Her green eyes are ice cold as she stares up at me. “I cut your mother.”
My hands squeeze her wrists, tightening of their own accord. “Don’t do that.” I was wrong before. Freya is guilty of nothing. After seeing her break down in Maxwell’s basement all I can picture is a seven-year-old her being put through the same horrors over and over again.
“You were a child.”
“I was a monster.”
I see in her eyes that she means it. That she believes it. I swallow against the emotions clogging my throat. I shouldn’thave let it go this long without talking to her. I may not blame Freya anymore, but she still blames herself.
“I carved into her chest as she screamed, Eli.” She steps closer into me. “And then I watched as my dad slit her throat. She begged him not to. Begged him to let her go. She said she had a son at home, waiting for her.”
I breathe through my nose. “This isn’t going to work,” I say, even as her words claw at me. I spent years imagining what happened to my mother, but I pictured Maxwell’s smirk, not a little girl. It breaks my heart all over again to relive the worst time of my life through Freya’s eyes.
“You hate me, remember? I could have saved your mother, but I didn’t, I killed her. Her and countless others.” Freya keeps pushing but I’m a skilled enough profiler to know that’s all this is. She’s in a dark place right now and she thinks if she pushes me far enough, I’ll snap.
“I’m not going to hurt you Freya, not like you want.”
“Argh!” she screams at me and lashes out, pounding at my chest with weak fists. I gather her in my arms and spin her around till her back is against my front and her arms are pinned to her sides.
She doesn’t stop struggling.
I cringe. I don’t want to cause Freya anymore pain, but maybe that’s what she needs.
Fuck it.If we’re doing this, then we’re doing it my way. I release Freya and push her away from me. “Get on the bed.”
She raises a petulant eyebrow. “Seriously?” Her voice is raw. “You’re going to fuck the woman who tortured your mother?”
Her false attitude is making her bratty, but her goading finally pays off.
I collar her throat and pull her towards me. “You’re drowning, I get that, but I am trying to help. If you don’t do as you’re told I’ll call River up here and trust me, you can’t handleboth of us right now.” A glimpse of vulnerability flickers in her eyes. “Now. Get. On. The. Bed.”
She holds my stare for a while longer than pushes my hand off her neck and walks to the bed.
I fish a couple of River’s ties out of his wardrobe and secure Freya’s wrists to the corners of the headboard.
“What, no crop?” she asks.
I finish my last knot, the silk tie soft and erotic against her skin. I run the back of my fingers down the inside of her arm and lean over her. “There’s more than one form of torture, Kitten” I whisper against her lips.
I move to the end of the bed and hook my fingers into the waistband of her pants, making sure to catch her panties too. With one sharp yank she’s bare to me, and I groan at the sight of her. So soft and pretty.
Freya squirms but I hook my arms around her thighs and hold her still. “Eli…” unease threads her voice. She doesn’t like being exposed to me but that’s all right. This isn’t about what she likes. It’s about what she needs. And maybe a small part of me needs it too. I’ve wanted to have her like this since the first day we met after all.
I breathe her in, her sweet, musky scent going straight to my cock. I nuzzle her clit with my nose and draw my tongue through her folds. She’s dripping for me, and I lap her up like a man starved, holding her down as she writhes.
Freya arches her back, her arms pulled taut against the restraints. “This isn’t what I want,” she bites out through gritted teeth.
I know it’s not. I’m being too gentle. She wants me to hurt her. She thinks she deserves it.
“I know what you what,” I say, “but you’re not getting it.”
“For fuck’s sake, Eli.”
I carry on with my ministrations, pushing my tongue inside of her and flicking at her clit.
Freya pants. “She cried, you know, as I made the first cut. She tried not to, but she did.”
I still. I pull myself up the bed and nip at her jaw. “Enough. That’s enough,” I growl. “I know what you need, nowIneedyouto trust me. Do you understand or do I need to gag you too?” I wait till she gives me the slightest nod then make my way back down her body.
