Total pages in book: 20
Estimated words: 18916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 95(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 95(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
There’s nothing I can do. I’m not a person here. Just a number.
“I told you not to make a scene,” he growls. “These men here…they’re starving for a woman. Don’t you understand that!?”
His words sting like needles. I curl up and retreat into myself. It’s like my favorite teacher scolding me while I beg for his approval. Without meaning to, I’ve disappointed him. Caused trouble for him.
If only I could make him understand that this was not my fault!
“Maybe solitary confinement wasn’t enough. Maybe I need a new form of punishment for you.”
I flinch against the doctor’s hand as he touches a brand-new bruise on my arm. One of the men in the yard grabbed me just before Killian showed up.
“That hurts!” I yelp before I realize what I’m doing. I raised my voice? In this place? I know what comes next: punishment.
My eyes snap to Killian as he rolls his shoulders back, making him look even taller than usual. Keeping his gaze on me, he barks to the doctor, “Get out.”
Without a word, the doctor backs his way to the door. The guard opens it for him, and Killian waves a hand. “You too. I’ll conduct the exam myself. This one is…extra troublesome.”
“Sir,” they reply in unison before stepping out. Killian closes the door behind them and with a single strike from his palm slaps the deadbolt in place, locking us in.
My pulse quickens. I fight to stop myself from panting. Staring at him in his suit, holding his punishment rod by his side—it’s too much. I can’t take it. He’s just too handsome. Starting to feel faint, I just have to look away.
He moves closer. I hear the clicking of his boots against the cold floor. Feel the gravity of his presence like a physical touch as he closes in on me.
The tension in the air is like a match about to be struck.
He stops at the bed, and I keep my eyes down. I can see the rod by his side and just know he’s going to use it on me. Finally, I will feel its sting.
But what happens next genuinely shocks me.
“I know you’re innocent,” he says, his voice softer than moments ago when the doctor and guard were here. My lips tremble as I look up at him.
“You–you do?”
This better not be another trick. Another one of his methods of pulling me apart.
He nods, and hope lights within me like a lighthouse shining into the night.
“And it’s my fault, Alice,” he sighs. “You’ve been sent here by someone with a grudge against me. To set me up. To cause me to fail.”
I shake my head. “I don’t understand.”
He reaches out, placing a soft hand against my bruised arm. But this time, it doesn’t hurt. His touch is so soft, like a feather caressing my skin.
Competence. So much authority. Strong hands igniting my nerve endings with heat, sending a flush up my neck to my cheeks.
“You don’t have to understand, Alice,” he says, his voice low. “Just know that I believe you and I will protect you.”
Finally. Someone believes me!
I almost can’t believe it. A single tear falls from my eye, but Killian wipes it away, shaking his head. “No. Don’t cry, Alice. Everything will be all right.”
He leans in, and the tension in the room snaps. The match lights, and a fire begins to burn in my chest. I look up at him, and he pushes me down on the bed and mounts me, one knee on either side of my face.
A timid gasp escapes my lips as I look at it—the unmistakable bulge of arousal between his legs. The seams of his pants about to burst. The teeth of his fly spreading apart.
“Those are the things I can do for you, Alice,” he says. “But what I can’t do is continue to restrain myself.”
“Killian…”
“As warden of Last Rites, I should punish you for causing a scene today.” He extends his tongue and licks his lips, eyes flaring like hot sparks. “But I’ll take mercy on you, Alice. Your punishment will be…”
His voice trails off as he drags his gaze across my body, making me aware of every tiny inch.
“Pleasure.”
He said it. And I know what he means. I know what he wants. And it scares me almost more than those men in the yard did today.
My chest heaves as he unbuttons my jumpsuit, letting my breasts spill out against the cool air. His face lights up as he leans down and puckers his lips, taking each nipple into his mouth and sucking, straddling the line between gentle and rough.
I‘m losing control. The feeling pries my jaw open, and I gasp, my hands gripping the mattress as he continues down, tugging at the dirty fabric that conceals the rest of me.
“I’ve tried so hard to control myself, Alice,” he mutters, almost like he’s talking to himself. He reaches the V of my legs and pauses, like a man about to leap from a bridge. “But with you, it’s impossible. You had me crawling around on the floor, breaking my own rules as warden…and now I simply can’t hold back any longer. But you know that, don’t you?”