Panting, he flung her back onto the bed. She lay there, docilely allowing Claire and her captor’s mother to shackle either hand so that she was spread-eagled upon the mattress. She swallowed the iron taste of her own blood, and knew that in the morning her face would be bruised and her mouth swollen.
“Undress her,” Nikolai commanded, standing at the foot of the bed and looking down on Jocelyn like an arrogant liege lord.
Claire obediently rummaged in a drawer and came out with a pair of scissors. Jocelyn closed her eyes against Nikolai’s burning gaze and the sight of his fiancé clipping off her cute little black dress. Her breath became uneven, and she fought the sudden tears that came. She turned her head to the side, in a futile attempt to hide them. The actor and his mother chu
