Page 79 of Brutal Knight

But when I turn, it’s Connor I see coming after me.

Oh, God.I start to walk faster, but I’m wearing heels, and I know I can’t run down the uneven alley. I’m debating just tearing my shoes off to run when Connor catches up to me, his hand wrapping around my arm.

I stop short and try to yank my arm away. He keeps hold of me, but his grip isn’t too tight, as if he’s just trying to get me to stay in one place.

“Wait,” he says, frustration clear in his voice.

“Let go,” I snap. I’m surprised I can sound so angry when half of what I feel is mistrust and fear.

“Willow, stop. Would you just wait?”

“I said let go!”

“Nothing happened,” he insists, his voice rising.

It’s not anger that I hear as his tone shifts. That makes me pause for just a fraction of a second, long enough for doubt to enter my mind.

I can’t stand the confusion it brings. I want a clear answer—I want to know if he’s lying, want to know if this will happen again. But there’s no easy answer for me.

“I don’t believe you.”

“I was telling her to fuck off,” Connor continues. “This was a mistake. She was a mistake—a hookup over a year ago. Before we were together.”

It all sounds like excuses. It sounds like what Dmitri would have said if he’d cared enough to lie, what I’ve heard men say a hundred times without really meaning it. It doesn’t sound real.

It’s too convenient to just believe that he’s telling the truth, that some random one-night stand from a year ago came into his office just when I came with him to the club.

He didn’t even tell me he was stepping away. I just looked up and then Connor was gone, and I was alone with Violet and the other men. I was worried for just a second that maybe my father had found him, or maybe one of Dmitri’s old associates had found Connor and walked away to talk to him.

I had a hundred fears in my mind when I went to see if Connor was in the back. And then I walked into his office and found him with a stranger, a woman on her knees and half-naked.

“I don’t trust you,” I whisper.

I wish it was true. I wish it was blindly true, that I could just deny ever giving him anything. But I know it’s a lie. I did trust him. I still can’t silence the part of me that does.

Connor steps toward me, the hand on my arm drawing me closer to him. I try to resist, but in the end, I look up at him. I can’t help it.

His gaze is burning. I can almost feel the way his eyes are blazing as he stares down at me, his entire face serious.

“That woman means nothing to me,” he says lowly. “The only one who means anything to me is you. The only one I want is you. And you are all I will ever want.”

I don’t have time to comprehend what he’s saying or even reply. Connor kisses me hard, almost bruising, his lips crashing down on mine.

I can feel in this single moment how honest he is, how real his words are. He meant what he said.

The intensity of the connection and the truth of his words hit me so hard that all I can do is react. I give in, going on pure instinct as my lips move against his.

Just like I could hear the truth in his words, I can feel the truth in his kiss, and I throw myself into it, letting my spiraling emotions gravitate toward a single point: him.

This.

Us.

Connor kisses me hard and then spins me toward the wall, pressing me against it until I can feel the bricks against my back. I can’t do anything but hold him, my hands on his chest and back, pulling him close to me.

His hands are all over me. He has one on my leg, roughly gripping my thigh, pulling my leg around his waist. I can feel my dress tighten, sliding up my body as he pulls me closer. His other hand is on my chest, pushing aside my dress so he can grope at my breast.

He’s more forceful than he’s ever been but there’s no violence in his movements. It’s all passion, all heated. He moves like he wants to prove through every touch that I’m his and his alone. That we belong to each other.

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