Read Permanent Marker for Free Online Page B

breath to tell him where he could go with that pomposity, but he jammed two fingers against her lips. “I said no more, Rose. Let me explain myself. I’m not going to hurt you. You know that as well; I don’t see a speck of real mortal fear in your face. What I’m asking right now is that you trust me. That you acknowledge I’ve been a few steps in life farther than you, that I see an important lesson you can learn here, but that restraining you may be the only way you’ll pay attention and absorb this knowledge.”
    His features intensified as he stroked a hand down her back. “If you don’t agree, now or at any time, then you say the word. I’ll let you up, and things return to normal between us. But that word isn’t ‘no.’ Or ‘stop.’ You’ll have to work harder, think harder, than that. Your word is ‘worth.’ Since you find it impossible to think of the term, let alone apply it to yourself, then it’s a perfect word upon which you can focus.” He finally released his fingers from her lips as he slipped his other hand beneath her shirt. His touch was a series of light, magical strokes against her skin. “Is all this clear? Do you understand?”
    Her breath only cooperated in shallow spurts. He was right. He wouldn’t physically hurt her. His touch on her back alone, steady but gentle, proved it. The only trouble was, she wanted him to press harder. She yearned for the raw, rough command he’d exerted this afternoon, trapping her against the wall. God, didn’t that make her some kind of sicko? She knew what they called it. Submissiveness. The kink thing. Weird . She wasn’t any of those things…was she? She was raised to be the perfect North Shore wife. She wasn’t supposed to know about things like that, let alone like them.
    But maybe that’s what Owen had seen. Maybe he’d seen the true, wicked mistake fate made in her. Maybe he’d just known, after that night when they’d finally been alone in the suite at the Fairmont, and she’d dared to let him see a little of her true desires…
    Maybe he’d gotten it right way before everyone else.
    She was wired wrong, plain and simple.
    “Rose.” He broke into her thoughts with the ramrod of a syllable. “Thoughts here . Right now. I won’t ask so politely next time.”
    “Yes, Sir.”
    Though she grumbled it, he actually smiled. But best of all, he turned his caress on her back into a stronger, rougher possession. “That just flows from you, doesn’t it?” He shook his head, as if bewildered. “Such a natural, and you don’t even know it. Oh, Rose. Sweet Rose…”
    His voice trailed as his gaze followed the path of his hand down to her lower back, sliding along the curve above her buttocks. He stopped for half a second before tucking his fingers beneath the band of her running shorts.
    Both of them held their breaths. Rose almost held back her next words. Giving voice to them…it would, she sensed, take them across an unseen bridge, deeper down the sensual path he’d let her peek at this afternoon. She was terrified. And yet, it would’ve been easier to hold a burning match behind her lips.
    “A natural…at what?”
    When he gave her nothing but another enigmatic tilt of his lips, she frowned. “Are you really not going to let me up, unless I do what you say?”
    His stare traveled down her body. His study was slower this time. Deliberate. “That’s the plan.”
    She could actually hear herself breathing now. “Unless I say stop.”
    “Unless you say worth .”
    “Whatever. I can use it at any time, right?”
    “I don’t think you will.”
    He ended that with a bolder slide of his hand, molding it all the way around one of her butt cheeks. Rose gasped, jerking away by sheer instinct, shooting a what-the-hell gape up at him. He didn’t relent his hold by a centimeter.
    And she didn’t utter a word.
    “You have a lovely ass too, Rose. It fits perfectly against my palm. And it’s getting warmer. Everything down here