Page 136 of Craving Venom

I stop breathing.

Because somehow, that’s so much worse.

“Why are you doing this?”

Zane doesn’t answer right away.

Instead he just turns and walks back to the case by the door. He opens a second case. This one is white, lined with soft bedding material and carefully lays the snake inside.

He strokes the curve of its body once before closing the lid.

He doesn’t say a word.

But I swear, I’ve never seen a man look at anything with more tenderness.

Not a human. Not even himself. Just… her.

He shows more compassion to a creature people fear than most show to the people they claim to love.

And maybe that’s what makes it worse.

He crosses the room in three steps.

Before I can move, before I can even think, his hand wraps around my throat. “Because I gave you a choice.”

He leans closer, until his breath grazes my lips.

“You stayed.”

And now, I know—he never needed to force me.

Because letting me choose?

That was the cruelest thing of all.

His thumb brushes my lower lip. “Did you like it?”

What the fuck is he talking about? The question barely forms before it hits me—Trevor. That stupid, meaningless kiss.

No.

No way.

He… he couldn’t have done all this because of a kiss.

Right?

I search his expression, desperate for a sign that this is about something else, that there’s a bigger reason but the more I look at him, the more the answer becomes clear.

What a fucking psycho.

Zane watches me too closely as if he’s daring me to say yes.

That’s when I realize what this whole fucking tantrum is about.

This isn’t just rage.

It’s about control.

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