Tears well in my eyes.
The room goes still.
It takes me a full beat to register what he just said, in a way much more serious than ever before.
Wife.
Wife.
The word isn’t a mistake, reminding me of the dedication we made together, regardless of how much I believe he hates me.
He stares at me, eyes burning into mine. And for the first time, I see it.
He doesn’t want my love.
He wants me to belong to him.And I’m already his, if I wish to be or not.
I say what I feel for once, knowing he’ll understand exactly what I mean, “All of me belongs to you, Hayden, all of it.”
His hand flies to the back of my neck, fingers tangled in my hair, pulling my head back and my body closer to take my lips. I gasp, and he swallows it like he always does. His other hand grips my hip, pulling me flush against him like he’s trying to absorb me into his body.
He kisses me like he owns the air in my lungs.
“You drive mefucking insane,” he growls against my skin.
I dig my nails into his shoulders, panting. “Good.”
His mouth crashes back onto mine, angrier this time, tongue deep, teeth grazing. He kisses me like a punishment. Like a warning. Like a promise.
Hayden Herron
I hate her.
I hate the sound of her voice when it’s trembling, half defiant, half begging. I hate that she makes mefeelthings. I hate that she asks questions she has no business asking.
But most of all, I hate that I can’t stop wanting her.
Even now, my mouth still tastes like her. She kissed me like she wanted to crawl inside me.
She’s chaos wrapped in soft skin and big eyes. All fire and feeling, always trying to pull something out of me that I’ve buried so deep, I forgot it existed. She looks at me like there’s something human in here worth finding.
There isn’t.
And yet…when she flinched just now, just barely, like she didn’t want me to see it, it nearly fucking undid me. Not because I care. Not in the way she wants.
But because I can’t stand the idea of her being afraid ofanythingexcept me.
She’s mine. That’s not up for debate. She can fight me, hate me, scream in my face, but she won’t leave. And I won’t let her.
I’ll make her forget every name but mine. Every touch but mine. Every version of her life beforethis.
Because no one gets to have her.
Not Archibald. Not her family. Not the future they built, like she was some bargaining chip.
I’ll ruin her before I ever let someone else touch her.
She turns away from me like the conversation is over.
