“Because you know I’ll take you to hell and back, over and over, until you forget what it’s like to stay still.”
I pause, just long enough to savor the sight. She’s perfect. Bruised, wild, still angry. Hers is a beauty that burns brighter from violence.
The hold of her body against mine burns hotter than any desire I have ever known. I pin her down by her neck, forcing her to look up at me.
“You had your chance, little viper. Now, it’s my turn.”
26
GISELLE
Cool draft whispersover my belly, and I feel the tickle of my own hair on my shoulders and at my temples.
Roman’s weight pushing me down, his hard cock against my thigh, my slit pulsing and soaked.
The adrenaline rush has left me empty. The chase drained me of all humanity until I’m left as nothing but an empty vessel and a thing that feels and obeys.
And I like it exactly like that.
“Stay still, little viper,” he says. “Eyes on me.”
I don’t move, because he might cut me. The possibility feels far away, distant as an echo.
Is that really what I’m worried about?
Is that really what I’m afraid of?
Or do I keep myself from moving because he told me to, and I’m afraid to disappoint him?
What is happening to me?
Get a fucking grip, Giselle! He has a KNIFE against you!
The blade is cold. My pulse hammers under it, my body poised on the edge of fear and want.
But I still don’t move, not even as panic begins to blur my vision.
“Good girl,” he praises, voice vibrating along the knife’s edge as he drags it slowly across my collarbone.
Yes,I think, horrified at the pleasure that trickles into me from the words. I just want to please him and show him that I’ve earned this.
I’ve earned my own undoing.
He won. He caught me,says the part of me that wants to obey.
But it wasn’t fair! The lights were off, and this is his territory,says the part of me that wants to force his hand. If he’s really going to stab me, he can do it right fucking now instead of making me quiver under his touch.
Again.
But maybe I don’t care if it was fair or not. Maybe I wanted him to win, so I’d wind up here, underneath him. My body at his mercy, my pain or pleasure at his whim.
He sets the knife against my shoulder, lets it drag down the slope of my arm, the point just scratching the top layer of skin.
I stay perfectly still.
I’m scared of what that blade can do to me but I also want it to break skin and flay my flesh the way he flays my soul. Open me wide and enter me, take me down once and for all.
“I’ve watched you, little viper. Twisting your earring like it’s the only thing you own. How you wanted MacDougal dead so badly you fantasized about it.”