Of all the things Alex had expected to hear, that wasn’t one of them. He staggered back, breaking eye contact with Elaina as his legs wobbled under his weight, which suddenly felt ten times heavier. His thoughts skittered from one raw reaction to another, every possibility clamoring at once.
She didn’t lo—? He couldn’t even finish the thought. Lingering fears of whether his mother had loved him echoed with Elaina’s answer.
No, it wasn’t possible. Unless the past two months of near-perfection between them had all been a lie. The idea twisted his pain into anger. She had to love him. He’d make her see that.
His phone rang before he could respond. Several more trills reverberated through the garage. This conversation couldn’t wait, but he needed to take this call for the final step of his two-month-long plan to protect her. Shit.
“Go to my office. I’ll be there in a minute.”
After she trudged off to the house, he picked up his phone, impatient to get past this confrontation. “I gave you the headline you wanted.”
Dirk from TotalAccess guffawed in his ear. “Yeah, I’ll say. A credible witness, a PR fantasy, even video. But you still haven’t told me the story behind the whore.”
“If you ever use words like that to describe my fiancée again, I’ll drag you through mud so deep you’ll be shitting it for years. This isn’t Pretty Woman. Being poor and living in a bad area of town isn’t a crime.”
“Take it easy, dude. Her old neighbor across the hall already told me your woman was a loner. Thought she was a junkie, actually.”
He swallowed a curse. Of course the guy had checked into Elaina’s life during the past two months.
“She’s never done drugs either. And if you—”
“Yeah, yeah, no insinuating. Got it. Then you’ve gotta give me something real. How did you two meet?”
This question he’d prepared for. “I was searching for a jewelry appraisal business for investment purposes, and—”
“Investment purposes?” The man’s voice sounded incredulous.
Alex stuck to his story. “I diversify. If you need financial advice, I can give you the names of my advisors. Perhaps if you acted on their suggestions as I do, you wouldn’t be living in your mother’s basement while she’s locked up for DUI.”
Surveillance was a two-way street.
“Just an innocent question, dude.”
“I met Elaina Drake—and that’s E-L-A-I-N-A—because she was looking for a job as a jewelry appraiser. She’d recently moved into the area and had the skills, but not the certification. I had her check an item of mine to see if she knew her stuff. She told me more about it than the guy who’d sold it to me. She’s brilliant.”
“Aww, sweet story. ’Cept you left out the part where she rented her apartment under a different name. Things like that make a guy like me suspicious.”
“She didn’t want her father, Volus Drake—and that’s V-O-L-U-S—finding her. So yes, she muddied her tracks a bit. Witness Protection doesn’t step in when the U.S. doesn’t have jurisdiction, and he’s a criminal in Europe.”
“No kidding.” The guy’s tone was more dismissive than surprised.
“It’s the truth. Check with the FBI. Now if you don’t mind, I have unfinished business with my fiancée. I trust I’ve provided enough story for you?”
“Yeah, I’ll make it work.”
“Then this arrangement is over.”
Alex hung up the phone and pressed his fingertips to his throbbing temples. There was no going back now.
Click. Forty feet away, the door leading to the house shut.
Shit! Alex chased after Elaina, nearly tripping over her discarded coat in the doorway. “I can explain!”
Inside the house, she scrambled up the stairs, and then she twisted and fell into a crouch at the top. Her fingernails sharpened into points.
He bounded up the steps without slowing down. Her eyes widened, and she took off along the hallway again toward their bedroom. Her expression set off alarms in his mind, but he couldn’t stop to listen.
Artwork rattled against the walls, his barreling strides thumping through the hall, and he let his long coat slide off his shoulders to the floor. He slammed their bedroom door behind him, leapt over the bed, and propelled himself off the mattress toward her. His momentum carried him to the entrance of their bedroom closet, where he tackled her to the floor. He pinned her on her stomach to keep her claws from ripping into him.
“Christ, woman, let me explain.”
Her chest heaved for breath, and her ass pressed into him with her struggles. The curves of her body under his were distracting, but despite his growing hard-on, he didn’t move away. At least here, she had to listen to him.
“It’s not what you think.”
“I heard you, Alex.” Her words pitched high like a sob. “I heard it all.”
