Page 34 of Marked By Him

Yet I don’t move. I don’t budge as we’re locked into this moment of heavy breathing and charged tension.

When I kill the fools who have wronged the Baekho Pa, it’s easy to dehumanize them. Remind myself why they deserve their grisly fate.

They’ve defied us or run up debts they can’t pay or attempted to double-cross prior agreements. They’ve done something to deserve death.

But as I clench the knife and urge myself to slash Monroe Ross’s throat, I’m well aware of the truth—this woman doesn’t deserve this.

Without thinking, I drop the blade. It clatters on the floor.

An immediate, intense fury rises up inside me like the wave of a tsunami. It’s directed at myself for letting the knife go, for failing to use it so seamlessly against her.

My hand shoots to her throat, clenching shut around the slender width of it. I lower my face to hers and bare my teeth, glaring at her. I take in every fucking detail that’s made it so impossible to do what I need to do.

From her dark, knitted brows to her wide, frightened eyes that are so shiny with tears, I see my reflection.

Her throat tightens against my hold in the most erotic way. In a way I notice against my will.

Her pulse thrums beneath the palm of my hand, beating as fast as mine.

The little rabbit is very much alive… and I’m very much enthralled by her, for reasons unknown.

We’re both keyed up, locked into this tense moment. Neither of us knows what to expect. Least of all me, as I do something I’ve never done before.

I bring my mouth down over hers. I kiss her deeply, hungrily, ravishing her mouth from the first touch of our lips.

Monroe gasps into my mouth. Her body lays flat and rigid under me. It could be fear or shock. Possibly both.

Yet she doesn’t pull away. She doesn’t do anything except part her lips wider and let me kiss her more.

My tongue thrusts into her mouth, and I find out what it’s like to taste Monroe Ross. She’s sweet and salty at the same time, lips moist from her tears. The fullest lips I’ve ever kissed, as well as the softest.

Right away, I can’t get enough. I lose control, pouring everything I’ve kept at bay into the moment. The things about her I’ve sneered at and told myself made her weak.

But that really caught my interest and slipped into my subconscious.

My pulse roars in my ears as I let myself indulge for once. I allow my tongue to massage hers, explore her mouth, kiss her deeper, feel how she softens against me.

Then I come to my senses all at once and wrench myself away.

She pops up into a sitting position, equally as startled and surprised.

My breaths heave out of me faster than usual. Though I feel her confused gaze on me, I don’t spare her a glance.

I don’t say a single word. I collect my knife from the floor and walk out the door.

10.Monroe

Jin kissed me.

He held me down and glared as if he wanted to rip me to shreds. As he pressed the knife to my throat, I thought he would.

I was certain they were the last moments of my life. The last thing I would ever see before I died was the cruelty etched onto Jin’s cold, chiseled face. His dark, almond-shaped eyes burning with a hatred I didn’t understand.

What had I done to this man to deserve it?

Then… the knife slipped from his grip. He broke character for a fleeting moment before he recovered by clamping his hand down on my throat, cutting off my airway. It seemed for a wild second that he was about to strangle me to death instead.

In some ways, a much more agonizing, intimate way to die…

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