“Fuck off.” Jeremy’s lethal tone booms around us.
Zayn straightens and I nod with an awkward smile in a desperate attempt to defuse the situation.
“Let me know if you need anything,” my colleague says, then swiftly disappears out of sight.
I don’t blame him. No one wants to be in Jeremy’s orbit, especially when he’s enraged.
His harsh eyes fall back on me. “And who the fuck was that?”
“None of your business.”
“Cecily…don’t piss me off any further.”
“That statement should be directed at you! Why are you bothering me?”
“Why the fuck are you always in my way?”
“Why are you?”
“You’re fucking infuriating.”
“And you’re like a wild animal.”
“You didn’t seem to mind when I fucked you like an animal. In fact, you screamed and begged to be taken like my filthy little whore. But now that my mark has vanished from your flesh, you think you can let another man touch you?”
My starved body heats, but I force myself to remain calm. “Whether I let another man touch me, fuck me, take me like a filthy whore, or dirty me all up is none of your damn business. In fact, I might be tempted to take Lan up on his offer of taking me on a tour through the sex club.”
I won’t, and I really don’t know what’s come over me to speak like that, but I want revenge.
I want to hurt him for all the time he’s left me hanging.
He made me addicted to him and then forced me into the worst withdrawal.
And the best way to piss off a possessive man like Jeremy? Bring up other men. Especially Landon. He clearly has a beef with him.
“What did you just say?” he asks slowly, menacingly, and with enough tension to crumble a mountain.
“I said I’ll go to the club with Lan. Experiment a little and see what other men feel like. I’m sure they don’t all come with so much drama.”
One moment I’m standing there, and the next, he’s slamming me against the nearest wall with a tight grip on my neck.
The breath is knocked from my lungs for an entirely different reason.
I’m in a position where I’m overwhelmed by Jeremy’s power until it’s the only thing I inhale.
Until it’s the only beat that’s seeping into my lungs
“That was a rhetorical question, Cecily. You’re not supposed to fucking answer.”
My glare meets his fierce eyes.
I want to provoke him, anger him. I want him to feel an ounce of the pain he’s exerted on me.
“Why?” I strain. “You don’t like to imagine another man peeling my clothes off and sinking inside me while I moan for him?”
“Stop.”
“I’ll beg him to go faster, harder. I’ll say his name, too. Actually, I’ll moan it.”
“Shut the fuck up.” He pulls me forward by his grip on my neck, then slams me back again. “You don’t seem to understand this, so let me clarify it for you. Any dick that comes near you will be cut off and you’ll bathe in its blood. I might have given you space, but I still own your ass. And cunt. And mouth. Everything about you belongs to me. You belong to me. But if you’re in the mood to test that, by all means, do. I will maim as many motherfuckers in front of you as you wish until you have your fill.”
He means it.
I know he does.
Jeremy has never made a promise and not kept it.
And this helplessness, the feeling of being too caught in his web while he only has a sense of ownership over me makes me feel like a trapped animal.
“Is that why you sent those guys to the hospital, shipped my professor to another country, and even dealt with Jonah? Because I’m yours? An extension of your stupid ego and a projection of your twisted desires?”
“I did all that because no one gets to hurt you.”
“Only you can?”
He tightens his grip. “Only I can.”
My eyes burn, but I refuse to let the tears loose. I refuse to show him just how much of an effect his words have on me.
“What do you want from me, Jeremy? You already let me go.”
“But you didn’t go.”
“Huh?”
He releases me, but only after he strokes the spot where his fingers pressed.
“Annika disappeared.”
My chest constricts, more about the topic than the abrupt subject change.
“What?”
He gives me a side-eye that could bring the devil to his knees. “Don’t fuck with me, Cecily. You were the last person she saw after your impromptu visit to New York. At first, I wanted to believe the two incidents were unrelated, but it turns out, you went on a private jet and returned on a commercial flight. Which means my sister left with your companion on that private jet. You all but shot yourself in the foot when you had Glyndon slip me that note today. Because A, Killian nearly killed me for it, thinking she was passing me notes; and B, she’s a shit spy and confessed everything when Kill started turning into an insufferable being. My question is, why would you let me know that?”