His head jerks back just in time, my elbow striking true but hardly enough to be gifted with a bloody nose. He lets go and it feels like I can finally breathe. Not because he was squeezing hard enough to genuinely choke me, but because I finally succeeded. He chuckles, deep and low, as he steps away from me. The bastard doesn’t look the least bit ruffled, but I choose not to dwell on that. If I focus on everything I didn’t do, then I’Il only be stripping myself of power. “There you go. That was really good, baby.” “Don’t call me that,” I mutter, but really, I feel a tinge of pride swelling deep in my chest cavity. “Or what?” he challenges. I sigh, not having the mental capacity to spar with Zade right now. I need a hot shower and then a long soak in the bath. I refuse to bathe without washing the dirt and grime off first. I don’t like to spend hours pruning in my own dirty bath water. He goes through the motions with me for another hour, forcing me to perform the move over and over until I’m panting, and he has a bruise forming under his eye. Somehow, it just makes him look sexier, and I want to punch him in the face for the tenth time all over again for it. “That’s enough for today,” he announces, smiling despite the fact that I just nailed him in the face again with my elbow. “Good, because I need to take a shower, and you need to leave because you’re definitely not coming within six feet of that bathroom,” I grouse, planting my hands on my hips. A smile curls his lips, slowly and salaciously, until flames lick at my cheeks again. Bastard of a man. “Who said I even need to be in the same house in order to watch you bathe?” My eyes narrow into thin slits. “There are no cameras in the bathroom.” He chuckles with the same sinful undertones. He seizes my neck in his hand once more, but my body refuses to go through the motions again. His intention is dangerous, but not directed towards my life. But rather my vagina. Traitorous, useless thing, you are. “That you know of,” he taunts in a low, husky whisper before placing a soft kiss on my lips and effectively silencing me. It’s short and anything but sweet. His hand flexes, and my pussy pulses in tandem. “Just don’t forget to scream my name when you’re holding that showerhead to your pussy. You can come knowing that I’Il be shouting yours, too.”