped out of my jeans and folded them. I walked over to the chair and placed them on the seat.
I knew what she was doing before I turned. Struggling against the wire. I could hear the creak of the bed, the rustle of the sheets beneath her. “Oh, God, Kai.”
I’d release her if she really wanted me to, but I was certain she was strong enough to defeat the panic. “If I untie you, they win. Do you want that?” She bit her lower lip and I could see the imprint left from her teeth when she released it. “Do you want to live with them lingering, sucking the life out of you?” I approached the end of the bed and stopped. “I want all of you, London. Every single piece of you and I want you to give it to me.” I knelt on the bed and came toward her until I straddled her body. I leaned over her, my hands sliding up her arms until they rested on top of the bound wrists. “You need to decide whether you want to fight for me, London.”
“Fight for you?” Her voice shook and I curled my hands around hers and squeezed.
“Yes,” I whispered, leaning closer so my breath swept across her cheek. “Can you do that?”
For once, I was a little unclear as to what was going to happen. I was pretty confident of an outcome before I took a path and if the path changed, I was ready for it. But with London, there was risk because if she insisted I untie her, I had no choice but to do it.
Always follow through with what you say. I was confident that she’d never walk away from me, but I was pushing her. I was taking her fear and putting it in the forefront of her mind.
Then I was cocky enough to say, “Tell me you want to be free. Tell me, London and I will let you go. But if I let you go, it isn’t just from the wire, it’s from me.”
She stilled and so did I waiting for her answer and then she said, “I want to be free.” Her eyes closed and she repeated. “I want to be free.”
My Everything
“I WANT TO be free.” I swallowed.
I knew with everything inside me that the second I said the words, there’d be no going back. Not with Kai. He may exude easy charm, but there was nothing in him that would yield. I’d never be able to walk away from him until he let me. He’d own every piece of me. But he made it my choice and that made it even more powerful.
And he knew that.
I took a deep breath and said, “I want to be free of them.”
He slowly grinned and the tightly coiled tension in my body sprung. My fingers uncurled from the backs of his hands.
“My braveheart,” he breathed.
He’d never kissed me before and I knew he was finally going to as he hovered over me, his lips an inch away from mine. I was desperate, starved to taste him for the first time.
“Do you want me to kiss you, London?”