“Just accept that this is not open for discussion. My reasons are my own and will not be swayed. You are no longer welcome—”
“Argh!” She paced, her motions jerky, her breasts bouncing. “You know what, Sully, I called you a coward before and I’ll use that word again. You. Are. A. Coward. You were a coward about admitting you were in love with me, and you’re a coward now for trying to say that you don’t. You’re a coward for throwing me away the moment things get hard.”
“Things get hard?” A sarcastic bark slipped my control, even as my cock swelled with deep-seated pain the longer I watched her.
I needed her.
Fuck, how I needed her.
She was walking fucking temptation.
A spitfire with temper crashing and igniting against my own. Every slur we threw at each other made the bathroom drip and shimmer with need.
“For fuck’s sake, I’ve just wiped up the intestines of hundreds of animals. Do you think I want to wipe up yours, too?”
“My intestines are staying right where they are. You don’t have to worry about that.”
“I’m not worried.”
“Then why are you—”
“I’m not worried about what might happen, Eleanor. I know what will happen. You. Will. Get. Hurt. It’s a fucking guarantee. You are my weakness. He will use you against me, and because of the shit that I’ve done, fate will deem it fitting to allow him to hurt you. If you stay, he will hold you over me, and you. Will. Die.”
My body clenched with warning. I was near the ledge. A ledge that would only destroy both of us.
Breathing hard, I snarled, “I’m doing my best to stay calm here, Jinx, but I did warn you. I’m hanging on by a goddamn thread. I’m running out of time. If you continue to fight against me I—”
“You think he’ll hurt me?” She crossed her arms, pushing her breasts up, making my cock weep cum. “That’s the only reason you want me to leave?”
I laughed again, icy and cruel, so turned on I couldn’t fucking see straight. “You mean, I need a better reason than you will die?”
“Do you still want me?”
My eyebrows tugged low, shielding my incredulous stare. “What a stupid fucking question. We just covered that.”
“It’s not a stupid fucking question. You’re the one trying to convince me that you don’t.”
Anger had mutated to sexual frustration.
Despair had morphed to erotic stimulation.
I loved her for fuck’s sake.
Yet I couldn’t seem to protect her.
I gritted my teeth, answering her with clipped finality. “Whatever I feel is irrelevant. We’re done, Eleanor. I no longer have any interest in keeping you because we have no future. We have no future because you will die by his hand or mine, and I fucking refuse to hurt you anymore.”
“You’re hurting me right now. You’re acting as if you don’t know me. You seem to think I’m some girl who won’t stand up to you, won’t fight you, won’t fight for you.” Marching into me, she planted her hands on my overheated chest. “You can lie to my face, Sully, but you can’t change the truth.”
My eyes snapped closed at her proximity.
My cock bounced with its own pulse, desperate to thrust inside her, hijacking my entire nervous system with hunger.
Her fingers were tiny electrodes, shooting current into my heart, down my belly, into my legs. Her closeness was a furnace, searing my flesh, making me sweat pure sin.
Her breath caught as my hands slammed over hers, digging her fingers deeper into my chest. My hips rocked, nudging my cock against her belly.
She moaned.
My eyes shot wide.
Our fight reached critical cataclysm.
Panting breathlessly, she dug her nails into my pecs. Her smoky eyes turned hazy, drunk and drugged on the potent, powerful thirst between us. “Are you forgetting Euphoria?”
Her voice did painful things to me, dangerous things.
“Did you not feel what I did?” She pressed her nails deeper, trying to claw out my angry, aggravated heart.
My skin, tight and tingly with passion, puckered beneath her touch, begging for more.
“You’re trying to tell me you don’t feel that?” She dared kiss one of my cuts, lick at my wounds, make me lose every shred of control I had left. “I touch your body, but you feel it in your heart, Sully. I see it in your eyes. I sense it in my soul. If you want to lie, by all means. But don’t expect me to believe—”
I broke.
Seizing her from the floor, I stalked toward the vanity, spun her around, and folded her over the hard marble. “I suggest you hold on.” Grabbing her hands, I planted them firmly on either side of the bowl. “I’m not going to be gentle.”
Chapter Six
MY HEART BOLTED LIKE a rabbit, darting and weaving, seeking a hole to hide in.
I looked at him in the mirror behind me.
Our eyes snagged and a cloak of dark depravity consumed him.