Page 91 of Poison Aches

It’s like the earth has stopped spinning and I’m cast in a black hole where time means absolutely nothing.

And nothing says abyss more than staring into the eyes of this man.

Something aggressive flares in Emmett’s sharp gaze as he stares back at me. A tingling sensation goes down my spine and then the rest of my body.

This stare… Emmett has never looked at me like that before.

He’s always so indifferent and sees everyone as insignificant pests, but he’s never looked at me like he wants to wring my neck and then rip my corpse apart with his bare hands for good measure.

There’s an acute danger in the air. It’s directed at me, I know, but I can’t look away.

Those emerald eyes hold me captive, binding me stronger than any chain or rope… as if daring me for something.

Demanding something from me.

Emmett moves then, and before I can suck in a breath, he’s right in front of me, looming over me, surrounding me, sucking me into his universe when I just made a declaration that I’d never be part of it.

Goosebumps appear on my arms almost instantly.

I can feel the blood in my veins surging, like a violent current ready to sink me, but somehow, I manage to hold his gaze… craning my neck to do so.

Something uncomfortable is happening between my legs that I start getting an urge to bring my hand down there.

A throbbing starts. I feel like I’m slipping.

What’s happening?

But then, he speaks.

His voice is low, soft even, but it feels like it’s coming from the other side of the sky. Majestic, deep, refined with a timbre that could make me come if I listen long enough.

“You’ll forget me?” he murmurs coldly, echoing my words from just moments ago. Then with a knowing look, he glances atthe iPad to my left. The screen is still on. He looks back at me with a cruel smirk. “But you…Where did you learn this, to want what does not want you?”

His words… those words, the same words at the end of Warsan Shire’s poem that I was just reading… he just recited them to me!

He could’ve slapped me and I wouldn’t be this shocked.

The impassive look on his face, coupled by the cold look in his eyes and the words he just said. “To want what does not want you…”

But those words don’t sound like just words from a piece of art anymore. They sound just as Emmett intended them to sound.

Mocking.

Scathing.

Destroying…

Asthe realization sinks in, tears well up in my eyes.

Before I can let them fall in front of anyone, I quickly hand him the baby, mumble something about needing to use the bathroom, then before a fat tear drops to the floor, I turn on my heel and run… with my shattered heart matching the fucked-up one that beats in his chest.

Slow.

Tortured.

And savagely torn up.

CHAPTER 12

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