The look of horror on her face is almost enough to make me pause. Almost, but not quite.
The primal need to mark her is more than I can argue with, and when I feel the tingling in the base of my spine that tells me I’m about to coat her sweet cunt with my seed, I speed up and fuck her harder.
Tears fall against her cheeks and make my release that much stronger. She doesn’t see it yet, but everything I’m doing, I’m doing for us. I’m doing it for our future. She’s fighting me at every turn, making everything harder than it needs to be, but the moment her belly grows round with my baby is when she’ll accept everything I’ve been trying to tell her since I brought her here.
I collapse on top of her once my balls are drained. Her chest rises and falls in gentle sobs. She’s upset now, but she’ll see. Soon she’ll understand why I had to take this choice out of her hands.
“I need to clean up,” Snow whimpers, her palms pressing into my chest in an attempt to move me.
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do,” she argues, pushing me harder as the anger takes hold. The rage in her eyes makes my semi-hard cock twitch inside her, eliciting a moan of surprise from her throat.
I shake my head slowly, a smirk of satisfaction playing on my lips. If I wanted, I could take her again right now. My cock is ready to go again, hardening with each tear that streaks down her cheek. I could slam back into her and plant another load in her sweet pussy.
But I won’t. Not because I don’t want to, or even because she doesn’t want me to. No, I won’t take her again so soon because every time I move inside her, she winces just a little. Between my rough treatment with the gun and how I just fucked her with nothing but brutality, it wouldn’t be fair for me to fuck her again so soon, especially seeing as I will never be soft and gentle. Those are two words that don’t exist for a man like me.
I keep her pinned beneath me for long minutes, my cock aching to keep fucking her and her gentle sobs only make me want to mark her over and over again. I always knew the day I finally fucked her would be the start of the end, that leaving the bed ever again would be near impossible. But eventually I will have to get back to work, especially with a new threat on the horizon.
Carefully, I withdraw from her tender pussy and meet her gaze. She isn’t angry, scared perhaps, but there’s no anger flickering within the ice of her eyes. This is hard for her, and that’s something I’m willing to accept, and willing to make allowances for. After all, she is right when she says she didn’t ask for this. She was quite happy living her life as the baby Saint James that everyone underestimated. But that’s not who she is to me, or who she has ever been.
The moment my body no longer touches her, the warmth she provides stolen away in the blink of an eye, I almost can’t stand it. I grew up without physical touch, and every sexual partner I’ve had, I’ve tied them up and fucked them from behind because I’m not familiar with physical touch or emotion. But having Snow in my arms feels so fucking right. Like all the pieces in the puzzle have fallen together.
I bundle her up in my arms and slide off the bed, holding her close to my chest. Snow burrows her face into my chest, her tears rolling down my bare pecs, and I barely control the growl that climbs up my throat. Even through her distaste of what I’ve just done to her, her body instinctively leans into me for support.
When we reach the bathroom, I immediately reach to turn the shower on, making sure the temperature is right before stepping in with my Snowflake still in my arms. There’s something about carrying her around that feels so right I don’t dare to question it.
The warm water hits her pale skin, and she lets out a groan of happiness. I can’t help but smile down at her in my arms.
Fuck. How am I ever meant to leave her to work? Marking her has only made my obsession grow deeper, the need I have for her grow stronger.
“Better?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“You did good today, little Snowflake.”
Her eyes darken, the first glimmer of anger since we left the bed evident. “Which part, Elijah? The part where I tried to get one of your men to help me leave? Or the bit when he almost raped me? Or how about when you forced me to kill him and then fucked me with a gun? Or could it be the part where I begged you not to come inside me and you did anyway?” The fire in her words would burn a lesser man, but she should know by now I’m not going to bow like every other man she’s been with. Snow pushes against my chest with closed fists, and this time I allow her out of my embrace, carefully lowering her to the ground. “You had no fucking right, Elijah. That’s not a decision you take out of someone’s hands. I’ve just lost my parents, everyday I’m here, I’m losing my life and my family, and any day now you’re going to force me to march down the aisle and become your wife. You should have given me this one choice.” Hot, angry tears roll down her cheeks and a ragged sob breaks from her throat, her chest heaving with the force of it.
Snow’s entire body trembles despite how warm the water is as her back hits the tiled wall. She wants to put distance between us, but I’m standing between her and the door.
I reach for her, unable to hold my protective instincts at bay despite the fact I’m the one who caused her this pain, but she shies away from my touch. “Don’t fucking touch me,” she snarls.
I almost snap back, almost revert to the cold, brutal man I’ve always been, but it won’t win me any favors with my Snowflake, and although it goes against everything I am, I have to try to be what she needs right now.
“Snow,” I say, my voice low and calm. “I’m sorry I’ve upset you, but you have to understand this is your life now. I know you’re still adjusting to the idea, but I’ve known this is where we were headed since the day we met. Everything that has come since then was merely a detour on our journey.”
She wraps her arms around herself as if the gesture can protect her from me and my words, but as I’ve tried to tell her over and over again, there isn’t a damn thing on this earth that can keep me away from her, and that’s a reality she needs to grasp sooner rather than later.
“I was only a teenager,” she yells. “How could you know I was the one you were meant to spend the rest of your fucking life with?” Her shouts bounce off the tiles and echo.
If I wasn’t already glad I gave Mrs. Chambers the day off because of the dead body in the hallway, I would be even more so right now. If she saw Snow like this, I have no doubt in my mind the older woman would be getting her the hell out of here, regardless of the consequences.
“Because I knew.” I shrug, taking a small step toward her. “I need you to breathe for me, little Snowflake. You’re going to hurt yourself, and I don’t accept anything hurting what belongs to me, including yourself.”
“I don’t really care what you want, Elijah,” she snaps. “I don’t even fucking care if you kill me at this point. Because death would be a kinder future than whatever you have planned for me.”
Her words are like a knife to the throat, the sharpness slicing into my skin and leaving a gaping wound in its path. She’s angry. I understand that, but I will not allow anyone, including her, to speak to me like this.
I prowl through the warm spray toward her, not stopping when she cowers against the wall, her body shaking like a leaf on a windy day. Snow is about to find out what happens when she doesn’t behave, and she’s not going to like it.
