“Please, Heath. Look at him. He’s done. There’s no coming back for him.”
My eyes narrow and focus on Henry, his chest rising ever so slowly, his eye sockets transformed into tiny, busted slits, blood leaking from them like ruby tears. His fingers twitching. He’s so near death already, a mere moment away from the grim reaper ripping back his blackened soul and damning it straight to hell.
Warm hands frame my face and yank me away until the only vision I can see is Kat’s angelic face. “Focus on me. On us.”
She crushes her lips to mine. Cinnamon and chocolate mixed with the taste of blood invade my mouth. Kat is a conqueror hell-bent on bending me, molding me, making me feel her instead of the rage of hate festering in my being that’s telling me to annihilate Henry.
“You don’t want me like this, Kat. I can’t promise I’ll be gentle.”
Her hands work at the hem of my shirt, fisting it in her hands as she tugs it up and over my head, letting it fall to the ground. “I don’t want you to pretend for me. I want you, Heath, all of you. I want to give you what you need and I want you to take it with no fear. Let me use my body to bring you back to me.”
My hand grips her jaw, my lips a force of nature, not just wanting to kiss her but to get so lost in her that I’m transported to something deeper, better.
Kat screams as my teeth crash into her flesh, sinking into her skin, needing to inflict pain. I expect her to pull away from me, to acknowledge that I’m a monster, for her to run, but she doesn’t. Kat’s nails dig into my back, her body flush to mine.
“I won’t be able to stop, Kat. I won’t be able to stop, and the idea of harming you could be my undoing.”
Her gaze burns into mine. In her eyes, I see the past, the present, and the future. In all of those visions, I picture her laughing under the brightness of the sun. “Take what you need. You could never hurt me, but right now, I can help you. Let me be there for you like you’ve always been there for me. Love isn’t just songs and flowers. Sometimes it’s about sacrifice, about pain and hurt. No matter what, I know I love you and I want it all. I want the pain. I want the joy. I want you.”
My hand grips her throat, pushing her back on the sand, where Henry’s blood creates a dark halo around her pretty head. I know I’m a sick man for what I’m about to do, but I don’t care. The darkness that’s driven me for the last five years is in the driver’s seat. Ready to take what he needs and what he wants from the woman I love. She’s still handcuffed to our dying brother, and we ignore his ragged death rattles as we make short work of our clothing.
With the collar of her white shirt in my hand, I tear a simple line. “You want to tame the monster, Kat? You think once I start, I’ll be able to stop?”
Her gaze holds mine as her words come out in a breathless whisper. “I don’t want you to stop.”
The way she looks at me fuels my rage, so I keep pushing. I want her on the brink of madness with me, so we can fall off the cliff together.
So I dig my fingers in and claw at her throat. The thrill of her helpless body beneath me, a poisonous vein arching in my body, demanding to be ten feet tall. Her hands grip mine, using all her force to get them off her fragile throat. The last time we were in this position, she was begging me to numb her pain, to extinguish her pathetic life. This time she’s hoping to tame the monster, reel him in, control him. To control me. She still doesn’t believe I’m evil, but she will. If the mighty Katelyn Shaw wants to see me at my worst, then the only chivalrous thing is to indulge the princess.
My eyes wander down to her tits, where my initials stare back at me, scabbed over just like my heart after she broke it into a million pieces. I trace the jagged lines. The eighteen-year-old in me would be appalled that I marked her perfect flesh. But the monster, he wants more—more pain, more passion, more blood. If she wears my marks on her skin, then she’s mine. She won’t leave me again. She’ll stay with me. Be mine forever.
Her breath hitches as I grab her breast with vicious force. “Pretty fucking tits. I think they’ll look better once I’m done with them.”