Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 107652 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107652 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Pulling back, his face returned to the man I’d first met. The man who slaughtered and didn’t care. Cupping my cheeks, his fingers trembled just a little as he pulled me forward and murmured ever so quietly, “They threw you into my nightmare, but what they don’t know is...you’re the key I’ve been waiting for all along. If this works, then I’ll extract every debt they owe me. I’ll steal every droplet of blood they took from me. It’s about fucking time I made them pay.”
Trailing his lips over my cheek, he wrapped his arm around my waist, fusing me to him as thoroughly as he had this morning. “So yes, someone is dying today, but...that someone isn’t you...”
Pulling back, he pressed his forehead to mine and breathed, “It’s me.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
“W-WHAT?” I STAGGERED BACKWARD.
He went with me, lashing his arm around my waist again and jerking me close.
What was he talking about?
What’s going on?!
A mad smile twitched his mouth as he caught my eyes and dragged me into him.
I fought him.
I pummelled his chest with my fists, needing to understand. Needing him to talk to me.
“What are you doing?” I panted as his gaze locked on my lips. “What are you—”
“I’m ensuring they won’t kill you once it’s done.” His fingers locked around my nape, tugging my loose hair.
“Done?” My heart shot into my throat. “What’s done?”
His lips crashed over mine, shutting me up with a kiss.
Not gently.
Not kindly.
He kissed me as if the sky was about to fall, along with the fat raindrops splashing almost on cue. He squeezed the back of my neck and held me impossibly close, turning his head and bruising our lips as if sharing the most passionate of kisses.
But it wasn’t real.
I moaned at the fakery of it.
The overdone callous performance.
The hate pouring off him.
I went stiff in his embrace.
He wasn’t kissing me because he wanted to.
He kissed me for the drones—for the guards watching us on their screens. He kissed me because of an agenda I still didn’t understand. For a goal he was determined to reach.
I clawed at his waist, his voice echoing over and over in my head. “It’s me. It’s me. It’s me.”
If he planned to die today, then how would he complete his revenge?
How would he get out?
How did he plan on enraging his keepers by doing the one thing they wanted him to do?
They wanted him to be sexually active. They wanted the repercussions of pregnancy—
His hand landed on the neckline of my dress. The delicate fabric gave in to his fierce tug, sliding down my shoulder and baring the top of my breast.
“Wait—” I panted against his hard mouth.
In answer, his fingers tightened in my hair. His lips softened just a little. His eyes flashed open, checking to see we were still being watched, before a low growl rumbled in his chest and he gathered me painfully close.
I gasped as he crushed me.
I moaned as he hurt me.
His tongue speared past my parted lips, plunging deep into my mouth.
And the world ruptured.
He might’ve kissed me for show but...his tongue.
His taste.
His heat and power and violence.
I snapped.
Digging my nails into his waist, I stroked his tongue with mine.
His reaction was instantaneous.
The pantomime shattered, exploding into reality as he snatched me up and kissed me.
Properly.
Passionately.
With all the pain and pleasure we suffered.
His hand gripped my nape as his mouth opened wide and devoured me.
He went from a man vowing never to touch me, to a beast intent on eating me alive.
His need and breath and fury tangled into one impossible collision. The world spun; the maple leaves blurred to blood-red streaks. My pulse drummed against his, two wild hearts in sync for one treacherous moment.
The impact of his kiss stole the air from my lungs and left my pulse thrashing in my veins. I moaned as he angled his mouth, kissing me deeper, harder, trying to pour pain directly into me.
The orgasm he’d given me wasn’t enough.
That had just been a tease—a temptation to the real violence of how much I needed him.
My very existence shrank to the slick, hot slide of his tongue, the press of his body, and his small, involuntary groan.
He set fire to my out-of-control heart.
He kissed me messily, madly—as if this was yet another first for him just like it was a first for me.
And that knowledge—the history of why I was the only girl he’d ever kissed or touched or trusted threatened to break down all my walls.
My fingers found his shirt collar, fisting it and holding on for dear life, all while pulling him into me and begging for more.
I licked him.
His breath caught, a shudder quaking down his spine.
He kissed me harder.
We lost ourselves as the heavens opened.
Rain crashed over us.
There was no rhythm, no mercy—just heat and tongue and the brutal scrape of teeth.