“Why would you need to abduct me again?”
He stops what he’s doing and turns around, drying his hands on the dish towel.
“You really want to know?”
“Yes,” I say.
“We were getting along so well though?” he says, shrugging and flashing me a smile.
“Cut the bullshit,” I warn him.
“Fine.” His face grows serious, and he walks towards me. “You need to believe me when I tell you that they will not stop, and that I’m doing this because I don’t think there is any other way, okay?”
“What is it?” I say, feeling myself getting exasperated.
“They can’t force you to marry Liam if you’re already married.”
I’m not already married though?
No.
He’s not seriously suggesting what I think he’s suggesting.
He’s watching my face and I think he must see something he doesn’t like, because he comes over to me and holds on to my shoulders.
“It’s the only way. And I’m not doing it for money like your dad, or for some revenge game like Liam. I’m doing it because I think it’s the only way to stop them forcing you into something that won’t be good for you. And I’m doing it because — call me crazy — but I think there’s at least a small chance we could make it work.”
He is suggesting what I think he’s suggesting.
Call him crazy?
I’ll call him just as fucking insane as the rest of them.
“I barely even know you,” I argue. “This isn’t just crazy, it’s fucking stupidity of the highest degree.”
He just laughs at me. “You barely know me? I’ve shown you more of myself than most folks see who’ve known me for years. I don’t intend to change, princess, unless you’re adamant I have to. What you’re seeing right now is what you’re getting.”
“It’s still stupid,” I tell him. “We don’t even know if we want the same things. We’re eighteen for gods sake! We don’t trust each other. All we do is argue.”
“Not true. We fuck, too,” he says, cutting me off.
I give him a single, solitary breath that could be a huff or it could be a laugh. He’s trying to diffuse the situation and as much as I hate myself for it, I struggle to say no to him.
He makes me weak.
I break free from his grip on my shoulders and walk over to the counter, putting my cup of tea down on it and resting my hands against the side, sighing.
My back is to him but a few seconds later I sense him approaching. He hands grip on to my hips at both sides and he turns me around easily, so we’re facing each other, and then he lifts me up and sits me on the counter, like it’s nothing to him. He takes the space between my legs like he owns it.
“Listen, I know you don’t trust me. If I’m honest, I don’t trust you either. You’re flaky as fuck and the little stunt you pulled yesterday, well, I’ve broken legs before for much less. Just trust me now and I’ll prove I’m right. If you go home to Dad with my ring on your finger and he congratulates you and says no harm done, Lacey, then I’ll eat my words and I’ll sign the divorce papers and let you keep the house and the fucking car, too. But I’m telling you now, that won’t happen,” he says.
He’s looking at me with an intensity that makes my heart pick up its pace. “If you don’t do this, with me, right now, then you’ll be doing it with Liam whether you want to or not.”
I try to think, but I don’t have time. He could chain me to that wall in his basement for a week with nothing else to do, and it probably still wouldn’t be enough time.
“I’m not saying yes, but I’m not saying no either,” I tell him. That’s the only answer I can give him, and I hope it’s enough for him.
I remember when I used to be scared about what new ways he’d find to torment me. And then I was scared that the claims Rosheen made were true, and he wanted to break my heart. Suddenly, in the space of 24 hours, both of those things don’t scare me half as much as they used to.
Now, the thing that scares me the most is that I’m actually considering trusting him. I’m swallowing his madness like it’s normal. I’m listening to his reasoning, and I’m understanding it.
I’ve already given him too much power over me, and when his rough finger comes up and traces my bottom lip, sending a shiver straight through my whole body… I know I’m about to give him even more.
I can’t fucking help myself.
Chapter 6
SHAUN
She didn’t say no, and that’s something. That’s the easy bit out of the way… the bit where I convince her to forgive me for effectively kidnapping her and proposing to her in the same night.
I still need to ruin her only relative, fuck up a company, seriously fucking injure her ex, and make her one of us.
Piece of cake.
But I’ll worry about that later. Right now our lips are inches apart, she’s got her legs wrapped around my waist and she’s wearing my t-shirt. It smells like me but it smells like her too, and the only part of me that’s thinking straight is my cock, which is pressed hard up against her thigh.
I’m still angry at her for what she did and how easily she did it, and now I want to fuck her like the cold-hearted little bitch she is. And I’m not saying I do love her, but if I did love her, this would be one of the reasons why. Even when I’m angry at her, even when I want to take my hands and snap her pretty little neck with them, I cannot resist her. She has this power over me that no one else has ever had, and it’s sexy as fuck. I’m still obsessed. I’m still insatiable. I’m angry at her but I still want her to need me.
And I don’t ever want that to end. I’ll never fuck anyone the way I fuck her, not for as long as I live.
When I kiss her, I make sure she knows that.
I take her head in my hands and clamp her mouth onto mine.
She has no choice, she couldn’t stop me even if she wanted to, and I don’t give her a chance to ask.
I kiss her like that until I hear her moaning, and I feel her fingers running through my hair.
I kiss her until my cock is aching, and her fingers are prying at the button on my jeans, trying desperately to put it inside her, to fit us together.
I kiss her until I own the air that she’s breathing and every sigh that comes out of her mouth sounds like a cry for help.
I could take her right here, on the kitchen counter and put us both out of our misery. But I won’t do that, because that would be easy.
Instead I snake my arms around her waist and I lift her up. She wraps her legs around me and grips onto my neck, still kissing my cheeks, my head, my ears.
I take her back up the stairs to my bedroom and put her down on the bed, backing away. I remove my T-shirt and throw it over the chair before I sit down on it.
I’m on the other side of the room watching her. She’s still breathless from the kiss, lying on her stomach, sitting up on her elbows and watching me watch her, with a confused look on her face that she’s trying her best to hide.
“What are you doing?” she says finally, still breathless.