“What do you want, Cole?” she demands. Her face is free of makeup. Her hair down and over her shoulders. She wears a white t-shirt and cotton shorts. She looks like she just rolled out of bed, and I hate that it wasn’t with me. “Cole …”
I take her face in my hands, and I press my lips to hers. Taking what I fucking want as I have always done.
She shoves me away as I knew she would. Now that she is no longer drunk, things are back to normal. That’s why I didn’t take her up on her offer last night. “What do you want from me?” she yells, her anger rising as easily as mine does.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“No,” she snaps.
“Everything.”
She lifts her right arm. “You want me to bleed for you? You want me to go to jail for you? You want me to fucking kill for you? Jesus, Cole.”
“I want all of those things. And more,” I say with a nod, and her eyes narrow on me like I’m playing some sick game. She’s not wrong. “Don’t you see, Austin? I’m that guy who wants to take everything from you. I want to destroy you. I want to hurt you.”
“You already have,” she says through gritted teeth.
I smile. She’s referring to her stitches from where I cut her. I could make her bleed to death for me without a fucking knife. “You have no idea what I can do to you. You have no idea what I’m capable of. I could make you nothing.” The thought of destroying her and putting her pieces back as crooked as mine is so fucking strong.
Her jaw sharpens, and then she slaps me.
My hands fist down by my sides at the sting on my face. I hate that I like it. I’ve been raised to love a fight. “I dare you to slap me again,” I growl. Testing her.
I expect her to laugh. To call me fucked up but she doesn’t. Instead, she does what I say. It was harder than the first, and I find myself pushing her backward, my fists hitting the wall on either side of her head, but she doesn’t back down. Not her. She has so much fight in her that it makes her dark green eyes shine. And I love it.
“I’ll hit you as many times as you want,” she growls, breathing heavily.
“I wanna hit you back.” I lie. I don’t want to hurt her. Not in the way she thinks. I wanna break her from the inside.
She lifts her chin. “Go ahead. I can take a hit.”
“I wanna punish you for burning Jeff’s body. I wanna punish you for fucking up my car. And I wanna punish you for how much you make me want you,” I tell her. My dick is still hard from that kiss we shared in my kitchen. The thought of fucking her is so strong that it’s hard to think about anything else.
“Why?” she asks, her chest rising and falling fast with each breath.
“I told you, sweetheart. I like destroying pretty, innocent things.”
Her eyes look up into mine. She searches as if she’s trying to decipher my words, but they were honest. There was no hidden meaning.
“Why?” she asks again, and her voice wavers. That fear creeping back into her features.
“Because perfect things don’t belong in a fucked-up world.” It’s that simple.
She swallows. “I’m not perfect.”
I lean in, my lips almost touching hers, and her breath hitches. “You are to me.” I’ve never said anything more true to a woman. She is just like me. The fight. The anger. The hate. I see the way she fists her hands when I force her to do something. I see how she rises to every challenge I throw at her. With no warning. And I love that she refuses to back down. Give up. She’ll go head to head with me, and in her mind, she feels she has a chance to win. It turns me on so much. She was built for a man like me—a savage.
“Cole,” she whispers.
I remove my right hand from the wall and cup her face. She whimpers, and it fuels my desire to make her mine. “I wanna watch tears roll down your beautiful face because I think you’re gorgeous when you cry. I wanna see blood on your flawless skin because you look like a priceless work of art. And I wanna look down at you while you’re on your knees because you want to please me.” My thumb runs over her trembling bottom lip. “I wanna make you a beautiful, broken doll, Austin.” Her eyes widen at my confession. “All mine to play with.” I look at her parted lips while licking my own. “All mine to fuck.” She moans. “All mine to destroy.”