“I caught just a glimpse of your ni**les when you were in the bath. Do you know that my mouth watered to suck them?” He’d wanted to put his mouth on them. Picturing that scrambled my thoughts.

Another scrape.

“Y-you need to stop that.” I hadn’t thought the tips could get harder. They tightened almost painfully.

“Yes, tell me to stop and to leave you alone.” Scrape. “Tell me that I frighten you, and I’m not to touch you.” Scrape.

I choked back a moan. “You don’t frighten me. And the only reason I don’t want you to touch me is because you won’t follow through, and I’ve been sexually tortured enough tonight.”

Including now, I’d been on the verge of orgasm three times—all because of this man.

He gave a low, sexy laugh. “You think I’ve tortured you? Maybe I should show you what real torture is.” His tone was forbidding; so why was my pu**y clenching with anticipation? “Then perhaps you would rail at me to find me in your bed.”

“Is that what you want?”

“It’s what I would have expected from you. And if you tell me to leave you, I will.”

“Answer me, Sevastyan. Is that what you want?”

He didn’t say a word; scrape.

“Ahh!” I licked my bottom lip, struggling for words. “You confuse me so much! Since you refuse to tell me anything, I’m going to tell you everything. I find you extremely attractive. When your eyes are like this, all gold and smoldering, you are pretty much irresistible to me. I think you were right; I did approach you in the bar because I wanted to have sex with you.”

His firm lips parted. Then he shook his head hard, as if to dislodge whatever idea had just taken hold. “You wouldn’t have done so if you knew me better. I am an enforcer, a contract killer, and I pity you for piquing the lusts of a man like me.”

In a soft voice, I said, “But you piqued mine too. So what do we do now?”

“If you knew the thoughts in my head, you would not be so welcoming. You wouldn’t like it in my bed. I have particular interests, and I demand obedience.”

“Obedience.” Was that my titillated tone? “Like my doing whatever you command?”

He nodded, eyes alight at the prospect.

Why did that sound so unbearably erotic? I’d never relished being ordered around at my jobs. But in this context—in bed with a domineering man—the idea excited me. “Why do you demand it?”

“I don’t like surprises. If you do as I say, there will be none.”

I nibbled my lip, giving this some thought. “What kind of interests?”

“I need to do filthy things to your body, Natalya. And I know I never can.” His voice was almost . . . forlorn.

Filthy? That sounded so freaking hot. “Why can’t you?”

“You are taboo to me. No woman is more so.”

Because I was the boss’s daughter? Was this why Sevastyan had been running hot and cold with me? “We’re in this cabin alone. No one ever has to know what goes on between us. Maybe we should try to get this out of our systems before we land.”

He looked like he was actually considering my proposal. “Have you ever relinquished control of your body to a man?”

Breathless, I shook my head. I’d wondered what it’d be like to be dominated; this man could relieve my curiosity. And that was the great thing about vacation flings: you could go crazy, do things you never would otherwise, and suffer zero consequences.

Right?

Did I have the nerve to try this? I recalled when I was twelve, the neighboring farm boy had dared me to jump off a train trestle into the creek below. Atop the tracks, I’d been terrified, shaking like a fledgling. But I’d forced myself to step off that ledge into nothing.

Into a free fall.

I remembered screaming with fear all the way down. Then I remembered kicking up through the water and breaking the surface, triumphant, to cast that boy a suck it grin.

All the terror had been worth it, just for that reward. Would the same prove true tonight?

“Could you give me absolute obedience, Natalie?”

Gut check. Could I step off the ledge once more? My honest answer: “I won’t know until we try.” I reached for his chest, stroking over a tattoo. His muscles rippled to my touch.

When my thumb brushed his flat nipple, he inhaled sharply. “I’ve warned you of what I’ll expect, I’ve warned you about what kind of man I am. And you still push? I’ll give you a taste that will send you fleeing from me. This will be out of your system—because you will fear me. . . .”

Chapter 8

Fear him? I swallowed audibly. Did I dare go along with this?

“Spread your thighs,” he commanded, rising above me.

It seemed I was still under the influence—of him; I tentatively opened my legs.

He positioned himself between them. Clutching the shirt lapels in his fists, he snatched open the rest of the buttons, yanking the shirt from me—until my naked br**sts quivered before his predator’s gaze.

My body was completely bared and defenseless, and his behavior should have made me nervous. Instead, I had to concentrate to keep my hips from undulating.

“If you want more, then put your hands behind your neck.”

I blinked up at him. “What?” Make my position even more vulnerable?

“Do it, and do not move them. Sdavaisya.” Surrender.

“I-I don’t know.”