Page 279 of Craving Venom

“What?” she asks, catching me staring.

“You’re going to fuck me up in that dress. You know that, right?”

Her brow arches. “You sent it.”

“Yeah.” I drag my gaze over her one more time. “Didn’t know it’d look devastating.”

She steps around me as her fingers glide over the door handle before she opens it with a soft click.

“Then take a picture,” she says, tossing her purse into the passenger seat. “Because it’s staying on until I say otherwise.”

She slips into the car.

And I follow, silently swearing I’ll earn every second she lets that dress stay on.

I shift gears and feel the car respond instantly. Faith’s legs are crossed beside me, the slit in her dress drawn so high it reveals the delicate skin just shy of her pussy. My cock throbs again. Hasn’t softened since she tied that strap herself and stepped into this car.

The road curves ahead, but I don’t take my eyes off her for long.

“So what exactly are we getting into?” she asks, still staring out the window. “I need to be prepared.”

Just like that, I fuck up. My hand jerks too fast on the wheel and the car swerves slightly before I rein it back in.

My knuckles flex.

“You sure you want to know?” I ask.

“I wouldn’t be in this car if I didn’t.”

“We’re going into a house that looks like it belongs to a bored professor and his barefoot wife,” I say. “But under the wine, candles, and fucking ‘sacred trust’ bullshit, it’s D.O.M. territory.”

I stare ahead, watching the road wind out in front of us. I should lie. Should give her the nice version. But there’s no point sugarcoating hell.

“We’re going into a den of people who feed on obedience, desperation, pain. You give them even a taste of control, and they’ll leash you.”

She doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t breathe harder. Just waits.

“You’re not there to talk,” I add. “Not to ask questions. Not to make friends. Don’t speak unless I tell you to. Don’t look like you give a fuck about anyone but me. And if it gets messy, follow my lead.”

“You want me docile?” she challenges.

I snort. “I want you dangerous. But controlled. You slip once and they’ll know you’re faking.”

“And what about you?”

“I am the danger,” I say, dragging my palm slowly over the leather wheel. “But even a predator needs to play along when he’s in a room full of wolves.”

She’s quiet again. But I know what she’s thinking.

“I need you to understand something,” I say next. “You’re going to see me do things. Things that’ll make you hate me. I’m not falling into their act longer than I have to. But I’ll have to get close. It’s my first time inside. All I’ve got are stories. Every answer I’ve ever coaxed out of someone’s mouth came out thesame way. Like D.O.M. wrote the script and burned it into their tongues. I don’t even know if what I’ve heard is true.”

But I do know one thing. Every master brings a girl. I was going to take Ella. That was the plan.

But Faith asked to come.

And when she said it, I looked at her and saw something I didn’t expect.

Conviction.

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