Quintessentially Q (Monsters in the Dark #2)(104)

Tess glided closer to the bed, looking like a malnourished ghost. She eyed the cuff, then my limbs. My fists pressed against my thighs, every muscle locked tight.

I hadn’t undressed. The element of having jeans and a T-shirt on was my only armament; I wanted to keep it that way.

I gritted my teeth, spreading my legs for her.

She swallowed and obediently looped the soft leather around my ankle.

Black spots appeared in my vision as she tightened the buckle around the bedpost. She fastened it and I wriggled.

“You need to do it tighter. I can get free.” I hated every word. I wanted to chop out my tongue for being such a traitor, but I wasn’t doing this for me. I was doing this for Tess. To somehow break the barrier she’d fortified. If it took dynamite in the form of making me shatter, then so be it.

Tess nodded, tightening the buckle until it bit into my skin. Heat travelled up my leg, causing me to shiver with helplessness.

Torturing me with fluttering touches and slowness, Tess secured my other ankle before sighing heavily. She looked at me with a thousand wishes in her eyes and no hope. Moving toward the head of the bed, she chose a length of silk rope.

Our eyes never left each other as she bent and captured my hand with hers. The moment her delicate fingers touched my trembling skin, I bucked. My cock roared to life and all I wanted to do was kiss her, f*ck her, never let her f*cking go again.

She bit her lip, her eyes darkening just a little.

“Embrasse moi!” Kiss me, I demanded, capturing her hand with mine.

We stared so long, so hard, I wondered if I’d die waiting for her to obey. Finally, she bent in half, lowering herself toward me. My legs might be bound, but my arms and torso weren’t. The moment she was in grabbing distance, I wrapped my arms around her, dragging her hard against me.

She let out a small cry before my lips crashed onto hers. I speared my tongue into her mouth. She froze for the briefest of moments, then struggled as I held her tighter. She whimpered as I bit her bottom lip.

I groaned as her taste filled my mouth. She reminded me of happier times, of confused times, but most of all, the love I’d lost. The love I wanted to get back.

Her hands pressed against my chest, pushing me away.

Reluctantly, I let her go. She bolted upright, breathing hard. My heart lodged in my throat at the panic in her eyes.

Something had eroded, showing a little glimpse of all that emotion locked inside her.

Shaking her head, she grabbed my wrist and slammed my hand above my head. I didn’t fight even though the beast inside wanted to tear her into smithereens.

Her fingers fumbled around my wrists, jerking them with every knot of the rope. She grimaced as she pulled harder, tightening the restraints to the point of pain.

I never took my eyes off her as she circled the end of the bed and climbed onto the mattress to restrain my other hand. I placed it above my head for her, drinking in her rising fear—the scent of turmoil and panic.

After weeks of nothing but coldness, the onslaught of her emotions intoxicated me better than any whiskey. Every second that ticked past, Tess lost the glassy sterile look, descending further into crazed and scared.

It’s working. The curse around her f*cking heart was breaking.

Tess tested the rope on my wrist one last time before scrambling off the bed and staring at me with such a soul-crumbling look in her eyes it undid me once and for all.

I f*cking loved this woman. Not just for now. Not just for tomorrow. But always. Now and forever, I was hers.

I nodded, gritting my teeth. “Do it, esclave. Do whatever you want to me. I’ll accept whatever you give. I’ll live and be happy with whatever scraps you let me have.” My voice was rough, laced with sorrow, but I kept going. “I give you myself, Tess. If it doesn’t make you come back to me, then this is it. This is the last time I’ll have you close, and I want to see passion in your eyes one last time.”

I waited for a tear, a twitch, some recognition of how much I offered, but only terror greeted me. She stood stiff as a f*cking board, no longer looking at me, but back there—back in the place where her nightmares brewed.

“Tess…” I wanted to tell her not to be afraid, to let them take her. That I’d be with her every step, but she shook her head, gripping her hair with desperate fingers.

She mumbled something under her breath, before exploding to the other side of the room, heading toward the open cupboard.

I strained to see what she collected and my heart bucked when she came back with whips, floggers, scissors, and vials.

She dumped it all between my splayed and bound legs.

Her eyes evolved from dove-grey to icy blizzard, glittering with hatred. She no longer looked at me from the eyes of my esclave—my Tess. She morphed into a complete stranger. A woman with a vendetta, a wish for death and destruction.

I nodded in response to her harsh breathing. “Wherever you are, Tess, don’t hold back. Relive what happened, face your demons, inflict whatever you need to on me.” I might’ve sounded strong, but inside I was back to being a f*cking boy who buried his mother and shot his father. I felt so alone. Always alone.

Her eyes closed, and a cape of horror came over her. Her energy changed from weak and closed off to ferocious and angry, so, so angry. “You made me do so many things. And yet you think you can order me again?”

Oh, shit. She’d left me. Her mind had regressed—she’d done exactly what I told her.