do it again. I swear! I’m sorry. I—”
My plea is cut off as Stonehart releases me. My knees give out. I crumple to the floor and start to weep in a horrible mix of relief and humiliation.
“Lilly, Lilly, Lilly,” Stonehart intones. I can feel him walking circles around me, like a lion around its wounded prey. “What are we going to do with you?”
I curl into a tiny ball on my side. My hands cover my head. All I can do is sob and shake.
“Now. You’re scared of me. I can see that.” Stonehart’s voice is cold as ice, and deathly calm. “You’re frightened. You’re thinking: What is he going to do next? ”
I give an incoherent whimper.
Stonehart squats down in front of me. I open my eyes enough to see him rolling up his sleeves. “I’m not going to beat you, Lilly,” he says. “That isn’t my style. Besides—” he chuckles, “—what use are you to me bloody and bruised? I want you fresh , my dear.”
Without warning his hands shoot out and pin my shoulders to the floor. He swings one leg over me and shifts his entire weight onto my body.
His breathing becomes heavier. It’s deep and raspy, coming from somewhere above me.
“Now.” He sweeps my hair to one side to expose my face. “This little adventure of ours has got my blood boiling. I know of only one outlet for that.”
I struggle against him, but it’s no use. It’s like trying to move a rock.
“Sweet Lilly.” He caresses my cheek with the back of his hand. I can feel the hairs of his knuckles against my smooth skin. “Sweet, sweet Lilly. I must admit, I enjoy evoking such passion in you. But you must let me make an equal to it.”
He lowers his head to my ear and adds in a heated whisper, “Fight back. The struggle… it turns me on.”
Chapter Eight
I gasp as he grabs my dress with both hands and rips it down the middle. My breasts heave out.
“Yes,” he growls. I thrash on the floor against him. “Yes. This is what I’ve been waiting for.”
I try to scream, but the sound is muffled as Stonehart crashes his mouth over mine. The kiss is hard and brutal. I clamp my lips shut, but his tongue finds a way in anyway. I shake my head back and forth, screaming , ‘No, no, no!’ in my mind. But I can’t do anything against the assault.
One of his hands finds my breast. He grabs it and presses down hard, squeezing at the same time. Still I continue to fight, struggling beneath him like a pinned gazelle.
Stonehart pulls up from my mouth. His heavy breathing is almost feral, and it matches my own. I see pure, animal aggression in his eyes.
“Squirm,” he rasps in my ear. “Kick. Scream. Bite . I like it rough.”
I acquiesce his request by bashing my forehead into his jaw.
For a moment, he is too stunned to move. His grip lets go. I squander my opportunity to escape by hesitating for too long.
Half a heartbeat later, Stonehart’s hand whips forward and catches my neck. I gasp, feeling the blood being cut off from my brain immediately.
“So you manage to follow directions, for once,” he enunciates, cracking his neck to one side. “That’s good, Lilly. But you have to remember: I am always in control.”
He releases my throat and blood swells into my head like water from an opened flood gate. The euphoria of oxygen reaching my brain again overwhelms me, and I drift into a momentary stupor.
Stonehart wastes no time. He takes advantage of my condition by flipping me over so that my face is pressed against the floor. His grip on my shoulders forces me down. I can feel the unforgiving marble pressing into my cheekbone. No matter how much I writhe, I can’t budge so much as an inch.
I hear the sound of his belt being unbuckled, and then I hear it slide out of its loops. Stonehart grabs one of my hands and twists it back in a horrible, unnatural position. Pain shoots through my shoulder, and I scream.
I feel a leather loop tighten around my wrist. Before I know what’s happening, my other arm is twisted back in