Page 22 of Their Blood Rite

He reaches out for me again.

‘I mean it. If you touch me, I’ll break your hands.’

‘Let me explain. I beg-’

‘Okay,’ I interrupt, folding my arms across my chest. ‘Explain.’

I don’t think he expected me to say that because he just blinks at me. I raise my brow in anticipation.

‘It’s just… it’s nothing!’

‘Looked like something.’

‘Everyone does it, Ashe. It doesn’t really count this way. It’s just… it’s just…’

‘Well. I can assure you that no man is shoving his dick up my arse, Cole. So I’m pretty sure everyone is not doing it.’

‘Well. Of course no one is doing it with you,’ he scoffs. ‘You’re mine.’

‘Oh. I am, am I?’ I look past him to her. ‘I think she’s more yours than I am. I hope you’ll be happy together.’

‘Don’t you see? I would never be this way with you. I have needs, Ashe, and I don’t want to subject the woman I love to those kinds of urges. She’s just a release. You’ll get me in a much better way.’

‘I will, huh? Lucky me. So, you won’t call me a dirty whore who likes to take my best friend’s fiancé’s cock up her arse? I should be honoured. But hey. At least I got a mention in your painfulanal play. Because all I’ve gotten so far from you are unskilled fingers and kissing that feels like I’m with my father’s goat.’

Again, I turn. He grabs my hand. I react and slam my fist into his face, knocking him down.

‘If you or your shit-covered dick ever come near me again, Cole, I’ll kill you.’

The bewildered and guilty look has gone. Now he looks pissed, sitting in the water and clutching his bleeding nose. He stands.

‘You are an ungrateful little bitch. I could have chosen anyone to marry.’

‘Well, Thalia seems more than up for it. Marry her because you sure as hell aren’t marrying me.’

‘Oh,’ he laughs. ‘I’m still marrying you.’ He spits a mouthful of blood. ‘You better believe that, Ashe.’

‘You’re deluded.’

‘No. I’m in love. We will marry.’

‘I know where you’ve been. No. We are not marrying, and if you come near me tonight, I will end you.’

He steps forward. I refuse to back away.

‘If you forgive this indiscretion and go ahead with the marriage, I will ensure that no one else will touch you tonight at the Rite except me. And I vow this will never happen again.’

I won’t even dignify that with an answer.

I turn.

‘Or,’ he calls after me. ‘I will make it so all my friends will come for you.’

I look back at him.

‘You remember Eve? She died last year. She betrayed her partner, and he and his friends ensured she paid for it. Or perhaps you will end up like Tasha, my cousin’s partner, who decided he wasn’t good enough and ended up unable to walk for the rest of her life. She took three men at once before they heard something inside her snap.’

There’s such a darkness in his eyes as he speaks. Such malice and threat.

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