“Well, well. Now you’ve been fucking enlightened, haven’t you?”
I didn’t want to be enlightened. That kind of enlightenment would never let me sleep soundly again. Deep inside me, even amongst the shadows, and the violations, and the loss I felt in my soul, I still felt like a good little girl. I still felt like a good little girl who didn’t want to see another man die . . .
Hell, that was the reason I was in so much shit with the Power brothers after all . . . I didn’t want to see anyone die . . .
Lucian was busy tapping on his cell when I finally dragged myself together enough to get to my feet. I was shaky on my heels, barely able to bend down steadily enough to grab my clutch. Even that was blood-soaked; stained forever.
It was when I was standing there, eyes open wide and lip still trembling, that Lucian stopped looking at his cell and turned to me. We stood there, in silence, so much unspoken between us that it made my heart thump to a whole other tune.
It was a stupid thing to say, but I couldn’t help it.
“Thank you,” I said in a whisper. “Thank you for saving me.”
My thanks was genuine. Even though it was weak and ridiculous in a room where a man had just killed another, I truly meant it. Lucian Morelli really had saved my flesh from the man pawing at it.
He didn’t respond in words, just tipped his head at me with a bizarre expression on his face. One I couldn’t read.
I was stumbling towards the door when he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him. My body responded quicker than my brain, turning into him and pressing up tight. He slammed me into the wall, and even though it was the same spot I’d been fighting another man, I did anything but fight the monster before me. I was desperate for the beast I’d just seen murder another.
We were both covered in blood, but that didn’t matter. His shirt was wet and warm, soaking my dress even more as his body pressed into mine. His breaths were rasps, hot on my lips, and he smelled of blood, but of him, too. Underneath the red iron scent he smelled of him. Musk, and sex, and power.
It was me who kissed him this time. It was my mouth that pressed to his first and opened wide. His tongue was a serpent god, owning mine. His hands were heavy, grabbing me tight as mine snaked up around his shoulders.
It was frantic, just how hard I kissed him. He was my destroyer and savior both at once, and I wanted it that way. I wanted to feel both the love and the hate on his hands. I wanted him to take me to hell then raise me from the depths again.
“You’re going to pay me back for saving you,” he said against my lips. “I’m taking what’s owed.”
I wanted to give him what was owed. I wanted to stay in his arms for all damn time, so help me God.
He took hold of my neck and pinned me even harder as his mouth conquered me to a whole new level. My tongue was nothing against his, and I didn’t want it to be. I wanted to be under his command.
My thighs spread as wide as they would go under my dress as I offered myself to him. I moaned as he ground against me, rubbing myself against his knee.
It should have been revolting and shameful, offering my body to the Morelli heir with a dead body at our feet. But it wasn’t. It was anything but revolting, and it didn’t feel shameful.
It felt right.
Being with the monster felt right.
“Take me,” I whispered. “Please, Lucian. Please take me, because we’ll never get the chance again . . . not after tonight . . .”
Even the thought of being without my arch nemesis was enough to feel the pain in my heart, and that’s when it struck me, just how futile this connection was.
It didn’t matter how much I wanted Lucian Morelli. Nobody would ever let me have him. Not anyone in our world.
He slammed his palm on the wall above my head, and his eyes were the beautiful burning ashes of hell I was falling in love with. Because that was the truth of it. I was falling in love with the demon who wanted to destroy me.
“I always take what I want,” he hissed. “Nobody in this life ever stops me taking what I want.”
“Good,” I hissed back. “So take me. Please, just take me.”
His eyes were evil and loving, both at once as he tore my dress up and off me. I could feel the blood on my face and in my hair. I could smell it between us, along with Lucian’s deep dark cologne.