Chapter 12

The first thing Shania became aware of was the deep, borderline unpleasant ache of her body. She frowned and twisted a little before coming fully awake. With a moan, she shoved herself into a sitting position and tried to reach back to touch one of the aching stripes that marked her back. As the heavy quilt fell away from her naked body, she became aware that she wasn't in that horrible room Khalid had taken her to last night, nor was she in her own room. The heavy, dark furniture came into focus and she realized she was in the penthouse. His room.

She tried to think of how she got there when a scraping noise caught her attention. Khalid was sitting in the chair against the corner wall watching her intently. Shania blushed and pulled the blanket back up her body.

"It won't happen again."

She knew right away what he meant. His voice, deep with regret, assured her of his honesty. She dropped her eyes as the memory of his beating swept over her. It hadn't hurt nearly as much as she knew it could, but she hated that it happened at all. She wasn't sure if she was ready to forgive him.

"How can you be sure?" she whispered.

He shoved annoyed fingers through his hair. "Because it won't," he snapped. "I don't explain myself, Shania. You don't have to believe what I say. I said what I meant."

She nodded. It was true, he had never done other than what he said he would.? They had that in common. "And the other thing?" she asked quietly, her face flaming.??

His face reflected his answer. His eyes swept over her curves under the cover of the blanket. Her breath caught in her throat as his scorching eyes captured hers. "You stay in my bed."

She knew he meant that literally as well as metaphorically. Their relationship had changed and he wasn't going to let her go back to sleeping alone in the room across the hall.

She was torn. Except for the slight tightness in her back, her body tingled in a wonderful way she had never experienced before. She loved the feeling of his body claiming hers. But Shania had an issue with carrying on and enjoying a sexual relationship with a man that took away her freedom and rights.

"I can't do it, Khalid," she said quietly. "Not unless everything else has changed. I need to go back to work, I need to be my own person and make my own decisions. I can't have Aiden's debt between us if I'm going to consent to a relationship."

She watched apprehensively as he pushed himself up from the chair and stood to his full height. He approached the bed slowly, stalking her. Shania pushed herself further back up the bed.

"You make mistakes, Shania." His sinful voice caressed each syllable of her name. His accent was slightly stronger, edged with annoyance at her. She shivered, so far ‘annoyed' Khalid hadn't been her favourite.

"Mistakes?" she whispered.

He reached back, pulled his T-shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor. He held her gaze as he unzipped his jeans. "You make the mistake of assuming that debt has anything to do with us anymore. I wrote it off the moment you walked into my office and tried to hand me that pitiful roll of cash."

Shania's breath gasped out. He shoved his jeans and underwear down his legs and kicked them off. He stood in front of her, completely unashamed of his nudity. Not that he had anything to be ashamed of. His body was incredibly beautiful to her, as though he had been sculpted from her imagination. He was big all over. Bigger than she had thought. His expensive suits hid the powerful body beneath. A tattoo scrolled from his ribcage around his back. She couldn't tell what it said. It was written in Arabic or some other language she couldn't recognize.

"Then why am I here, if not for the debt?"

"That was your second mistake," he answered, kneeling on the bed next to her quivering body. "In assuming, once you stepped foot in my casino, that your consent would ever be necessary to me. You belong to me, Shania. Nothing changes, except now you're in my bed where you belong. You're not going anywhere, sweetheart."

He pulled the heavy blanket away from her, ignoring her desperate grasp for modesty. He worshipped her flawless dark skin with his eyes, and swept his hands down her body, from neck to breasts to hips and back up again.

Shania gasped and grabbed hold of his wrists. Despite her tugging, he didn't cease his exploration. Her body quickly warmed beneath him and began to respond. He was more than ready for her, his thick penis jutting from his body.

"No," Shania moaned. "You can't keep me like this! I won't be your slave!"

Khalid's hands grew more insistent, one slipping low over the curve of her stomach and settling between her plump thighs. He was gentle, but firm as he nudged her legs apart and slipped into the wet, welcoming heat of her pussy.

"Ahhh" Her strangled moan let him know his exploration was succeeding.

"Not my slave, Shania, my princess," he breathed, dropping a kiss on her jaw. "You belong to me, body and soul."

Shania gasped again when his thumb brushed against her aching clit. He knew exactly how to touch her, how to push her buttons to make her capitulate. But she also knew it was important to let him know where she stood. She placed her palms on the sheets and shoved up, the unexpected movement dragging her out of his grip.

She rolled away from him. "I won't stay with you under these circumstances, Khalid. Either you give me back my freedom or I find a way to take it myself! I mean it, Khalid. I won't stop looking for a way to leave!"

Anger at her stubbornness flared hotly within him. Didn't she understand how many women dreamed of being where she was? He had never taken another woman to his apartment and into his bed. She would be the first and last. Other women would salivate over the jewels and the clothes he gifted her. Yet all she could obsess over was the fact that he wouldn't allow her to freely walk out of the casino by herself.

With a growl, Khalid reached out and halted her move to get off the bed. Gripping her hips, he dragged her back toward him until he had her laying facedown, panting under his heavier body. His cock nudged her backside insistently.

