Raw, A Dark Romance by Tawny Taylor

for. This girl didn’t fall to her knees and cry for mercy. She told him what she thought, she challenged him, she forced him to face the truth about himself. And when he became angry with her, she held her tongue and took his punishment instead of pleading with him to stop.
    “That’s why I sent you away, Kendall. You should be afraid of me.”
    “No. You won’t hurt me too badly. I’m strong.”
    “You are strong.” That hand that was cupping my ass moved to my face, palm curving over my cheek. “You’re too strong for your own good.”
    “There is no such thing as too strong.”
    “There is.” Something wicked flashed in his eyes. But it wasn’t the same fire that I’d seen before, the dark sadistic thrill of hunting prey. This was more playful, more flirtatious “And you will find that out if you come back.”
    I felt a saucy smile pulling at my lips. “That doesn’t scare me.”
    The arm wrapped around my back pulled me closer, until I could feel his every inhalation and the thick, hard lump in his pants was burning my stomach. “Your body will be mine. All. Of. It.”  His eyes flicked down and I knew, as the hard heat of his cock prodded at my stomach, what he meant.
    All of me. He wanted all of me.
    My virginity.
    That, I could not give him.
    No, no, no, I couldn’t let him have that.
    I cleared my throat. “Before I give you my answer, we must agree on one thing. You can whip me. You can tie me up. You can punish me any way you like. And you can touch me anywhere you want. But I will return home a virgin.”
    “I can punish you any way I like?” He stared down into my eyes as I counted the seconds thudding in silence between us. “Agreed.” He stopped dancing, slid a hand down my arm until he had my hand in his and pulled me through the crowd, toward the outer edge of the dance floor.
    I dug in my heels. I couldn’t leave like this, abandoning Sid without giving her some kind of explanation. I had no idea how I would make her understand my actions. Maybe I didn’t have to...yet. But I still needed to let her know I would be leaving. “Wait!”
    “What is it?”
    I motioned to the other dancers. “My friend, Sid. I have to tell her I’m leaving with you.”
    “She knows,” he said, eyes glittering, lips curling into a naughty semi-smile.
    “What?” I said, even though my brain had put two and two together already. Sid had called him. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. Sure, I was going back to his house. So things had turned out for the better. But she’d called the man I had told her had beat me. What did that mean? Had she not believed me? How could she have doubted me when she’d seen the marks?
    “How do you think I found you?” he asked.
    “Sidonie called you?”
    “She did.”
    I glanced over my shoulder, toward the last place I had seen my friend, and wondered why Sid had called him. Maybe Franchot had threatened her? Holy shit. Was I falling into a trap? Calling the man who had purchased my virginity and having him convince me to go back to his place after he had let me go would basically put an end to any legal or criminal action I might take when I returned home. What judge would believe I’d been forced and traumatized if I willingly went back?
    My best friend would never manipulate me like that. Just to protect a job.
    No way.
    There had to be some other explanation.

 
     
     
    She was mine again. All mine. But that wasn’t a good thing. Oh, the torment of the forbidden. –Kace R.
     
Nine
    If there is one thing Kace Ramos was good at, it was distracting me from any and all thoughts that didn’t pertain to what he was doing to me. As his driver maneuvered his car through the crowded streets of Cadiz, Kace reintroduced me to the decadent pleasures of his kisses.
    Ohmygod, what that man could do with his mouth.
    He licked and nipped and suckled until I could barely breathe. His hands mapped out every inch of my body, bit by bit. His murmured