Scandalous Arrangement

Chapter 11

BARBARA

I lunged.

He didn’t even flinch.

One hand shot out and planted firmly against my shoulder, stopping me before I could get anywhere near him. The movement was effortless, almost insulting. I strained against him, reaching for my phone, but he held me at arm’s length as though I weighed nothing.

“Give it back!”

He ignored me.

Completely.

Instead, his eyes dropped to the screen.

Time seemed to slow.

His thumb unlocked the notification with infuriating calm while the room dissolved into a suffocating silence. I could hear nothing except the frantic pounding of my own heart. Every second he spent reading felt like another knot tightening around my throat.

Please don’t read it. Please.

His expression remained unreadable at first. Then his jaw hardened. The muscles beneath his cheek ticked once, and his eyes darkened until they were almost black. The air itself seemed to grow heavier as he read the message again, slower this time, as though memorizing every single word.

When he finally lifted his gaze to mine, it felt like staring into a wildfire. Silence settled between us. My pulse pounded so hard I could hear it in my ears, yet neither of us moved. I could barely breathe beneath the weight of his stare.

“You want to meet another man?” His voice was quiet and cold. “Do you realize you’re mine?”

I crossed my arms defiantly.

“I’m not yours...”

I wanted to say more. Something sharp. Something cheeky that would wipe that infuriating confidence from his face. The words perched on the tip of my tongue, waiting to be unleashed, but the rage blazing in his eyes stole them away.

God.

Did I love seeing him like that? It was twisted. Completely irrational. But I did.

The fury radiating from him should have sent me running in the opposite direction, yet it rooted me where I stood. My heart pounded like a war drum, each beat louder than the last. I was scared, genuinely scared of what he might do to me, but beneath that fear was something hotter and more powerful: need.

Every flash of anger in those stormy eyes sent heat spreading through my body. I wanted to provoke him again. Push him a little further. Strip away that impossible self-control until there was nothing left but raw emotion. Let’s see how far I can go.

“You have gone too far, Barbara,” he snapped, every syllable clipped with restraint. “If you want s*x, you don’t have to sneak around. Just say it. Say it to me. Don’t go crawling to other men like some heat-struck animal.”

My eyes narrowed.

“Oh, please.” I let out a short, mocking laugh. “Do I ask you about the women you meet? I don’t care what you do, so why should my men bother you?”

His jaw flexed.

“Because you’re mine,” he growled.

“And you’re not mine?” I shot back without missing a beat. “You’re free to wander, and I’m chained to your bedpost?”

“I am yours.” His voice was quieter now, but somehow even more dangerous. “And I don’t sleep around, Barbara.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Tell that to the devil,” I muttered, turning my back on him. “I. Don’t. Care. I—”

“You little girl.”

His voice cut through mine.

I froze as he started to move toward me with that rage. One step.

Another.

Slow.

“You have some nerve, don’t you?” he said, each word closer than the last.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I moved back until I hit the bed. He was close now. Close enough that I could sense the heat radiating from his body. Close enough that my heartbeat stumbled against my ribs. Every instinct screamed at me to run, just run, but my feet refused to obey.

“You make me go crazy!” he said. “And I think you like that, don’t you? You like to see me crazy?”

I swallowed.

Before I could think of something to say, he caught my arm. The next thing I knew, he shoved me onto the bed.

The mattress sank beneath my weight.

I tried to scramble away, but he was already above me, his broad frame caging me in. His weight pinned me against the mattress, leaving nowhere to run. I shoved against his chest with both hands, but it was like trying to move a stone wall.

“Lorenzo—”

His mouth crashed onto mine.

“This is your punishment,” he growled into my mouth, his voice hoarse and rough. “For thinking you can offer this body to anyone else.”

His hand found my c**t, and he gasped against my mouth.

He began to tease me, rubbing slow, agonizing circles that had me breaking into a sweat and trembling with pleasure so overwhelming I thought I would shatter. Then he would stop, only to begin again, drawing me to the edge of ecstasy before pulling me back. He wasn’t trying to please me; he was trying to punish me.

And when I thought I couldn’t take any more, he slid two fingers inside me.

“Oh, God... so wet. So tight.”

He groaned as he found the spot that always drove me mad, and I became a trembling mess beneath him. No pleasure I had ever given myself compared to what he was making me feel.

“Lorenzo...” I cried out when his other hand gripped my breast, squeezing hard enough through my robe that pain and pleasure rippled through my body in equal measure.

By the time he finally pulled away from my mouth, I was gasping for air, aching, yet desperately wanting his lips back on mine.

“You’re mine, Barbara,” he whispered. “For as long as we’re engaged, you don’t give yourself to anyone else. Not while I can make you scream my name.”