Tangling one hand in her hair, he tilted her head back until she had no choice but to brace herself against the mattress to relieve the pressure. "That will never happen," he snapped.

"Stop it Khalid!" she gasped, shifting her hips under him.

He grinned darkly when she did exactly what he wanted her to. She pushed herself up onto her knees in order to have enough purchase to scramble off the bed. Khalid slid a thick arm around her waist and yanked the plump globes of her ass into the cradle of his hips.

"That's right, baby," he breathed, "right there."

In one fluid movement, he pressed his long, thick penis into the wet heat of her pussy. She cried out against the intrusion, but stopped trying to crawl off the bed. She held still as he forced his way through her tight channel until he was deep within her. Her body fluttered around him, tightening and loosening as she worked to accommodate his size.

"Khalid" she breathed. Then, with the tiniest wiggle of her delicious bottom, encouraged him to continue.

Groaning at the feel and sight of her, he reached up and firmly pressed her shoulders down to the mattress. Using the hand tangled in her hair, he tilted her face to the side and pushed the mass away so he could watch the flushed wonderment of her expression as he fucked her from behind.

In long, thrusting strokes he took her body without mercy. Still tender from the sex they had the night before, Shania gasped and wiggled. Sensations flooded her body. She felt helpless beneath him, with no choice but to submit to the aggressive thrusting of his hard body against her. He paused for a moment, she thought perhaps to give her time to adjust to him, but he used a knee to shove her legs wider on the bed, his fit within her body impossibly snug.

Shania shrieked and then moaned long and low as he began moving again. She felt every tiny movement of his cock within her. The pressure was too much, forcing her tight passage to take far more than ever before. She wanted it to stop, but she also never wanted it to end.

He reached beneath their bodies and, with sure fingers, found the tiny nub of her clit. He stroked it until she was shrieking in agony and ecstasy. She tried to pull away from the intense, overwhelming sensations, but he forced her to stay right where she was.

"Please, Khalid!" she begged him. "It's too much! I can't take it, you have to stop!"

Khalid growled and dropped his big, heavy body over her back, shoving her further into the mattress and increasing her helplessness. "I'll say when it's enough," he growled, nipping at the back of her neck and her shoulders. "Come for me, Shania."

His demand rocketed her over the edge of the most intense orgasm she had ever experienced. It was like a bolt of lightening streaking through her body, lighting her up with such intensity she thought she would die. Dimly, she heard Khalid shout her name, before he shifted slightly against her to get a better grip and start pounding into her tender flesh.

Barely down from her last orgasm she felt herself hurtling toward another. She screamed again, unable to stop the hoarse sound from escaping her throat as her bruised body was forced once more to the heights of ecstasy and thrown over the edge without warning. She felt Khalid's cock grow bigger and longer in her body before he joined her, his bruising fingers gripping her hips and his huge body heaving against hers.

He collapsed on top of her. Shania had only a brief moment of panic as her body registered that it couldn't breath before he rolled off her. His hand, still tangled in her messy hair, retained its grip, ensuring she rolled with him if she planned on keeping that section of hair attached to her scalp.

They both lay panting, his hot sweaty body pressed against hers. He gently extricated his fingers from her hair as they came down from the intensity of their lovemaking.

He reached down and tilted her head up so she was forced to look at him. "I knew," he said, his eyes sweeping her possessively, "from the moment I saw your picture, that it would be like this for us. You were made for me, Shania."

Shania's heart stuttered at his words. She believed him. She also knew that he never spoke this way with anyone. He was usually quite reserved, if brutal, in his business dealings. She seemed to be the exception. She wanted to be happy that she was the cherished woman in his life. The exception to everyone else. But the grey cloud of her freedom dampened her feelings and closed her heart off from him.

He watched helplessly as her eyes dimmed and dropped from his. He wanted to demand that she be the passionate woman he just had sex with. The woman that could embrace her own submissiveness and accept him into her body. But she refused to accept that woman outside of his bed.

He sighed. He wanted to give her the world to prove that she was different for him, that she was fast owning his heart. "Let's go out for dinner tonight," he said.

She frowned slightly. "In the casino?"

He shook his head. "No, in the city. Let's go out to a restaurant. We can see what happens. And then maybe"

"Maybe?" she asked breathlessly, half hopeful.

"Damn it, I don't know Shania," he began, extricating himself from the mess of sheets and her limbs. "It's hard for me. I don't like the idea of you being in places that I can't control. Something could happen to you."

Shocked, Shania lay in the bed, processing his words. She had assumed he wanted her under his protection, in the casino, because he feared she would run away from their arrangement. It had never occurred to her that he was worried about the possibility of her getting hurt. Especially after knowing her for such a short time. Understanding and a little light of hope blossomed in her chest. She could work toward her freedom if she understood the root of his concern with letting her go out into the world. She could prove to him that she wouldn't get hurt and that she would come back to him.

For the first time, she actually considered having a relationship with Khalid, One that wasn't based on Aiden's debt or Khalid's unreasonable possessiveness. She smiled. "I'd like going into the city for dinner with you. Just let me know what time you want me to be ready."