Page 55 of Like Grim Death: Part One
“Ella,” I say through gritted teeth. “I fucking need you,” I tell her truthfully. Sex is a balm for me and fucking her is a cure for everything.
“And I need answers, Maverick,” she snarls back.
She’s growing bolder around me, and I like that. But right now, I really just want to sink myself into her. “It was a ritual.” It’s part of the truth. “I just…please let me do this.” It’s like it’s suddenly all that matters. Losing myself in her, to get a few moments of reprieve from all the heavy shit. I try to yank down her pants, but she doesn’t budge.
I meet her gaze, growing angrier.
“Was it your blood?” she whispers, and just like that, some of my anger melts.
I shake my head once. “No, baby. It wasn’t mine.”
She stares at me a long moment, like she’s looking for the lie, and I wonder if I’ll just fucking make her fuck me. “What about…” She glances past me, and I know she’s talking about Cain.
I smile at that, tilting my head.Do you think I give a fuck?
Then she asks, looking down between us, “Do you really love me, Mavy?”
My heart squeezes inside my chest. I think of what Mikhail said about hurting her. The choice I had, when my attackers were pretending to be someone else.Rain, or you?
I grip her hips and see her wince, so I loosen my hold as she lifts her eyes to mine. “You have no idea all the things I would do for you.”
We lock eyes for long seconds. Her gaze drifts to my bruises, a frown marring her beautiful features.
“Hey, I’m okay,” I tell her. “Just let me fucking have you.”
She goes very still. Seconds tick by. It’s like she’s fighting some internal battle with herself. To press me more, or to obey.
Finally, she nods. And it’s like a switch flips. Like she’son,for me. Her arms come around my neck as she lifts her hips, letting me pull her leggings down. She uses her foot to push them off, first one leg, then the other, and before they hit the floor, I’ve got my hands on her thighs, spreading them.
“Mavy,” she whispers, her fingers coming to my belt, and with the next words out of her mouth, my blood runs cold. “I want this. But I need to tell you…” She takes a breath, glancing down, her lashes fluttering. “I had an odd dream last night, and this morning… I found the blood and…” She swallows hard, trailing off.
I pull the belt out after she unbuckles it, then I loop it around her throat, pulling it through the end, tight, but loose enough for her to speak, her big, green eyes locked on mine as anticipation for owning her runs through me, but I need to hear this too.
“What did you dream about?”
Her eyes search mine. I see something in them that makes my chest tighten. Adoration. Total fucking devotion. But then she says, “Someone was inside our house. Someone who wasn’t Cain.”
I take a deep breath, waiting. She doesn’t add anything, so I press my brow to hers, one hand on the long end of the belt strap, the other keeping the buckle digging into the pale skin at her throat. Anger flares inside the coldness of her confession.Someone in our house? Someone laughing on our fucking street?
Atlas? A friend of his? An enemy of ours?
Mikhail? Tomas? The guy with tattoos and golden eyes?
“That’s it?” I press.
She glances down, like she’s avoiding my gaze. “I took a Benadryl.”To help her sleep.It knocks her out cold. She doesn’t do it often, but sometimes. And maybe because I was gone with Rain, she was annoyed and knew she couldn’t settle enough to sleep. “And I can’t remember if…” She trails off, quiet for a moment.
“Ifwhat,Ella?” My words are sharp, and she looks up then, obedient.
“If I dreamt it or if I really saw someone.”
I tighten my hold on the belt, her face flushing pink. “Well I’m going to need you to think really fucking hard, and figure it out. Was it real, or was it a dream?” The laughter from last night rings inside my head again. It’s fucking haunting me.
She stares at me a moment, and I wonder if she’s fucking with me. If she’s trying to get me to tell her something myself, the uneasy truths I’m hiding from her.
Then she pops the button of my jeans, her thighs on either side of my hips. Her brow is furrowed, and I hold my breath, wanting to hear her give in. To answer me.
Then she mouths the words.“Just a dream.”
