THE CONTROL: An Arranged Marriage Romance by Elena Monroe (ebook reader android .txt) 📕

“Are we doing this or not?” I shouted to him, but my eyes didn’t leave Eve’s. Her cheeks blushed, and she spun around, letting her back hit the wall that divided the front entrance from the rest of the house.

In a hushed whisper she spoke, “Is that what you’ll do to me, Bowen? Is that why you won’t touch me? I’m not so fragile I can’t withstand your cruelty…” Her fingers danced down her chest, and I couldn’t help my eyes from following them.

Closing the gap between us, I snatched her wrists in a brutal grip, anything to stop the teasing, and pinned them above her head. I could feel her chest heaving in a quick pace when I let my lips get so close to her neck, I almost gave in and handed over my virginity in his hallway. “You’ve never been fragile. Even now, you bend but don’t break. Who says I’ll touch you at all, Princess?”

Her voice was wrapped up in gasps and wicked little moans that went straight to my dick when she decided to be a glutton for punishment. Her knee bent, rising to my crotch, creating a soft friction against my hard-on. “You’ll have to touch me eventually, Bowen. For the record... I don’t care how, as long as you touch me.”

Pinning her against the wall with my hips, my hands squeezed her wrists tighter, trying to hold her in place even more. My mouth collided with her neck, and she moaned my name under her breath like it was never supposed to make it past her lips.

I wanted her without having to explain my past or present predicament.

I wanted her only after she explained her life from the past ten years.

I wanted her in ways I couldn’t give into without embarrassing myself.

She deserves someone who knows exactly how to make her feel good and that isn’t me.

Not on any level.

My lips dragged against her neck, across her collarbones and down to her chest, taking her in with a strong inhale. Her skin was burning up as I whispered against the swell of her breasts, “Behave… don’t embarrass yourself.”

I was about to be the only one embarrassed when Grimm notices my hard-on, and she conceals herself with a coy smile.

Still trying to breath normally, she shot back, “What if I don’t behave? Will you punish me?”

It took every ounce of determination to let go of her hands and take a step back when Grimm leaned against the wall next to us with a shit-eating grin taking over his face. He was amused, which wasn’t often, by the sight of me weakened by her the same way their women made them all weak.

Letting her head drop to take him in, she ran her eyes up and down his tattooed body. “Looking good, Jason.”

His grin faded into a contempt I knew this night was going to bring. Our past consisted of Eve and I on one side with everyone else on the other. Eve definitely aided in keeping the line thick.

“It’s just Grimm now,” he bit out the words through a tense jaw.

Her hand slapped his chest like their frenemies relationship just pushed the past to the present. “Oh, like that nickname Reaper I gave you?”

“Go, Eve. Behave. He knows what he’s doing. I need some air.” I barely finished speaking when I rushed towards the door like it was safety. Around Eve? Distance was the only safety.

Starvation wasn’t even a safe route anymore. It only made me famished enough to consider the ideas I had labeled crazy.

The cold ocean breeze hit my face, and I choked trying to swallow the kind of drowning this felt like. With my hands on the hood of my car, I tried to steady my breath enough to ignore how badly my dick ached for her.

We were only days away from the wedding and I was held together by fucking tape and glue. I had already told myself she was simply mine. Not mine to touch, boss around, or anything else I wanted to do.

Just mine.

My hand dipped down to my jeans to give myself a squeeze, trying to provide the smallest amount of relief I could without breaking. A groan sat against my tongue when my head fell back and my eyes clamped shut.

All the reserve I had was blinded by the light of her fucking halo, and my demons found it funny. 

My hand snuck inside, repositioning myself to make it less obvious than it already was. I lit up a joint, taking big inhales as I headed back inside to where Grimm was preparing to brand her in a way that made it impossible to be anyone else’s.

Not that she would ever not be mine, but if one day she opens those legs for anyone else because I refuse to give into her, she’ll be overwhelmed with the collision of me against the trespasser.

No better way to ward off unwanted company.

Sucking in the high on the end of the joint, I walked over to the chair Eve was sitting on. There was no sign of Abigail, thank god, I couldn’t keep my cool if she was in the vicinity after seeing her nipples pinched by the clamps.

We both had similar backgrounds, yet she was comfortable with her pleasure being doused with pain. Meanwhile, I had no idea what I liked and I wasn’t willing to try anything to figure it out.

“Where is this going boss?” Grimm had a pair of black gloves on, and the vile of our blood poured into a small cup mixed with a few droplets of red ink.

Standing behind Eve, I leaned down, forcing her legs apart with my hands, only further