Page 35 of Peripheral Vision

It takes me a few seconds to register the sound of muffled fighting and crunching bones before I hastily pull my pants back up and scoot back against the trunk of a tree. My hands are shaking as I press myself against the rough bark, my breaths coming in shallow, frantic gasps. My mind struggles to catch up with what’s happening, but the scene in front of me demands attention. My vision is still a little blurry but is starting to come back into focus and I recognize the figure who attacked me on the ground, writhing and clutching their ribs, their pained groans cutting through the night. Standing over them is another figure, impossibly taller and broader, their silhouette imposing against the dim moonlight. “Stay down,” he growls, and I would recognize the baritone of his voice anywhere. When the attacker tries to crawl away, he stomps on their fingers, breaking them in one swift movement. His scream echoes through the night as thoroughly as my own did.

I clutch at the tree, assessing my surroundings and planning my next move when Fletcher looks at me. Anger flashes across his face as he turns back to the attacker, flipping him onto his back and grabbing him by his shirt. “Who sent you?” he demands, his tone ice-cold. But my attacker ignores him, groaning in pain. “I won’t ask you again. Who. Sent. You.”

The man coughs up blood. “No one. Just a job?—”

“Wrong answer.” Fletcher’s fist connects with the man’s face, the sound making me flinch. He rains blow upon blow on my attacker's face and it doesn’t take long before I can see the way his body goeslimp in Fletcher’s grip. He lets the body fall to the ground with a thud, breathing heavily, and I know without looking at him that the man is dead. Fletcher keeps his back to me for a few minutes before turning around to face me. His face is splattered in blood, an image of uncontained rage. He steps toward me, hand outstretched, when I stand up quickly and bolt. I have no idea what direction I’m going, only that I have to get away.He saved you. He’s dangerous. He found you when it mattered most. He always knows where you’re at. He’s Fletcher. He’s not the Fletcher I know.My mind screams conflicting thoughts at me as I run.

I hear him call out to me from where he’s giving chase, just like I knew he would. His steps are steady, controlled—he’s not chasing me at full speed. He doesn’t have to, because he knows I’m at war with my own emotions over him as much as I do. I can already feel my resolve breaking down the more I run, until eventually my steps slow to a halt. He fought for me, has always fought for me—from skinned knees as a child, to play yard bullies. Regardless of how… abrasive his methods have been the last few weeks, I know for a fact that no one will ever fight harder. His heat wraps around me as he steps up to my back. “I shouldn’t want this.” My voice is barely a whisper.

“But you do,” he replies, his tone steady.

My voice trembles as I take a deep breath. “I should hate you.”

“You can hate me if it’s easier, but I’d burn the world to ashes if it meant keeping you in the flames beside me. You have to know that by now.” He steps closer, his hand brushing against my arm, and I flinch.

“You scare me, Fletcher.” And it is true. What he just did to my attacker, despite what he would’ve done to me… it was violent, relentless. He killed a man with his bare hands. But that isn’t the only reason he scares me. “You scare me because I don’t know where this ends. I don’t know if I’ll still have myself when it’s over. I don’t know how to recognize the man who is standing in front of me anymore.”

He grabs my arm in a loose grip, rubbing his thumb back and forth. “I’m still me. You don’t have to recognize the man you knew. All you have to know is that I’m still the man who would do anything to keep you safe. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but this will never be one of them.”

“This isn’t right…” I say, more tears threatening to spill over as he places a kiss below my right ear.

“It doesn’t have to be right to be real. I figured that out a long time ago, little viper. I figured out just how far gone I am, and yet you still have no idea just how far I’m willing to go. For you. Becauseyouare the only thing that matters. If the world is the price for your love, then let it burn.” His lips linger for just a second longer than they should before he turns me around to face him.

I take a step back. “Love? This isn't love, Fletcher. This is an obsession. Control. Fear. You don’t get to pull me into your darkness and label it love.”

“You’re wrong. Thisislove. The kind that’s raw. The kind that doesn’t ask for permission or wait for you to decide. It takes. It demands. It doesn’t care if you don’t think you’re ready.Idon’t care if you don’t think you’re ready. But you are. Do you want to know how I know?” He laces his fingers around the back of my neck and pulls me closer, but I already know the answer. “Because you know I’ll do anything for you, including breaking every fucking rule just to make sure you stay with me.”

I pull back and his grip loosens, but not enough to break it. “You think you can walk away from me? You think you can escape this? You’re already drowning in it,in me,and you don’t even realize it yet.” His words come out sharp, biting, as though he’s fighting to keep me from stepping out of his grasp entirely again. His gaze is possessive, carnal, and I know this is no longer about justwantingme—it’s aboutowningme.

