[WARNING: ADULT CONTENT]
"Shh, shh, shh. Calm down Feifei," he helped to support her to sit up, resting her back against the bedhead.
She struggled against the bindings he had used on her, quickly realising it was futile.
"Bo, please untie me," she said in calm voice. "This is crazy. Are you planning to drag me all the way back to the Island tied up like this?"
"It's just temporary sweetheart," he pleaded. "Just until we've discussed our plans in more detail and come to an agreement."
"Bo," she said reasonably, "this is all your plan," she looked around the room.
"I don't want any part in this plan. Why can't you respect my decision? This kind of behaviour is exactly what I'm running away from and fighting for. Men who think they own their women and who take away their power to make independent decisions…"
"I don't want you to interpret it like that," he appealed. "Can't you see it from my perspective? I want to marry you, and I'm pretty sure you want to marry me. You're part of a group of rebels that have absolutely no chance of taking down the Emperor and will all be killed. I want to save you from that end while I still can."
"My life is my life. That's an absolute Bo. Even when you don't agree with my life choices, or they might get me killed, you need to respect that those are my choices. That would be the case even if we were married.
I'll admit that the daydream of marrying you is a sweet one, but if our lives are going to take different paths, which they most definitely are, then that's all it is. A beautiful daydream for both of us. The sooner we give up on it and put it behind us, the better."
He wrapped her in a hug. "Don't say that!" he said fiercely. "I don't want to hear you say you'll give up on me, and I'll never give up on you."
"Bo, if we're going to be on different sides of the battlefield, it's a relationship that doomed from the start. It would be better for both of us to put it behind us and move on while we still can."
"Feifei, please," he covered her mouth with his hand.
"Don't cheapen what's between us with some tough words. It demeans what we both know we have. What others can search for for a lifetime and never attain. You're mine and I'm yours. The fact we have some hurdles to overcome doesn't mean we should give up. Neither do I think that fate will let us walk away from one another easily, now that our paths have crossed."
"Even if I agree with all of that, you need to listen to reason. You can't keep me tied up and then locked up. What kind of a relationship would that be? Do you think I would be able to stay in love with you when you become my captor instead of my husband?
And I'm never going to stop trying to escape. You'll always be looking over your shoulder too, because the rebels will try to free me.
And what about the Emperor? Have you ever seen him give up what's his? Have you known him to be kind and magnanimous? His rewards are gold, not women from his harem.
Can you bear to see me taken back into the palace, never to emerge? Once you've asked for my hand and he says no, do you really think he'll ever let you see me again? I won't survive there either Bo," she said quietly.
"Now that I've tasted freedom, I can't live out my days in the harem. I'll kill myself before I do that."
"Feifei! How can you say things like that to me? Have you considered my feelings at all? Why must you take a blowtorch to my heart? You're burning me up!"
He pressed his lips hard against hers, and she struggled, moving her face from side-to-side trying to evade him.
"Tell me if you love me woman?" he shouted in anguish. "I must know, one way or the other. I don't believe you could stay behind and leave me so easily if you feel the way I do!"
"I do Bo, I do," she admitted softly.
He smashed his lips to hers again, and this time she allowed him to kiss her, and she responded in kind. She gradually moved her tied wrists up and over his head, so she was hugging him.
As their passions rose, Bo pulled out his dagger and sliced through her bindings, freeing her.
She didn't run, instead she fell beneath him and let him drag her clothes off, where he proceeded to devour her, touching every part of her body, like he was recording the shape and feel so he wouldn't forget it, marking her all over with his sucks and kisses, seemingly not satisfied until her body was riddled with the mark of his lips on her skin.
Only when he had painted her body with his brand, did he hold himself over her and push his manhood inside her, his eyes closed as he panted with emotion.
She gripped his face between her hands and looked into his eyes. "Bo. I'm yours."
Rather than settling him, this seemed to further incite him, and he made love to her fiercely, almost violently, as though through this act he could keep her with him, or make her feel exactly what he felt.
She kept up with him until he pushed as far inside her as he could and groaned, a cry of pain and pleasure, his eyes tightly shut.
She held him tenderly against her chest as he stayed inside her until he fell asleep, wrapped in her arms.
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Feifei rose with the dawn and carefully extricated herself from his embrace, climbing out of the bed and gathering her clothes to dress in the adjoining room.
She stoked the dying embers for him, gave him a last wistful look, then quietly closed the front door.