His blue eyes are soft as the warm waters of the Caribbean as he gazes down at me. “I’m never giving up on you, Crystal,” he says. “You can hurt me ten times what you did. You can do it every day, and it won’t matter. I’ll do whatever it takes to convince you of that. I’ll die for you before I let you go.”
I shake my head, more tears coming. “You will die, Devlin. My family will kill you. You were right about them. You were right all along, even when I didn’t know it, didn’t believe it. I didn’t want to know it. But they’re not good people. I knew I was rotten, but it’s not just me. We’re all rotten, every one of us.”
“Crystal,” he says, his voice pained. “You’re not rotten. Believe me, I know rotten. I’ve got plenty of it in my own family. And you, Sugar, are the least rotten person I know.”
“I’m not,” I say, shaking my head. “I did just as bad as you.”
“You had every reason,” he says, stroking my wet cheeks with his thumbs.
I shake my head. “I had no right to get mad at you for your grampa setting me up. Especially since… I did something pretty bad to you, too. Something my grandma told me to do.”
“What’s that, Sugar?” he asks. “What’d you do that could possibly be worse than all I did to you?”
I don’t want to tell him, but in a way, I do. If I tell him, he’ll go running, and he won’t be in danger anymore.
“Remember that day when I brought you coffee?” I ask, swallowing hard.
“Yeah,” he says. “It was the first time I thought maybe you cared about more than my dick.”
Great. Now I feel even worse. I let out a breath before going on. “I kind of… Put a drop of blood in it.”
I want to drop my eyes, to turn away and hide my face. But I force myself to watch his reaction. His eyes darken, smoldering with intensity and lust. “That’s kinda crazy,” he says, sliding an arm around my back and leaning closer. “But hot.”
“It wasn’t just any blood,” I whisper. “It was… Period blood.”
Devlin blinks a few times, just staring at me. “Why?” he asks at last.
I can’t bear it anymore. I turn away and throw myself flat on my bed, pulling a pillow over my face. “Because my grandma told me it would make you fall in love,” I admit, my voice muffled. “You can go now. I told you I was disgusting.”
After a minute, I feel Devlin shift on the bed. He pulls the pillow off my face and leans on one elbow, smirking down at me. “Crystal,” he says. “I went down on you in the shower when you were still bleeding. Do you really think that’s going to scare me away?”
“But I made you fall in love with me just so I could hurt you,” I whisper, my heart beating hard at his nearness. I can feel the heat of him through his soaked shirt, can smell his skin, his hair, the scent making my head spin with desire. I want to reach out and wrap my arms around him, to take it all back and start all over, so neither of us hurt each other.
“Crystal, it wasn’t your blood that made me fall in love,” he says, pushing his hips against me in the bed. “If anything about that coffee made me fall for you, it was thinking you did something nice for me. I fell for you because you’re tough without being a bitch, you never lost your cool even when I was being an absolute monster to you, and maybe a little bit because you dress like my grandmother and then get all freaky when I start fucking you.” He leans forward, smiling as his lips meet mine.
“I don’t dress like a grandma,” I start, but I melt as his lips dip to my throat. He pushes his body against mine, his tongue caressing my skin, tasting me. He sucks and bites, his hot breath against my neck making me squirm. Warm tingles race over my skin, the heat of my need building between my legs as his mouth moves up my neck, his teeth teasing my earlobe.
“Can I do it again?” he whispers. “I want to lick the blood from your cunt and make you moan.”
“I’m not bleeding,” I whisper, a shiver of forbidden lust going through me at the taboo idea he’s suggesting.
“Can I make you bleed?” he asks. “I want to taste you again. I want to be a part of you, to be a part of each other.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, my eyes dropping closed and my hands fisting in his hair, pulling him closer.
He lifts up, digging in his pocket and producing a knife. Before I can ask what the fuck he’s doing, he opens it and slices the pad of his thumb. Blood beads on the tip, and he lowers it to my mouth, running it back and forth along my lower lips, painting me with his blood. A charge of heat throbs between my legs, and I open my lips. Devlin pushes his thumb inside, a soft growl sounding in his throat.
“Suck it, baby,” he whispers. “Taste me.”
I close my eyes and draw him into me, shivering with the horrifying yet strangely erotic thrill. Devlin slides his thumb against my tongue, pushing it to the back of my throat before drawing it slowly out. My lids flutter open, and our eyes meet. Devlin’s are blazing with that madness I know so well, the one I court and fear in equal measure. The one that says he’s past the point of no return, and he’s going to fuck me however he pleases, whether or not I want it, and I’m goddamn well going to like it.
I suck harder, feeling a swell of power inside me when the fire in his eyes blazes hotter. He draws his thumb away and throws off my blankets. I lift my hips for him, pulling up my t-shirt while he strips my underwear off. He shoves my thighs open and buries his wet thumb inside me. A gasp escapes my lips as I realize the slickness isn’t just my arousal, it’s my saliva and his blood. I should be horrified, but instead it makes heat shimmer between my legs, and I let out a moan, lifting my hips to grind into his hand.
Devlin slides down my body, burying his face between my thighs. He spreads me open and tastes me, a growl building in his throat as his tongue sinks into me, pushing roughly into my entrance. He pulls back and looks up at me, his eyes clouded with lust. “Now you. I want to taste yours again.”
“Cut me,” I breathe.
“Where?” he asks, reaching for the knife lying next to me.