Free Everything Forbidden by Jess Michaels Page B

a breath. From a distance, she had hardly noticed the sketcheson the walls, but they, like the mirror frame she’d seen earlier, depicted a variety of sinful couplings.
    The one before her portrayed a couple waltzing, which wouldn’t have been so outrageous, except that both the dancers were totally naked. The man’s cock was engorged, prodding the wet lips of his partner’s sex. The orchestra and other dancers looked on as the two spun around the dance floor, lewd expressions on their faces as they groped their own partners.
    She felt the whisper of Ethan’s body heat as he slipped up behind her. “Well?”
    “It’s shocking,” she admitted, her voice wavering. It was also arousing, but she didn’t admit that to him.
    “All these portraits will likely be shocking to you,” he said, his lips moving close to her neck.
    He brushed stray hairs away from her skin with the back of one hand before he pressed his mouth to her. She shivered as his lips parted and he teased his tongue over her flesh. The wet heat was mimicked between her trembling legs.
    “But you should examine them well,” he whispered. “They could easily be the blueprint of what is to come for you.”
    She stiffened. So Ethan would demand she participate in all the vices portrayed by the pictures on the walls. She let her gaze rove around the room again. It was a den of sensual delights that decent people didn’t speak of. Things she feared she wasn’t ready for, despite all she thought she knew.
    She had been foolish enough to think that she could control this man, but she was far out of her element. Seeing all these images, all these devices he used regularly on his lovers, she wasn’t certain she could do this. Not without losing her soul.
    “Stop,” she whispered as his arms came around her waist and he moved her back against his hard chest. It felt too good.
    “Stop?” he repeated, continuing to rock her against his body so that she could feel the hard ridge of his erection pushing at her backside. “Do you mean that or are you simply afraid of your own desires? Afraid that if you do what I ask, you may never be the same? That I’ll change your ideas of sensuality and lust so entirely that you’ll forget what you consider ‘proper’?”
    Miranda pushed away from him and he immediately released her. She covered her hot cheeks as she spun to face him. His expression was bland, almost bored.
    “I don’t know,” she whispered. “I don’t know.”
    He held her gaze for a long, silent moment. Then he turned sideways and motioned to the door. “You are no prisoner, Miranda. If you cannot live up to the terms of our bargain, you’re free to leave. But doing so nullifies the agreement. All of it.”
    Miranda stared at the door, just a few feet away. It represented both freedom and a whole different prison. By walking out, she would sentence her family to ruin. And worse, she would never explore the pleasures Ethan offered her. They might frighten her, but a life lived with only dull attraction terrified her even more.
    “What will you do?” he asked softly.
    She glanced at him. He didn’t look like he gave a damn what she did. In fact, his smirk led her to think that he expected her to run like a ninny. That expression only strengthened her resolve even further.
    “I’ll stay,” she whispered. “I’ll hold up my part of our agreement.”
     
    Two feelings rushed through Ethan when Miranda spoke those trembling words. Both were equally disturbing. On one hand, he couldn’t help but be impressed by her wobbling strength. Any other innocent facing the kind of debauchery he was tempting her with would likely flee without a backward glance. And yet Miranda stared at him with a power in her stare that hit him straight in the groin and made his erection even harder.
    The other feeling was worse. Relief. He was relieved that she wasn’t going to turn back on their bargain. Like he actually cared about her.
    That wasn’t possible. He