Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 113699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 568(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 568(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Aries follows as I guide—drag—them toward the east wing. Away from the party. Away from curious eyes and gossipping mouths and my mother’s calculating stare. Salem doesn’t resist, but I feel her counting steps under her breath.
Wrong steps.
Wrong rhythm.
Wrong fucking everything.
The private room I’d arranged for Salem’s anxiety attacks sits dark and quiet at the end of the hall. I slam through the door, pulling them both inside before anyone can notice where we went.
“Lee—” Salem starts.
“Don’t.” My voice sounds strange. Dangerous. “Just … don’t.”
“You’re bleeding,” she tries again. “Let me—”
“What the fuck was that?” The words explode out of me. I’m an atomic bomb ready to go off. “Dancing with him? After the way he acted at The Mill?”
“What I did?” Aries takes a step forward, disgust on his face. “Don’t paint me as the fucking villain when all I tried to do was expose whatever game it is you’re playing with her.”
“Game?” I advance on him, but Salem puts herself between us.
“Stop it. Both of you.” Her voice shakes but holds firm. “This isn’t—”
“Isn’t what?” I laugh, and it sounds unhinged. “Isn’t real? Is that what you were going to say? Because none of this is real, right? Just pretend. Just fake. Just Lee Sterling playing another role, wearing another fucking mask to appease his friends and family.”
“That’s not—” Salem shakes her head. I can see she’s trying to put together a thought in her mind, but I don’t want her rational thoughts right now.
“Then please explain to me what the fuck that was out there?” I gesture toward the ballroom with my bleeding hand.
“You’ve had way too much to drink,” Aries says flatly. “And are making an ass out of yourself.”
“I’m not drunk,” I tell them.
Salem backs up until she hits the wall.
I notice but continue. “I’m not even close to being drunk, and yeah, I’m bleeding because I broke a glass while watching my best friend dance with my girlfriend—”
“Fake girlfriend,” Aries corrects.
“Mine.” The word tears out of my throat. “Real, fake, fucking pretend. Doesn’t matter. She’s mine.”
Salem’s breath hitches at the admission. I know I’ve lost my mind and should be more careful, but I’m past rational thinking. All I can do is focus on claiming her, ensuring that no one else touches what belongs to me. I cage her against the wall, one hand beside her head, close enough to feel her trembling but not touching.
“Lee,” she whispers, and my name on her lips sounds like both a prayer and punishment.
“Tell him.” My voice drops lower, and I stare at her perfect lips. “Tell him you’re mine.”
“I …” Her brown eyes ping-pong between us as her silk-covered fingers press against the wall behind her. “This isn’t …”
“Real?” Aries finishes for her. “Because it looks pretty fucking real from where I’m standing.”
“Get out,” I tell him, not looking away from Salem’s face.
“Not happening.” The air shifts as he moves closer. “I’m not leaving you alone with her, not while you’re like this. Calm the fuck down, and then I’ll consider it.”
“I said—”
“I’m staying.” His voice hardens. “Deal with it.”
Fine. Let him watch. Let him see exactly who Salem belongs to.
Turning my full attention back to her, I watch her throat bob as she swallows. Anxiety flickers in her pretty eyes, but beneath that anxiety is something molten, something that is all fucking mine.
“You drive me crazy, Salem, and make me want things I have no right to want. I’m going to kiss you. Going to claim you like I should’ve from the fucking start,” I tell her, just so she knows. “The other day at The Mill? That was just a taste.” Her tongue darts out over her bottom lip, and she nods gently, giving me the approval I seek.
My self-control snaps, and I take her mouth hard and fast, bruising in my intensity because I need her branded with my taste, feel, and body. I need to be burned into her bones.
Her lithe body clings to me, and she kisses me back with the same intensity. A kind of spark, an electric current ripples between us. She feels it too, craves me just as much as I crave her. We’re a fucking mess, a terrible fucking mess, but together, we’re a little more normal.
Slowly, I bite her lip, then pull back enough to search her eyes. I don’t have it in me to stop now, even with Aries here, hovering. “You have no idea how much I want you right now. I want to see my fingerprints bruised into that pale skin. I want my teeth marks marching up your neck like a ladder.”
She blinks slowly, hazy, soft. “Do it,” she whispers in a long-drawn-out sigh.
But I’m not. At least not today. Right now, I have a point to make.
“First, I’m going to touch you, get you so wet those little panties will be soaked through. Then I’m going to take you. Hard. Fast. Deep. So deep you’re going to beg me to stop and beg me to fuck you harder at the same time. And trust me, I won’t stop. Not even when you beg, not when tears track down your cheeks because it hurts and feels too good at the same time.”