Page 14 of You Were Always Mine
A hand closes around my wrist, hard, dragging me back before I can scream. My body slams into the brick wall of the alley beside the café, my bag tumbling to the ground.
Kai.
His chest presses against mine, his hand grips my arm tight enough to bruise, his other braced by my head, caging me in. His eyes burn down into me, wild and endless, blue so sharp it hurts to look at.
‘Don’t walk away from me,’ he snarls, voice low, lethal.
My pulse is a roar in my ears, my blood boiling, and before I can stop myself I spit straight into his face.
The world stills.
His jaw locks, his cheek flexes, spit sliding down his skin. For a heartbeat, I think he’s going to snap — shatter me right here against the bricks — but instead he drags in a slow breath, tilts his head, and when his eyes meet mine again, they’re darker than I’ve ever seen.
‘You really shouldn’t have done that, little sister.’
My whole body trembles, my nails biting into my palms, but I lift my chin anyway. ‘Then make me regret it.’
His breath hitches, his body trembling with the force of what he doesn’t do. For a moment his fingers tighten onmy wrist, enough to make the bones protest, and I swear he’s about to crush me into the wall until I break.
He doesn’t.
Kai’s jaw works, spit still sliding down his cheek, his eyes locked on mine with a hunger that feels like it could swallow me whole. He leans in so close that our mouths almost brush, and his voice is low, ragged, and controlled — like someone who knows exactly how deep to cut with a knife in their hand.
‘You think I won’t touch you,’ he whispers. ‘You think I can’t. But you have no idea how hard it is to hold back right now.’
The words pour over me, heat sinking deep, leaving my skin flushed and my chest heaving. I want to shove him again, I want to scream, I want to claw his face until he bleeds — but my body betrays me, a shiver tearing through me that I know he feels.
His smirk curves slow, cruel. He drags his thumb across his cheek, wiping away the spit, then smears it against the wall beside my head, leaving the mark there like proof. ‘That’s all you’ve got?’
I bare my teeth, forcing my voice steady even as it cracks. ‘Let me go.’
For a long, suffocating second, he doesn’t. His gaze burns, his breath hot against my lips, the weight of him pinning me so tight I can’t think.
Then, just as suddenly as he caught me, he steps back.
The air rushes in, cold and too thin. My body stays pressed against the wall like it doesn’t trust freedom.
Kai wipes his hand on his jeans, blue eyes glinting like he knows every thought in my head. ‘Run home, Scarlett. Before I change my mind.’
The way he says it — steady, quiet, dangerous — makes my knees weak in a way violence never could.
Kai
The door slams against the wall as I shoulder through it, the sound echoing through the empty halls. My chest is heaving, my blood boiling, and all I can hear is the echo of her voice, the spit hitting my skin, the look in her eyes when she dared me to break.
Fuck.
I said I wouldn’t touch her. I swore it. Told myself I’d keep that line, that one thin scrap of control — and technically, I haven’t. Not really. But I’ve broken every rule that mattered. I broke them the second I pinned her against that wall, the second I leaned in close enough to taste her fear, to feel the shiver ripple through her body.
I broke it all.
‘Scarlett!’ I bark, the word ripping from my throat, reverberating up the staircase, down the hallway. I charge from room to room, flinging doors wide, each one slamming against the walls. Her bed is empty, sheets still tangled from this morning. Her closet half-open, her perfume lingering.
She’s not here.
‘Fuck!’ The roar tears out of me, shaking the walls. My fist slams into the doorframe, wood splintering, pain shooting through my knuckles — but not enough, never enough.
I stumble back to the kitchen, drag open the cabinet, and snatch the bottle from the top shelf. Whiskey. I twist the cap off with shaking hands and take a long pull straight from the glass. It burns down my throat, fire in my chest, but it doesn’t put out the flames clawing through me.
