Page 34 of Velvet Thorns
Horror crawls up my throat. “Phoenix… what did you do?”
“I warned him nicely, if you count a few broken fingers as polite. I also knew those fingers had been inside you, and that made me… irrational. I told him if he ever so much as breathed near you again, I’d tell his daddy everything, and then I’d cut off his balls and shove them so far down his throat he’d be gagging on his own cum for a week.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
He shrugs, like I’m the one being unreasonable. “Don’t look at me like that. You would’ve done the same if it were me.”
“No, I wouldn’t.” He stands and steps forward, closing the distance between us as his eyes burn with something too twisted to be love.
“Lie to yourself all you want, baby, but your darkness matches mine. I’ve seen it… You remember that day, don’t you? When my dad left his gun out, and you saw me falling apart? You picked it up, looked me dead in the eye, and asked if you should just end it all for me.” My breath catches because I do remember. I remember the weight of cold metal in my shaking hand, and the way rage had consumed my every thought. “And before you tell me you wouldn’t have pulled that trigger, I saw the hate burning in your eyes. The absolute certainty that you would’ve done it if I’d asked. You would’ve destroyed him for what he did to me.” His fingers ghost along my jaw. “You burn just as dark as I do, baby. You just bury it deeper, pretending it doesn’t exist. But it’s there in the way you’d kill for the people you love.” His thumb traces my bottom lip, and I hate that I don’t pull away from him. “And I know you’d still do it for me because no matter how much you think you hate me, I still live inside your fucking soul.”
That familiar rage flares up inside me like wildfire, but it’s not just rage.
It’s hurt.
It’s every moment of silence he gave me while his friends toreme apart. Every second he stood there like a coward and let me be humiliated just to keep his fucking crown. It’s every moment since then when he’s been lurking in my life like a ghost, stealing pieces of me I thought were mine alone.
The realization hits me like a physical blow.
I haven’t had a single moment to myself in ten years.
Not one.
I snap out of it, shoving him away from me hard enough to make my palms burn, but he barely moves. He’s all muscle and obsession, and I might as well be pushing against stone.
“Maybe once,” I whisper, my throat feeling tight, “but not anymore. And you seem to forget, Phoenix, that your idea of protecting me was turning the other fucking way.”
His eyes drop for the first time tonight, jaw clenched so tight I can see the muscle jump beneath his skin. “I know…”
“I can’t move past this,” I tell him, straightening my spine even as I crumble on the inside. “I don’t care if you regret it, and I don’t care if you think we’re the same. Just get out.”
“Not happening, pretty girl.”
“I said, get out.” I reach for him again, shoving both hands against his chest, but he’s immovable.
“Come on, baby, let it out,” he whispers, almost tender, and I see red. I hit him, shove him, fists flying, and he just stands there, soaking up every blow, and refusing to flinch.
“God, Phoenix, just fucking leave!” The words tear out of me, raw and desperate. “I hate you. Do you get that?” My fists pound against his chest for every stolen moment, every violation, every way he’s infiltrated my life without me even knowing. “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!”
I’m not sure if the sound that tears from my throat is a scream or a growl, but when I rear my fist back, he catches it midair. He’s on me in aflash, arms clamping around me like steel bars, crushing me against his body.
“Get the hell off me.”
He ignores me completely, pushing me back onto the bed and pinning me before I can even process what’s happening.
“Get off me, Phoenix!” My wrists are trapped in his grip, tight enough to bruise, and he grabs the sash I used to tie him up with.
“Keep fighting me, and I’ll come in my pants just from looking at you like this.”
I swear to god, the second he unties me, I’m high-fiving his face with my fist.
“Wow, nothing says romance like coercion and a premature fucking finish. You’re really outdoing yourself here, Phoenix.” I spit the words at him, but I see that twisted smirk curl on his lips as I finally stop fighting.
He ties my wrists above my head, his teeth scraping my skin as he works, leaving goose bumps in their wake. My body’s betraying me—heat where there should be fear, while want tangles up with everything I hate about him.
“I’ve waited a decade to be exactly where I am right now—above you, in front of you, inside your head, and news flash, baby—you already chose me. You chose me the second you and Lianna cooked up that half-assed little revenge plan to do to me what you think I did to you.”
“I hate you for watching me like that. That’s not love, Phoenix. It’s depravity.”
