Page 73 of The Devil's Playground

I snap instead.

This wasn’t my choice. None of this is. I told Kieran three years ago that it was over. I mean it then, and now that I have Royce in my life? I know what I was missing, wasting all that time with a bastard who treated me like property instead of a person.

No. He treated me like a pet.

Well, this bitch is about to bite back—and that’s exactly what I do.

I bite his cock, a broken part of me being reforged as steel as Kieran howls.

Of course, I knew he wouldn’t let me get away with that. I wasn’t thinking that far ahead, but I should have because his reaction is worse than anything I might have expected otherwise.

He punches me at the same time as he tears out a chunk of my hair. Not once, either, though it takes the one close-handed hit to get me to release my teeth. As he pulls his cock out of my mouth, his punch sending me to the floor, he kicks me in the side with his boot, then punches me dead-center in the face at least twice more before he stalks away, cursing under his breath.

This time, I do curl up in a ball, trying to protect myself from the rage I unwittingly let loose.

I say unwittingly… I fucking knew what I was doing. It took a lot to provoke Kieran to violence—the manipulative monster preferring to convince me that I wanted everything he ever did to me—but he also wanted me to believe that when he did lose his temper, it was something only I could do.

Because he loved me, right? And because he expected my love—and obedience—in return.

Not this time, bro.

“Damn it, Nicolette!” His voice is further than before. Squinting through the pain, I see he’s storming around the other side of the space, cock out, pants just below his ass as he fumes. “You shouldn’t have done that!”

He shouldn’t have tried to force me into going down on him.

It was worth it. I don’t know how bad he beat me for biting him, but it was worth it.

Almost reluctantly, but knowing I have to, I bring my hands to my face. One touch. One touch to feel that my crooked nose isn’t the right shape before the pain has me nearly blacking out from it.

“You broke my nose,” I gasp. I figured… but, wow. It is that bad.

“You bit my cock,” Kieran snarls, marching closer again. “You’re lucky that’s all I did to you. Look at it, Nicolette! I see fucking teeth marks!”

I wish I could. The slap on the street left me with one swollen eye. He backhanded me then, but his cruelty is unmatched. He might want me to think it was an instinctive reaction, striking me because I took the chance to make him hurt, but he couldn’t have landed a better punch. He smashed my nose, following through right to the other eye, and I can barely see anything but shapes—not details—through the tears and the haze of pain.

He slugged me with my teeth digging into his cock. If only I’d snapped down and bit the fucker completely off.

I finally realize that hot blood is streaming down my face. My broken nose is bleeding, heading right into my mouth. I choke when I get the first rusty tang against my tongue and lips, sputtering it out.

Even in this state, I know better than to hike up my shirt and use it to stem the flow of blood. If Kieran hasn’t noticed that his brand on me is gone yet, that I replaced his tattoo with a seahorse… he’s already pissed. I don’t really want to make him any angrier.

Shit. My sudden burst of adrenaline from before is beginning to wane, and while I don’t regret what I did, I definitely set him off way easier than I used to.

I remember the murder I saw… if I’m not careful, I might be his next leaf.

Just as I have that thought, Kieran proves that he really is one scary fucking bastard. Pulling back his obvious fury, he blows a breath out through his nose, and when he walks over to me again, he’s as calm as he was the night he ‘ran into us’ in Riverside.

Standing over me again, he tucks his cock back into his pants. “Fuck. What a waste of time. All I wanted was a little head, but I make you suck me off again, you’ll choke on that blood. I went to a lot of trouble to get you back, darlin’. I’m not gonna let you die on me now.”

No. Kieran’s just going to make me wish I was dead.

“It’s fine,” he says in a tone that says it’s not. “You’ll make it up to me. And if you don’t? When I go after McIntyre, I’ll make sure to cut off his dick first so you have something to practice on. You like that, darlin’?”

Damn it. Damn it. I’m not surprised in the least that he’d immediately jump to threatening Royce, but if I’m careless with my own safety, Kieran knows me well enough to guess that I won’t be with Royce’s.

I collapse to the floor, all of my defiance sapped out of me at the thought that he would target Royce because of me.

I’m so tired. Whatever he did to me outside of the Suites, I could just lay down, close my eyes, and fall back asleep. It wouldn’t escape the nightmare I’ve found myself in—would probably only make it worse—and I know better than to give in.

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