“It’s not what it sounded like. Trust me.”
On a whisper, she admitted, “I do. Damn you, I still do trust you.”
She stopped fighting his grasp.
At her surrender, his emotions tangled into something he didn’t recognize. She wasn’t supposed to react like this. She wasn’t supposed to accept defeat.
He needed her to be strong. Strong enough to play their dual-domination game. Strong enough to demand answers from him. Strong enough to keep him in line.
Dark thoughts clouded his mind, wanting to push her, corner her. He ground his hips against her ass.
“I’m going to take you. Conquer you. Make you mine forever.” His voice was hard and taunting.
Her body arched into his, rubbing him temptingly, and she turned her head to the side and bit her lip. “Please... I want to be with you more than I ever wanted anything in my life.”
“Liar.”
She couldn’t want to be with him that much and yet not love him. One of those claims had to be a lie. And the fact that she’d run for their bedroom raised suspicions that burned through his stomach and had him wishing for industrial-strength handcuffs.
His heartbeat nearly exploded at the thought that she might leave him. The pain dug deep inside him and thrummed a deadly warning: Don’t let her leave. Don’t let her leave. Don’t let her leave.
She nibbled on her lip again. “Are you going to punish me?”
Her high-pitched tone of submission shot through him like lightning. The instincts he’d restrained for the past two months exploded in a fiery burst, shattering his earlier vow along with his self-control.
He gathered her wrists in one hand and used his other hand to undo his pants and release his aching cock. The new skirt that showed off her great ass was already halfway up to her waist from their tumble to the floor. He shoved the fabric the rest of the way. A quick yank ripped away the fragile tights and delicate red panties, and he angled his cock at her entrance.
For a second, his fears seized him, and he choked out a whisper. “Please stop me.”
Her only resistance was to squirm, wiggling her bottom. Rather than helping him regain control, the pathetic response teased the tip of his cock and triggered the return of his darker urges. He plunged himself into her. She gave a squealing gasp and pushed against his invasion by lifting her ass.
Her feeble protest encouraged him. He thrust deeper, surprised to discover she wasn’t dry as expected. Instead, her wetness enfolded him, and his length slid into her. His victory made his roiling emotions even more chaotic.
“You were coming up here to leave me, weren’t you?”
He slammed into her, their skin squeaking on the polished floor. He dug his fingers into her wrists, and he pulled her hair out of the way with his free hand.
His voice was a harsh rasp. “Did you forget that I own you?”
His claim sounded nonsensical, even to his own ears, but he couldn’t stop the raw flow of panic and desperation. He thrust again as hard as he could, as though he could nail her down and prevent her from fleeing.
“Promise you’ll never leave me.” He wound his hand around her hair, tugging it back, and his words broke into a vulnerable plea. “Don’t ever leave me.”
Her lashes fluttered, and she licked her lips. “I promise.”
His thrusts sped up. “You promise?”
She sucked in a breath between his attacks. “Yes.”
She’s lying. “You’ll never leave me?” Lying, lying, lying—he punctuated each thought with a hard thrust, punishing her.
Her gasps came faster now. “Never.”
“Say it.” He yanked her hair. “Say, Alex, I will never leave you.”
Her nails dug into the hardwood, leaving gouges on the floor, and every muscle of her body became taut, clenching around his cock.
She panted out the words past gritted teeth. “I promise you, Alex. I’ll never leave you.”
At her pledge, he found his release. An irrational wish that he could get her pregnant despite the impossibility crossed his mind. All the better to mark his territory in a primal conquest.
A few minutes later, the fire in his body cooled, and he noticed her labored breathing under him. The truth bulldozed its way into his thoughts and left him nauseated and trembling.
He was a brute and an asshole. The wide eyes she’d had at the top of the stairs could only mean one thing: He’d bullied her into fearing him. And for good reason.
Even now, his hand yanked on her hair tight enough to cut into his skin. Hell, he’d gone caveman.
No, worse than that.
He’d thought this strong woman would keep him in line, keep him from turning into his father. But she hadn’t been able to. She hadn’t even fought back.
Why would she let him do that to her? His mind drew a blank.
Only one explanation made sense. Sometime in the past two months, he must have broken her. And now...
He’d raped her.