Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Every demon living inside me.
Every soul I collected.
Except I surrendered to my hesitation for as long as I could, seeking refuge within myself, or else I feared I’d end up killing her, and I couldn’t bring myself to do that yet.
I remained a willing captive in her haunted composure, and she knew it, too.
The effect she always had on me.
I imagined she had the same effect on all the men she conned. Which was probably something her husband taught her to be—the perfect little whore for him.
Son of a bitch.
“You scared of me, baby?”
She arched an eyebrow. “Do you want me to be, baby?”
“You will be if you don’t start answering my questions.”
A hint of remorse passed through her eyes, but she blinked it away. Making me think I possibly imagined it, needing to cling to some sort of connection with her.
Well, to hell with reason.
With doubt.
With the unknown.
To hell with it all.
Including us.
My chest was rising and falling, my heart lying out in front of us as I started to walk toward her again. I felt as though I was making my way over to a stranger I could not run away from.
I waited, holding my breath with every last fiber of my being.
I couldn’t breathe the entire ten steps it took to get to her.
I knew because I counted.
It was the only way to keep myself from hurting her for playing me.
There wasn’t one nook of her body I hadn’t already explored with my hands, tongue, lips, or dick, triggering a nostalgic state of mind as I made my way to her.
My eyes never wavered from hers as I began skimming my fingers along her collarbone to the sides of her breasts and over to her beating heart. They lingered there for a moment before continuing to slide them down the center of her rib cage.
“Do you have any idea how bad I can hurt you?”
Without wavering, she spewed, “Do your worst.”
“So did I mean anything to you, or was I part of his plan all along?” I asked, grabbing the gun that was in my back waistband to fist it in my palm. “Did I ever really know you?”
Her gaze shifted from my eyes to the piece in my grasp and back up to my eyes again. “What do you want me to say? Nothing I say is going to make things right between us.”
“That’s it?” I shrugged. “You don’t even put up a fight?”
“What am I fighting for?”
“Me.”
Her eyes glazed over again before she confessed, “You know me more than anyone else does.”
“Liar!” I grabbed the vase on my desk and chucked it across the room before placing my gun on her thigh and slowly moving it up her leg toward her chest.
Inch by inch, wanting her to feel the cool metal against her heated skin.
Her eyes widened, and her nostrils flared, causing her face to pale as I spoke with conviction…“I want to hear it come from your pouty, lyin’, cock-suckin’ lips.”
CHAPTER
THIRTY
LUKE
I deliberately continued my ascent, making sure to always have a steady finger over the trigger. I purposely moved my gun back and forth over her breasts, letting the end of the barrel linger over her heart that I knew was rapidly beating.
“Did you think I wouldn’t find out? At least answer that fuckin’ question.”
I couldn’t breathe.
The walls were caving in on me.
“What do you think?” she bit, not backing down.
Grabbing another chair, I threw it across the room, and she jolted. I failed miserably at keeping my shit together. I came at her in one quick stride. The rage coursing its way through my body made it apparent how badly I wanted to hurt her. I stared deep into her eyes, but I could still feel her stabbing gaze on every inch of my skin. She didn’t move or make a sound, only increasing my turmoil.
Her eyes dilated as I sprang forward, gripping her hair by the nape of her neck, yanking her head as far back as it would go. Inflicting immediate pain on her scalp.
She yelped, and I got right in her face, snarling through a clenched jaw, “Do you have any idea who you’re fuckin’ with? You’re nothing but a lyin’ whore.”
The next thing I knew I released her hair and shoved her backward against the wall with my hand over her throat, causing her body to hit it with a loud, hard thud.
She gasped as both our chests heaved up and down, almost in sync with one another before we locked eyes. She opened her mouth to reply to my malicious words, but they were swallowed by my tongue when my mouth slammed into hers with so much abandonment, with so much desire…
I lost myself in that kiss.
Just as quickly as it started, I was done, over. I pulled my face away from hers. Only my hold around her windpipe tightened, pushing her further into the wall.