Page 32 of Fervent

Now that he’d said the words, I wanted to bend.

Oh God.

“He’s not a killer.”

“Maybe you don’t know Rafe Mason as well as you thought.”

No, I knew Rafe. Lucas, on the other hand, I hadn’t known at all.

“If you won’t beg me to fuck you, maybe you’ll beg for his life.”

Fear seized me, choked me. I wanted to feel numb at the thought of Rafe’s death and my servitude living as Lucas’ adoring pet, leash and all, but I wasn’t strong enough. Pushing off the bed, I slid to my knees and begged in Lucas Perrone’s language—I yanked down his zipper and wrapped my lips around his shaft.

He’d killed her.

I kept running those three words through my mind, thinking they’d penetrate, but I still couldn’t believe it. That whole scene had been a nightmare because them dragging Nikki in didn’t make any sense.

Perrone slaughtering her didn’t make any fucking sense.

I must be delirious, drugged beyond what my body could handle. I’d hallucinated the whole thing. Tilting my head up, I pulled at the chains holding my wrists hostage. Assholes had strung me on my toes again, back in the pitch-dark room I’d shared with Alex. The echo of her name invaded my head to the bursting point.

The door opened, and I went on full alert even though I couldn’t do shit to protect myself. Perrone filled the entrance, lantern hanging at his side. He set the flickering light on the floor and quietly shut the door before wandering to me, his stride casual, unhurried.

“Alex has an exquisite mouth,” he said. “I’ll give you that. She just demonstrated her exceptional skill on my cock.”

I blinked him into focus, and he struck fast, pummeling my mid-section. I groaned and would have doubled over if my hands weren’t chained to the ceiling.

He grabbed my jaw. “So I understand why you had trouble keeping your cum inside your prick.”

I shook my head free, sucking air between my teeth. “I’ll fucking kill—”

He sent a fist to my jaw, and the pain jolted through my teeth, burned behind my eyes.

“She’s quite malleable. She got to her knees of her own free will and gave me the best damn head I’ve ever had.”

She wouldn’t have done that without being coerced. Unless…

Unless he’d threatened my life.

I wanted to scream at him, gouge his eyes out with a lethal jab of my fingers, rip his fucking cock off and mouth-fuck his goons with it, so I was shocked by the laughter that poured from me. Void of sanity or rationality, I laughed until my stomach cramped where he’d socked me.

I was manic, insane. Probably both. Maybe this was all a screwed up fantasy, and I was a mental patient living inside my own head.

“Why the fuck are you laughing?” Taking a step back, he folded his arms.

“She did it for me. She sucked your tiny dick because she loves me. She’ll always love me.” His eyes widened, and I laughed some more. “You can’t break that. No matter what you do, you can’t break what she feels for me.”

He brought a knee up and rammed me in the stomach. “How about I just break you then, starting with every fucking bone in your body?”

The blow strangled me, but I was still laughing through the pain, and it was a sick mixture of agony and madness.

Perrone’s mouth flattened into a line. He released my hands, grabbed my head, and slammed his knee into me, again and again until I couldn’t laugh anymore.

Until I couldn’t breathe. I slumped to the floor, wheezing air between tight lips.

“I was going to kill you, despite Alex’s oral bribery tactics. But now I think I’ll keep you around for a while, just long enough for you to hear the slut beg for my cock.”

The air stirred as he retreated. I heard the door slam shut, and he must have taken the lantern with him because the never-ending darkness came back. I pushed to my hands and knees, limbs quaking under my weight, and struggled to the cot.

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