You.
But I don’t dare say it. It doesn’t matter if I give him the power to terrorize me or not; he’s not a man to ask permission.
“These are your laws! You’re not allowed to fuck with that. He chose me!”
“You’re pathetic,” he releases me and stands with the broken necklace and peers down at me. “You think a trinket can protect you? It means nothing.”
“It means something to me!”
“You’re a little girl with a crush.”
“I’m a twenty-year-old woman, you ignorant bastard.” I stand to face off with him despite the shake in my legs, “And I belong to him.”
“Because he says so? You have no say. You’re warped. And no, sweetheart, you don’t. He’s my brother.”
“Your brother, my ass. He’s just a boy you built a fort with before you reached puberty. You’re what…breaching thirty? And still running around slaying imaginary dragons while playing Lord of the Manor.”
“Believe what you want, but you’ve seen what we’re capable of.”
“Petty theft and throwing parties? That’s no big feat.” I’m lying through my teeth, but I don’t want him to know just how much I do know. “And I know who I belong to.”
He bends so we’re eye level. “You sure?”
“I love him.”
“Name him.”
“It doesn’t matter—”
“Yeah, yeah, you love them both, I’ve heard this speech, save your breath.”
“You’re going to pay for hurting me like this.”
“You think so, huh?” He looks around. “And who exactly is coming to save you?” I feel that truth’s edge slice deep. He’s right. Neither is here to save me from this mad bastard. But they taught me well to protect myself.
As if he’s reading my thoughts, he drops his voice, his threat clear. “I assure you I’ve gotten away with a lot worse.” The curl of his French accent—combined with his open hostility—somehow makes his threat more dangerous. But I don’t back away, I’ve let my hate fester for months, and I’m all too ready to unleash.
“Why are you so angry, sir? Did I interrupt you killing and torturing small animals? It’s Friday night and you have nothing better to do than stalk little girls with crushes? Who’s pathetic?”
I gather my strength, straightening my posture, my anger boiling over. “You’re nothing but a scared little boy turned control freak because he didn’t get enough attention as a child.”
One second, I’m standing, in the next, I’m off my feet and flat on my back. My heart stops beating as the breath is knocked out of me just as my mouth is brutalized by something resembling a kiss. He weights every inch of me as he attacks my lips, separating them with the thrust of his tongue. Frozen, eyes wide, his licks invade, and I sputter and choke. Fully in control, he keeps my kiss before stealing them all, erasing the last kiss Sean gave, and the one before it, erasing Dominic’s torturous tongue play. And I fight, I fight clinging onto those kisses with everything inside me as they drift through my flailing fingers, and out of my grasp. The loss and hate fuel me as I try to turn my head and deny him, which he makes impossible.
With every stab of his tongue, he plunders, gathering me wholly, and with the next lick, takes me as captive. All at once, I’m thrust into a raging fire. The heat expending my walls until they collapse, smoke clouding me as I lay powerless beneath him engulfed by blue flames.
It’s carnal oblivion I sink into as I lose the fight to regain my breath. His torturous licks are unforgiving as he feeds mercilessly on my mouth. A whimper escapes my lips as it consumes me, a raging inferno until finally it’s snuffed out.
Until I’m snuffed out.
And reborn with a violent kiss.
A kiss that breathes life back into me, a life that’s withered to nothingness during months of neglect and isolation. Beneath him, my treacherous body betrays me with the undeniable shift in intensity, the hunger starting low, unfurling through my limbs. My tongue meets his, dueling viciously, just as unforgiving as I fuck my enemy with my mouth, my thighs falling open as he shifts and thrusts his erection against my ravenous body.
Coupled outrage and lust has me fighting now for a different reason altogether, clutching him, clawing him, to bring him closer, puncturing his scalp with my fingernails as I angle my head to give him access.
Still struggling for breath, I steal his, our tongues battling as he licks into my mouth with dominance and abandon.