His eyes plunge into mine, darker and completely hollow in their depths.
Only, Landon is no longer hollow. I don’t know when I started seeing him as more than the emptiness that lurks inside him and his need for anarchy, but I unfortunately do.
He tsks and that sound has somehow become part of my wildest nightmares. “It still won’t go away.”
His words ring in the studio like an ominous promise, and I expect him to bite the skin off, just to make the mark disappear.
“I didn’t let him touch me,” I sign, reining in the tremors that cause my limbs to spasm.
“He said you asked to meet him.”
“And you believed him?”
“No.” He points at my neck with a lift in his upper lip. “Until I saw that.”
I could offer excuses that Rory was too fast and I didn’t see him, but that’s all those would be.
Excuses.
I refuse to be dragged into that type of dynamic when I did nothing wrong. So I choose the option to remain silent. Fuck him.
I’m a Sokolov and we don’t offer excuses.
Landon wraps his fingers around my throat and I suppress a groan as the pad of his thumb presses against the assaulted skin.
He pushes me and I have no choice but to step back to match his movements.
“You know, I don’t react well to someone else touching my things.”
“I’m not your thing,” I sign, even though I struggle to breathe properly.
“Oh, but you are, Mia. You’re my fucking property and that means every inch of your skin belongs to me.” He digs his thumb into the injury. “Every part is my fucking property.”
My back hits the table, on top of which an assortment of Landon’s equipment clatter due to the impact.
I flinch and choke on my irregular breaths. The air around me seems to have plunged into a well of suffocating tension I can’t breathe through.
“You don’t seem to have grasped the situation, Mia. Just because I give you space and make unneeded truces for your sake doesn’t mean you can go to someone else. If you’re mine, that’s what you’ll always be. Fucking. Mine.” His other hand reaches to the zipper of my dress and he pulls it down until the cloth pools at my feet.
The night air tightens my bare nipples and naked pussy. My cheeks heat as Landon takes in the entirety of me. Lust mixes with rage in an unholy reunion, hinting at a war that’s about to blaze through.
“You’ve come prepared.” His voice drops, mixed with angry arousal. “Or was this view perhaps meant for someone else?”
I shake my head. How can he think that?
Yes. I expected something tonight, which is why I didn’t put on any underwear, but that plan is obviously being decimated before my eyes.
“No?” He reaches between my legs, cupping the arousal that’s been coating my inner thighs since his lips met my neck.
It’s part of the reason why I didn’t fight. Why I still refuse to fight. I can finally admit that I’m as crazy as Landon, because every inch of me throbs at the prospect of being manhandled.
He strokes my folds with gentle hands and I get on my tiptoes, chasing the spark of pleasure that spreads between my legs and tightens my belly.
“You’re soaking my fingers, Mia. Are you that horny for my fingers and cock?”
I suppress a moan as I stare into his impassive eyes. Anger still rages deep in them, black and encompassing me like a second skin.
But what’s troubling me the most is how he keeps calling me by my first name. There’s no little muse or any of his affectionate terms that he tailor-made for me.
“Were you also this aroused when that twat touched you? Did you moan and show him your sexy little face that should only belong to me? Did his putrid eyes see this version where you’re fighting so hard to hide how much you’re yearning to be fucked?”
My stomach dips and I clutch the edge of the table for support. His words leave me hotter and more sensitive so that I only need a little push to come.
“But that won’t be possible now, because guess what? Rory will be removing himself from this island effective immediately.”
My eyes widen, then zero in on the blood on his collar. So my hunch was right. That definitely was because of Rory.
“I taught him a little lesson that included punching the eyes he looked at what belongs to me with, then I split the lips he put on my throat. Then finally, as he begged like a little bitch, I broke the arm he used to touch what’s fucking mine. But that’s not how his miserable story comes to an end. Far from it. See, I made it my mission to gather information that even he wasn’t aware of and I will use it to destroy him inch by each fucking inch. In fact, I’ll be there as he inevitably overdoses and my apathetic eyes will be the last he sees. As he spits out his last breaths, he’ll know messing with what’s mine was the worst mistake of his meaningless life.” He slaps my pussy and I yelp as the throbbing pain spreads over my core and clenches my belly.