Free BLYSS (Blyss Trilogy #1) by J. C. Cliff

sound good. I try one last, futile attempt and speak as demurely as possible. “Not to say you’re not a smart man, a really astute man, but I’m rather high-maintenance. You see, I have to live with a very restrictive diet. I’m gluten-free and lactose-intolerant, and really, that mess is so outrageously expensive. So very expensive, it’d be cheaper for you to let me go.”
    “What the fuck is gluten-free, Nick?” Travis pipes in, asking with his brows furrowed.
    Nick breaks out with subdued laughter. He ignores Travis’ question, keeping inches from my lips. “Yes, Princess, I already know of your dietary needs, and I have made the proper accommodations for your arrival.” He nods his head toward the food tray Travis is holding.
    My mouth drops open in incredulous disbelief, and my eyes widen with building anxiety as I glance between the two men. Freak-out mode engages within me, and I find some inner strength. “You’ve been stalking me? You’ve planned this all out? Wh-what?” I want answers, but I’m too flabbergasted to ask anything more. “I don’t understand. What are you guys planning on doing with me?”
    “Well, that all depends on you, now doesn’t it?”
    His cryptic answer provokes me to raise my voice in frustration. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I have no idea why they’d want Travis to train me to be a sex toy for this bigger dick here beside me. Oh, and if I’m naughty by Nick’s standards, I get to be tied to his salt-something-or-other?   Holy hell! They are both insane! Suddenly, my eyes spark with unleashed fury.
    “Language, Princess,” Nick scolds sternly, gripping the back of my hair. “I won’t tolerate you speaking to me that way. What it means is if you do exactly as you’re told, there will be rewards, but if you fight and defy, there will be punishments. It’s that simple.” He pauses, searing my eyes with heated energy. “Let me also clarify, because I can see you wondering behind those pretty blue eyes of yours, just how long you’ll remain in this relationship of ours.” He shrugs indifferently. “You’re my forever. I’ve wanted you from the first moment I laid eyes on you. I’ve been watching your every move for years, strategically planning.”
    Strategically planning? Relationship? “What business is it that you have with my father to make you do this?” I ask, fighting through the arctic shock of his previous statement. Who does this? What kind of person plans with painstaking calculation to rob another of their freedom? A narcissistic, selfish bastard is who. I could understand if I was a celebrity being stalked, or someone of great importance, but I’m just a simple nobody, a young adult wanting to finish college, get married, and have a family.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Yes…yes, you do.”
    He shakes his head and continues like he hasn’t heard my argument. “I can see I have given you quite a bit of information to absorb.”  
    That’s a huge understatement, Nick, very perceptive of you. Lying bastard.
    “I can also imagine you have quite a few questions running through that pretty little head of yours. Travis can answer most of them, but in due time and only as I see fit.”  
    He finally removes his hand from the back of my neck, only to slide it around to my face. Using his thumb, he caresses my bottom lip, his palm cupping my cheek. His eyes have dropped to half-mast in a look of lust, and I inwardly cringe. “Trust me, Princess, you will be happy with me, with us. Our relationship will blossom beautifully with time,” he whispers then closes the distance between us, kissing me.
      I hear myself yelling through my haze of anger, “Stop!” My brain-to-speech capacitor snaps without thinking. I glare hatefully at Nick. “Stop! Just stop calling me princess. I am not your princess!”   I can’t help it, he’s pushed the ‘princess’ button one too many times. That name is reserved