Silent Vows

31

“No. I won’t do anything inappropriate with Keir,” I said in a rush. “You’ll just have to learn to trust me.” If I let this man control and doubt me, www.ajpdf.com I’d forever be his captive rather than his wife. I couldn’t let that happen. And besides, Keir’s impressive resistance to my father’s bullying gave me hope that maybe he might be willing to help me. As the son of Jimmy Byrne, he’d certainly be in the position to make such a decision. I had to do this for multiple reasons, regardless of my fiancé’s fragile ego. Unwilling to entertain his arguments and threats, I ended the call and flopped back on my bed. I didn’t like to be difficult, but I couldn’t afford to let Conner control me. If I gave him an inch, he’d take everything, my heart included. For long minutes, I lay tense, fully expecting him to call back. But for the second time in one night, a man had surprised me with his silence. The phone never rang again. No texts lit the screen. Assuring myself I’d made the right decision and my rising anxiety was unwarranted, I buried the phone under my mattress and turned off the light. Sleep wouldn’t come easily, but I had to at least try. I had a big day ahead. I felt like I’d only just closed my eyes when a sense of awareness tugged me awake. My clock read 2:00 a.m., and the house was silent, but the thudding of my heart echoed in my ears. Something wasn’t right. My gaze lifted to scan the room, locking on the silhouette of a man leaning against my bedroom wall. The large figure was illuminated by the moonlight filtering through the open window. I didn’t have to see his face to recognize the form. Conner was here. In my bedroom. Had he been planning this all night? He had to have unlocked the window when he’d been in my room earlier. Had he been so sure I’d refuse him? What exactly did he plan to do about it? Tie me to my bed to keep me from going? I started to scoot up my bed and away from him, but Conner pushed off the wall. His movement stilled me. I watched raptly as he closed the distance between us. My chest rose and fell on shuddered breaths, goose bumps racing down the length of my arms. “What are you doing here?” I finally asked, not sure I wanted his answer. “I warned you, Noemi.” His dark murmur sucked the breath straight from my lips. I shivered. “But I haven’t even gone yet.” He yanked down the covers, exposing my legs. After drinking in the sight, his dark gaze, inscrutable in the moonlight, lifted to mine. “It’s time to face the consequences.” www.ajpdf.com “What—” I barely had time to panic before his arms caged me in, his lips seizing mine. He was a raging current, and no matter how hard I fought, he carried me away on his rising waters. I didn’t want to want him, but he felt so damn good. The press of his body. The pull of his ravenous desire. I was helpless against him. A masculine noise of satisfaction drifted between us when his commanding touch wrenched an unbidden moan from deep in my throat. “You feel like a f*****g dream,” he rasped, lips drifting to my jaw and down to my throat. A growing pressure began to pulse between my legs. I rolled my hips, desperately needing to ease the ache mounting inside me. The clawing need. It felt so incredibly good, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt pleasure—pure joy or happiness. The dopamine drugged me, erasing all thoughts of self-preservation or strategy. If this was my punishment, I’d happily accept. None of it made sense, but I didn’t care. I just wanted more. When he lifted my thin pajama top and his mouth closed over my breast, I thought the world might stop turning. It would have explained the dizziness. I felt like I was free-falling with no clue which way was up or down. How far was he planning to take this? Did I care? No. Not really. He was my fiancé, right? And it felt so good. Wasn’t I allowed to feel good for a change? Conner rested beside me, one large hand drifting down my ribs, over my hip, then to my thigh where he coaxed my legs apart. I didn’t fight him, but my heart began to jackhammer in my chest. A part of my body that no man had ever touched was now open to him, only shielded by a thin layer of cotton fabric. His gaze remained locked on where he touched me, his hand slowly caressing the inside of my thigh higher and higher but stopping just short of where my body screamed for his touch. “Tell me this is mine.” He slid one finger beneath the elastic edge of my panties. “Tell me no other man has touched you here.” His voice was jagged as a cliff’s edge, raw and unguarded. When his eyes finally drifted back to mine, I gasped at the violent need staring back at me. Like the last vestiges of his humanity clung by a thread. Mesmerized by my effect on him, I nodded. “No other … only you,” I whispered. www.ajpdf.com Fear suddenly spiked my veins with an icy-cold current. I didn’t worry that he’d hurt me—not physically, anyway. It was my heart that concerned me. How could I possibly keep my emotions out of the mix when Conner’s presence was so consuming? Nothing with him was simple, least of all s*x. My lips parted on an objection, but his hand came to rest over my mouth, his head slowly turning side to side as a devious smile perched on his lips. Then my brain short-circuited when his other hand slid fully beneath my panties and cupped my s*x. I didn’t remember my own name, let alone what I’d planned to say. Not when one long, scalding finger dipped inside me, then spread my arousal up to my c**t and back down. I’d already been writhing with more electric need than I’d ever felt before. The addition of his touch nearly made me see stars. One hand still pressed to my mouth, Conner fingered me with lavish, seductive strokes, building and teasing my restless flesh. My body arched and pleaded with his movements. When my chest pressed outward, lifting my back clean off the bed, he used his teeth to graze over my n****e. The sting sent an electric pulse directly to my c**t like a flame devouring a fuse. When the spark reached my core, my body ignited with blinding pleasure. Just as the liquid elation devoured me, Conner lifted his hand away from my mouth at precisely the right moment to allow a primal cry of release to burst past my lips. It was as though the energy inside me was too great to contain and had escaped in the form of sound, and Conner had set it all into motion, knowing exactly what would happen. The cry echoed in my head, drowning out even my ragged breaths and racing heart. Realization and panic chased away the remnants of my orgasm like angry dogs scenting a hare. “What have you done?” I breathed, my eyes going wide. Sante’s room was right next to mine. Was there any chance he could have slept through my cry? I held perfectly still, my lungs not even daring to draw breath. A door squeaked in the hall. Sante. I launched into motion, shoving Conner off me. “You have to get out. You have to leave!” I hissed, succumbing to the panic clawing at my insides. My eyes darted wildly to my closed bedroom door before cutting back to Conner when I realized he was refusing to budge.