(THIS IS THE EDITED VERSION. ORIGINAL DID NOT HAVE PROLOGUE. Chapter 2 and 3 were also merged together.)

Prologue

My breath caught in my throat, a chill racing through my blood as my eyes fluttered behind the silk blindfold. It was a challenge to keep my mind blank, but I was desperately trying.

“You have to let go of your shields.”

His voice echoed through my head like a blanket of heat along chilled skin, Goosebumps racing along my body. I couldn’t see him, but his scent was enough. I could picture his long ebony curls framing that perfect face, pale lips drawn up in a seductive smirk, gleaming emerald eyes roaming over my body with emotions I couldn’t describe. He could hear my heart fluttering against my chest, the slight sigh escaping my lips, everything he was doing to me. He was torturing in the best damn way.

But did I trust him now, truly trust him enough to let go of my shields?

Beastie paced back and forth inside of those walls I had carefully built up, aching to get out and figure out who this beautiful creature was that was making my body ache. She thrust against the cage that was my skin, claws flexing and looking for that fissure in my shields that would unleash it.

“Princess…”

His breath flared against the skin between my shoulder and my neck and I knew I had no choice, a moan leaving my parted lips.

I let my shields of tightly bolted metal go.