She pressed herself back into the car door. I reached into my coat pocket and she jumped. “I should’ve known you’d be waiting out here like a spider.” The coat was gone, and she’d put on some unbecoming flats. She still wore the light blue blouse and black skirt from earlier. She slid in next to me, though she took care to come no nearer than absolutely necessary. My driver, Luke, got out and opened the back passenger door for her. I would tear it down piece by piece until she was naked, shivering, and begging for more. She had steeled herself for this, strengthened every fiber of her being. I couldn’t see her face in the dark, but her movements were enough. Her small figure took the few steps down the stairs, and she strode toward my car with purpose. The front door of the Rousseau estate opened, casting yellow rays of light onto the wide, curved stoop. The sooner the ink dried on our deal, the sooner I could begin her education. I shifted in my seat and willed her to come to me. Things had been set in motion that were beyond even my control. There was no longer an ‘if’, only a ‘when’. I knew how to get her there, to drag her down into the darkness and twist her beyond recognition.

I wanted to stoke the flames, to make her despise me with even more ferocity. She wasn’t a challenge, and I wouldn’t waste my time.īut then she’d looked at me. She’d be too easy, too quickly cowed and brought to heel.

But my momentary infatuation faded with each step closer I came to her downcast eyes. Her pale skin and delicate wrists with the tell-tale scars were like a lure to me, and her understated curves would look perfect when reddened by my hand or belt. More than that, I wanted to break her, to make her mine and take everything from her until I was the only thing she thought, or dreamed, or breathed. I’d caught sight of her as I walked through the door from Judge Montagnet’s chambers. Her red hair had been pulled back in a tight bun and she wore a black suit, as if she were in mourning. She’d been sitting at her father’s side at his arraignment. Salvation had a price-the highest one imaginable-and I knew she would pay it the moment I first laid eyes on her. The dutiful daughter, rushing after any salvation for her father she could find.

Something about it made me itch to do something, anything, to keep my life moving. I tapped my fingers along the top of my thigh as I waited.

The bad guy celia aaron read online