He shook his head after a beat. “None of this shit is fit to touch you. Not after I’ve used it on this filth.”
He pulled his cigarette from his lips and gestured toward the cages, ash knocking loose and drifting to the floor. Slipping his hand into his pocket, he pulled out something I couldn’t make out until he slowly pivoted to face me.
His knife.
Taking another drag from his smoke, he let it fall from his lips and stomped it out under his boot. He then brought the knife to his mouth and ran his tongue over the flat of the blade.
My breathing went jagged.
Sensing the effect he had over me, he grinned over the death-sharp steel. The smooth bastard was eating up the way I squirmed under his hot gaze. “Go ahead and scream. I want to know I’m doing my job.”
When he came toward me, and I snarled at him to stay away, he paused. Shadows fell over his face. “Scream for mercy, and you know I’ll give it. So long as you beg for it.”
There it was again, an out. A saner woman might take it. But I wasn’t sane, normal, or well-adjusted. That was overrated, anyway. I was into the twisted shit. That’s what made me the perfect little plaything for Deathwish.
“I’d rather suck the cock of every monster in this shithole than beg you for shit,” I spat at him, making a huge show of how pissed I was even though I was giddy on the inside.
My breath caught in my chest, seeing the storm of rage playing behind the sadist’s eyes. He was pretending just as much as me, but fuck me, was he a good actor. “I’d sooner cut off every dick in this place before I let any of this Hell-bound trash breathe so much as the same goddamn air as you.”
“Ah, stop,” I said with a laugh. “You’re going to make me blush. And they said you weren’t a romantic.”
He stopped in front of me until there was barely an inch of space between us and leaned into me, pressing his nose to my throat. My pulse exploded when I felt his hot tongue press to my jugular, and on the next slap of my heart, the sharp point of the knife found the patch of skin between my breasts.
“Do you know what I’m going to do to you?”
His hot breath tickled the juncture between my neck and shoulder, making my breath quiver, latching in my throat where his mouth trailed. “I have a feeling it’s going to be a long list.”
His lips curled against me. “That’s right. But I am going to start simple.”
He pulled back, his irises blood-red with lust. “I’m going to make you bleed, Baby Girl.”
Before I even had a chance to fully parse his words, he gave a flick of his wrist and slashed the knife from my sternum down to my navel. The blade cut through the fabric of my dress, and it wasn’t until I caught the petals of red streaming down my pale flesh that I realized he’d cut me.
It didn’t hurt. All I felt was a pinch as if he had run a needle down my stomach instead of a fucking knife almost the size of my forearm. Something inside me stirred to life. Monstrous hunger.
I thrashed at my cuffs. The chain overhead rattled, and like the peel of a dinner bell, the creatures in the warehouse went wild. Howling, growling, the screech of talons against metal trying to get out grated against my skull.
Unholy chaos subsided once Eros snapped his attention to the cages behind him, and I could only imagine the lethal expression he wore by the silence that fell over the slaughterhouse.
“Go on and get your eyeful, but keep the fuck quiet. Otherwise, the show stops, and you’ll have to watch me tear apart the next beast that utters so much as peep instead.”
Eros’ eyes cut back to me. He tugged the shredded remains of my dress from my frame, leaving me naked. He sucked in a hiss through clenched teeth as his eyes trailed down the blood oozing from the cut, pooling into my navel and dribbling into the patch of hair between my legs.
My whole damn body pulsed when he brought the knife to my pubic hair, teasing the curls so delicately with the deadly point. “Look at you. So fucking gorgeous when you’re covered in blood. You really are fit to be the queen of the vampires.”
Eros’ voice was deceptively tender. My stomach clenched, and my lungs struggled to fill with air. The muscles in my arms ached, and the ones in my thighs wound tight. He was barely touching me, and every nerve in my body was on fire.
Sweat poured down my temple, the anticipation eating me alive, yet I found myself cracking a manic smile. “Are you trying to tempt my monster out by boring her to death? Because you’re doing a killer job, gotta say.”
The darkest, most suffocating fury rolled off his squared shoulders, sucking all the oxygen from the room. A loud slap echoed through the warehouse, and it wasn’t until the sting set into my cheek that I realized he’d slapped me. I blinked at him, totally stunned by what I saw before me. A man with no mercy in those eyes that cut through me, challenging me to run my mouth again. Bloody fuck. This game was turning dark, the air electric, and the apex of my thighs was sopping wet. I was so wet, arousal and blood dripping down my legs.
Eros trailed the edge of his knife to my inner thigh, allowing a bead of my arousal to gather on the steel, along with a few drops of blood. He raised it to his lips and dragged his tongue over the flat of the weapon.
I whimpered at the unholy sight of this gorgeous man’s face crumbling apart at the taste of me.
“Fuck.” His eyes rolled back into his head, and he held his clenched fist to his mouth, gathering himself. “Do you have any idea how fucking good you taste? You’re so close to a heat cycle, I can taste it. So fertile. So valuable.” He brought his lips so close to mine, pausing when we were nearly kissing. “I’ll be careful not to break you.”
Fire shot through my veins when he transitioned his hold on the knife, so he was gripping the blade, handle pointed toward me. When I nudged the hilt between my legs and slid it through my folds, I spread my stand wider, allowing him in.
