Page 45 of Scent of Desire
“He defied me when he came to my property. I told you he’d pay. I’m the Devil, Lily—this is what I do. I cannot be weak.” He clenched his teeth. “He needed to let go of you. To understand.”
“Understand what?” I pushed him again violently, and a muscle in his jaw knotted, trying to keep his anger in check. Either way, I couldn’t care less about it. “That I’m your puppet? A toy?”
“You’re mine,” he roared.
“You don’t own me,” I spat out.
“But I do, Lily.” A snarl drew on his lips like a lethal weapon. “We’re bound together whether we want it or not.”
“You’re delusional and crazy if you think that.”
“Who’s the crazier of us, Lily? The one that resurrected the humanity of a monster or the one who was one all along?”
“You’re not even regretting this?” My mouth twitched.
“I could have killed him, but I didn’t.”
I snorted, not believing his words. “And I should thank you for that? You’re unbelievable!”
His jaw tightened, and the ridges of his neck became dangerously pronounced. “I’ve never pretended to be someone I’m not with you.”
A man without a soul with a heart blackened by hatred.
This time, I believed him. He was the villain all along. “You’ve hurt me—did you think of that at least one second? Did you get off at the thought of—”
“I can’t be weak, not even for you. It was his punishment, the worst that could happen to him,” he shouted. “Don’t you understand? I’d fucking die for you, bleed, and kill, Lily. You’re fucking consuming me. All those emotions, I don’t know what to do with them. You scarred me even more than I already was.” He brought his fist to his mouth, his hellions gathering. “I give you my heart, but my soul, Lily, I don’t have one to offer you.”
So, that was it. The brutal truth. Radcliff didn’t know how to love. He could not love. He was never taught how, and now, that newborn humanity was killing him. Those feelings were new for him, and he let them overwhelm him. I had unleashed the worst of his humanity.
“You were jealous of Adonis. ThegreatRadcliff was jealous of someone, who knew,” I joked sarcastically with a snort.
“I was not.” The way he clenched his teeth and the vein popping on his forehead meant it wasn’t entirely true. “Did you know that your coward Junior has been trying to approach me for weeks for a meeting? He’s been annoyingly stubborn. So, I naturally gave him what he wanted.”
“What?” That news made me choke on my own breath.
“Like a little kid, he holds me responsible for his daddy’s downfall and for the way Icorruptedyou.” The word “corrupted” rolled off his tongue, sweet and wicked.
I thought of what had happened to the Carmins lately. The fact that Adonis’s father was beaten. The problems with Carmin’s enterprise. The secret I had confessed to Radcliff.
A cold shiver crept beneath my spine, and I unlocked my phone again with trembling hands. When I opened the message from my uncle, all doubts became clear, and all scents became dusty grays. There were articles:A giant doll hung on the top floor of Carmin’s headquarters; Christian Carmin: the rapist.
A doll with the bathrobe Christian had worn the day he tried to touch me. The one with his initials embroidered.
Only one man was capable of this kind of wrath and chaos.
“Did you?” My voice shivered. “Did you have something to do with the Carmins?”
Radcliff inched forward, towering over me with his darkness. “Deeper. You already know the answer.”
Yes. He was responsible.
“They never did anything wrong to you…” I slanted my eyebrows inward, feeling stupid to have believed in the light within Radcliff. “Why would you destroy someone’s life for your pleasure?”
“I did it for you, Lily.” His mouth shut tight and grim, his eyes burning like hellfire.
“For me? Yeah, right.” I tried to get away from him, his arms, his scent, his everything, but he held me caged between his arms. “The Carmins didn’t deserve this! You’re just—”
“You think everyone is so pure? Look around you—everyone lied to you. You’re too blind to see the truth.”
