“Not what?” I lean in closer, my face inches from hers. “A monster? A killer?” I suck a ragged breath into my lungs. Her sweet scent still lingers on her skin, and I want more of it. I’malready addicted to her. “Lying to you doesn’t change the truth. I’m all those things and more.”
“Then act like it!” Her voice cracks. “Stop being gentle. Stop bandaging my wrist and making me food and—and looking at me like?—”
Her voice cuts off then, her gaze going wide as if she realizes a little too late that she’s revealed too much.
“Like what?” I press, needing to hear her say it.
Turning her head away, she refuses to answer me. That’s fine, because what she doesn’t say with her words, her body gives away with her reaction. The color rising in her cheeks, the way her breathing has changed. She’s afraid, but she’s also turned on, and that makes my blood run hot.
“Look at me.” Saint’s stubborn as hell, so of course she doesn’t listen. After a moment, I’m forced to release one of her wrists, so I can cup her jaw and turn her face back to mine. “You’re too stubborn for your own good. I said, look at me,” I growl through my teeth.
The air in my chest evaporates when her blue eyes collide with mine. Tears glimmer in her wide gaze, in equal parts terror and need. She was trying to hide her want, trying to swallow it down before I could see it for what it really is.
Yes, she is afraid of me, afraid of what’s happening, but there’s more. She wants me, all while being disgusted by it.
“You don’t have to be ashamed. I know you feel it too,” I say, and watch her face confirming what I already knew. “This magnetic pull. It never disappeared, did it? Your desire for me. Not even after I tried to scare you away. Even when faced with fear, you couldn’t extinguish the need.” The way my heart soars inside my chest should be against the law. “All this time you’ve wanted me too. Craved me like your next heartbeat.”
“Don’t—” she whispers, trying to turn away, but there’s nowhere to escape and my grasp on her is firm. I won’t let her hide from this.
“I did it to protect you. Because the second I touched you,reallytouched you, I knew you’d be mine. I knew I’d never be able to let you go.” My thumb brushes across her cheekbone, catching a tear like it belongs to me. She doesn’t understand that there was never a choice to be made. From the moment our lives collided, she became the one thing I refused to give up, the one thing I couldn’t let go. My gaze locks back on hers. “And I was right.”
“You’re insane,” she whispers, though the tremor in her voice betrays her. There’s no conviction behind it, only fear tangled with something she’s even more scared to name.
“Maybe.” I drag my free hand down her side, over the dip of her waist, the curve of her hip. She’s in my shirt,myshirt, and nothing beneath it except those simple cotton panties I spotted when I changed her. The memory tightens something low and vicious inside me. “Or maybe I’m just not going to pretend.”
Her eyes widen. “Pretend?”
“That I don’t want you.” My voice roughens, dragged from the place I keep locked. “That I haven’t wanted you since the moment you climbed into my lap and offered yourself to me like you had the faintest clue what you were doing. Like you didn’t know you were lighting a fuse I can’t put out.”
Her breath stutters. “I was drunk. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“You knew enough.” My hand slides lower, fingertips grazing the bare skin of her thigh. She trembles beneath my touch, her body betraying her.
I shouldn’t do this. I know I shouldn’t. But I don’t have the power to stop myself. I’ve tried, God knows I’ve tried, and all it’s done is turn me into a liar.
She’s already mine, and touching her is the only truth left.
I lean in, my lips nearly brushing hers. “You wanted me then, and I fucking bet you want me more now.”
“I don’t—” The protest dies when my thumb traces the edge of her panties. “Stop.”
“Stop?” I sneer low, cruel. “Your mouth says stop, but your pussy’s begging for me to touch it. You can’t hide from me, Saint. I’ve already seen the truth you’re too afraid to admit.”
Her body trembles, thighs clamping together like she can hold the ache at bay. It only makes me harder. “I hate you,” she whispers, weak and breaking.
“I know.” My voice is rough, claiming. My fingers stroke higher, teasing the damp cotton.Mine.“Hate me all you want—it won’t change what’s happening.”
“Nothing’s happening?—”
Her words break into a gasp when I grind my palm against her, deliberately and slowly, hovering just shy of what she needs.
“Liar,” I murmur. “Your body’s honest even when your mouth isn’t.”
“Please—” she pants, lashes wet, cheeks blazing.
“Please, what?” I press harder, dragging over the soaked fabric. Her hips twitch up, a helpless little lift that betrays her. My cock throbs at the sight. “You don’t even know what you’re begging for, do you? Stop? Don’t stop? Or are you just too fucking scared to admit you want my fingers inside this tight little cunt?”
“I don’t want you!” she gasps, but her body arches into my hand, desperate for more.