“You once said that if you were going to chase me, that I was going to enjoy it,” I say, recalling his words from our encounter in the alleyway. I still haven’t entirely thought through what I’m about todo, but I know that I don’t want to leave what was just taken from me in my attacker’s now dead hands. I’m going to take it back and it’s going to be on my terms. I take a deep breath as I hold his gaze. “Then do it.” I rear my hand back and slap him as hard as I can, bolting into the darkness again, but this time, it’s becauseIwant it. And I know that this time, it’ll consume me completely.

Chapter

Twenty-Three

FLETCHER

The taste of blood greets my tongue as I swipe my thumb along the corner of my mouth, feeling the wetness of the wound there. My little viper thinks she knows the beast beneath the surface but has no idea what’s coming for her. I give her a few moments of a head start before I pursue her, and this time I’m not holding back. My stride carries me in the direction she ran, and it isn’t hard to find her. Her footsteps are so damn loud that I can hear them echoing in the night, each one a defiant beat against the silence that has settled around us. She’s fast, but not fast enough. It doesn’t take long for me to spot the back of her figure darting through the trees.

I know that if I could hear the heartbeat in her chest that it would be as erratic as the wild energy surrounding her, giving into her most depraved desires. She knows what I am, she’s seen the monster beneath the surface, and she still chose to run knowing that a predator seeks to hunt his prey. Her breath comes in sharp gasps as I close in on her, mingling with the rustling of leaves underfoot. The distance between us is narrowing, but I’m going to let her think she can outrun me for just a little longer. Because we both know that when I do catch her, I’m never letting her go. A twig snaps under herfoot and she looks back, a mistake on her part. Her eyes widen with fear and resignation, and with a growl rumbling from my throat, I leap at her, ready to take what’s mine—but she stops suddenly, throwing my trajectory off as I avoid barreling directly into her and roll to the ground instead.

She gives me a defiant grin before taking off again, knowing that she is only going to rile me up further. Like shewantsto rile me up further. She’s testing me, pushing my limits, daring me to catch her. She thinks she knows what will happen when I do, but I plan to show her that she doesn’t. She’s faster than she was before, I’ll give her that, giving it her final push. But I’m faster still. I give chase again, the night blurring around me as my focus sharpens. My legs eat up the distance between us and this time when she looks back at me, there’s a slight curl to her lips. My little viper is amused at the stunt she just pulled. I launch myself forward and this time I grab her successfully, pulling her into me in a smooth movement that stops our forward trajectory. My grip around her waist is tight and there is a part of me that wants to see the way her skin bruises from my touch. She glares up at me, chest heaving, with a defiance I haven’t seen in her yet, but knew was always lurking beneath the surface.

“You think you’re in control, little viper? You’re not. But I will show you what happens when you’ve made a mistake, and you made a very big one.” My voice is low and dangerous. But before she can respond, I tilt her chin up, forcing her to meet my gaze. Her pulse races beneath my fingertips and I know she feels the shift in the air. “All these times you think you’ve been running from me, as if I haven’t been the one giving you the chance to do so. But now you’ll face the consequences of thinking you could ever escape my grip.” My lips crash against her in a violent and desperate wave. It isn’t tender or soft or patient. She won’t get that with me. But she will get absoluteconsumption.My hands hold in her place as I deepen the kiss, walking her backward until she hits a tree, leaving her no place to go even if she wanted to.But I know she doesn’t because I can feel it in the way her body is pressed against mine.

Her tongue battles with my own for victory, lost in our desperation for one another. I slide my hands below her legs and lift her up and she wraps them around me instinctively. “Say it,” I growl. My voice is low and guttural. “Say you belong to me.”

“I belong to no one.” I nip at her lip and she yelps.

“Try again.” My grip tightens along her ass where I’m holding her against the tree.

Her breath hitches in a way that can only be caused by me. The way she stops breathing, the defiance and desire swirling in her eyes as she leans into my ear and repeats, “I belong to no one.”

I tighten my grip on her, lifting her higher and pressing her into the tree with more force. The evidence of my own desire is not a secret. “You do, you just need me to show you. There won’t be an inch of you unclaimed by the time we’re finished here. And you won’t ever need to look at another man to fulfill your needs ever again.”

She doesn’t break eye contact, but I can see the tension in her and feel it in the way she shifts around me, as though seeking friction. She’s not immune to me, no matter how much she fights it. Her lips curl into a sly smile. “You think it’s that easy?”

I smirk, brushing my lips across her neck. “I don’t think. I know.” And before she has another opportunity to distract me from my veryobviousmission, I take her lips in mine once more. She moans into my mouth as I grind my erection against her center. Her fingernails dig into my shoulders, a delicious mix of pleasure and pain as her resolve continues to crumble beneath my touch. Her breath comes in ragged gasps as I pull from her mouth again and trail kisses down her neck, nipping and sucking at her pulse point. One of my hands roams up her side, taking her shirt with it as my thumb finds the hardened peak hiding beneath her bra. “That won’t do at all,” I say as I slowly set her down. She lets out a whimper from our loss of contact. “Patience, little viper.” I chuckle.

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