Page 161 of Penance

Why hadn’t I noticed that before?

“Mercy,” he says, my name falling from his lips like he’s been expecting me.

No surprise, no confusion, just a simple acknowledgment.

Tears well up, hot and painful in my eyes, but I blink them back. I haven’t come here to cry on his shoulder. I’ve come for answers.

Except I don’t speak, because I can’t.

I don’t talk.

I don’t think.

I reach up, and I slap him hard across the face. It’s a sharp sound that echoes on the empty hallway and his head whips to the side.

When he recovers, he straightens and looks at me, and he studies me for a long moment, his expression unreadable. When he reaches out, wrapping his hand around my throat and pulling me into the apartment, I don’t fight him.

I let him lead me, for he is my shepherd.

Chapter 28

Draco

My fingers are trembling as I flip the deadbolt with a click that seems to echo in the hollow space behind my sternum. The place where my heart would be if I truly believed it was still there.

She stumbles backward, those hazel eyes wide with fear—fear of me—and something inside me both hates and loves to see it. I surge forward, pushing her against the bare wall with enough force to knock the breath from her lungs, my hand still at her throat. The sound of her back hitting the plaster is satisfying in a way that makes me sick.

I hate it.

No, I love it.

No, that’s not it either.

I don’t know anymore.

“Please,” she whispers, but I don’t want to hear it.

The apartment is dim, just a single lamp casting long shadows across the furniture, but even in the dim light, I can see her expression clearly.

She’s scared.

Her skin is warm beneath my fingers, her pulse flutters until my fingertips like a frantic butterfly.

Not squeezing, just resting there.

Just keeping her here.

My other hand grips her arm, holding her against me. I lean in close, close enough to smell the fading scent of her perfume.

“Look at me.”

She does.

Those eyes—god, those eyes—brimming with tears that she holds back.

My fingers tighten slightly on her throat, not enough to truly hurt her, but enough to feel her swallow hard against my palm. The action sends a shiver down my spine that I disguise with a scowl. My cock grows down my thigh.

I’m fucked up.

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