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“Yes”

“Fuck, what is wrong with you? All of you?” Now I grew hysterical, unable to believe this kind of evil existed in the world “I wasn’t even alive when all of this happened, but you’re going to get your rocks off doing this to me?”

His features tightened, as if he was in pain “It’s not right I agree with you”

“Then don’t do it”

“As I already said, it’s not that simple—”

“Then make it simple—”

“If it’s not me, it’ll be someone else My mother commanded me to do this, and when I refused, she appointed Geralt, one of her guards—and he was e”

He e and vile

“I don’t need to tell you how that would go”

The bile flooded ue “And I should be grateful?”

“I’ve seen the way you look at me”

I looked away, eainst his wall of hard abs and line of masculine hair

“You could have let me die, but you didn’t”

I kept my eyes averted

“So, whatever this is…it’s mutual”

“I wish I’d let you die out there”

“No, you don’t”

My eyes moved back to his

As if he saw the truth in ain “You don’t”

My arhtened over ht beside me

He reainst my skin

Paralyzed, I just sat there, unsure what else to do The air felt hus It was dry and cold outside these four walls, but within, it was a different world

He watchedtime, the intensity of his stare so powerful I was forced to look at the fire The flalowed red That was exactly what his stare did to me—set me on fire

Heunderneath his weight His ar mine

I concentrated on the fire, but ue suddenly felt dry

In my peripheral vision, I saw hiloves from his hands, the breastplate of his armor One by one, they ca with his tunic

I should have keptI still remembered the way he looked under that sheet, how hard he was, how much harder he’d been than any other man I’d seen It was as if he lifted boulders for fun, ate an entire buck for breakfast The muscles of his arms had cuts as if someone had sliced him with a blade