“You look pretty happy about the possibility of getting shot.” She arches a dark brow.
She’s barely spoken to me in the past week. I haven’t said much to her either, though. I’ve been trying to navigate what to do. Between what I now know about her past and Haidyn, I’ve been confused and running in circles.
I’m afraid if I try to talk to her about it, it’ll bring up bad memories. I don’t want her to hurt more than she already is. Especially after how she reacted about the therapist. But right now, she looks more like the woman I fell in love with than she has in the past week.
She’s dressed in black skinny jeans that hug her long legs with a tight-fitting T-shirt and matching leather jacket that’s unzipped. Her bleached-blond hair is pulled off her face in a high ponytail—not a single hair out of place—and her makeup is light. She looks like she’s ready for me to take her out for a movie. Not for a job.
“Do what you have to do, angel,” I tell her what she told me on thephone. I was furious that she ran the moment I left her alone. I had every intention of hauling her home, stripping her naked, and putting her in a cell. And after the text I got, that might still happen, it just won’t be at Carnage.
I cross my arms over my chest, noticing the dead guy on the floor. One bullet right between the eyes. My girl never misses. If she were to ever shoot me, at least I know it’d be a fatal shot. Unless her point was just to wound me.
She snorts and moves to place the gun on the dresser, then she’s rushing me. My angel wants a fight. That’s what I promised her.
I’m knocked back into the door when she leaps onto me. She’s like trying to give a feral cat a bath. Her open hands hit at my face, and her legs wrap around me. I walk over and fall onto the bed, smashing her underneath me to have the advantage. Not like I need it. I’m letting her take her frustration out on me. The dead guy on the floor wasn’t enough for my girl. He was too easy of a target.
Sitting up, I manage to grab her flailing arms and flip her onto her stomach. She lets out a scream of frustration and bucks when I bring them behind her back and pin them in place with one hand while the other removes my belt. Then I’m wrapping it around her forearms over and over before I turn her back over. I didn’t need to tie it off. It’ll hold good enough for now.
“Kash,” she growls
I straddle her hips and smile down at her while she tries to get her breathing under control. I haven’t even broken a sweat. “Is this what you wanted, Eve?” I ask calmly.
It just pisses her off more. She grinds her teeth and arches her back.
“Remember that night in the cemetery?” Her eyes narrow on mine and I lower myself on top of her, my lips trailing along her racing pulse. “When I asked you if you wanted me to save you from a rapist? Then you could reward me by letting me have my way with you while you begged me like a good whore?”
She bucks wildly at my words. “Fuck you?—”
I wrap my hand around her throat and sit up, watching her pretty narrowed eyes shoot daggers at me. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of, Eve.” I sit on top of her while she fights to breathe. “I’ll give you whatever you need.”
Her painted lashes flutter and her body starts to soften underneath me.
Letting go, she gasps and coughs. I get up off her and stand next to the edge of the bed, pulling her to a sitting position. “Deep breaths, angel,” I command, listening to her sputter.
Reaching around her, I undo the belt and toss it to the floor, and then I rip her jacket off her arms.
I lay her back down and squat to remove her boots. I untie the laces, rip them from the eyelets, and then do the same with the other before I pullthem off. Then I stand, undoing her jeans, and pull them down her shaking legs. “I’m disappointed. I thought you wanted a fight.”
Her only response is a cough.
I take her left ankle and bend her knee to her chest, bring her left arm down, and use one of her shoestrings to tie her wrists to her ankle, then repeat the process to the other. It’s not the best, but it’s all I’ve got to work with at the moment.
“Your underwear is soaked.” I run my fingers over the wet spot on her white thong. “Did he touch you? Did it turn you on when he attacked you?” I ask, referring to the dead guy who is still in the room with us.
She’s still trying to get her breathing under control and chooses to ignore me.
I lean over her trembling body and grip her cheeks. “Eve? Did you let him touch what’s mine?”
Clenching her jaw shut, she refuses to respond. Glancing around the room, I yank a pillow from the headboard and grab the end of the pillowcase and shake the pillow out.
“Kash?” She gasps.
“Too late, angel. You had your chance to speak.” I hold the polyester fabric out in front of me, twisting it a few times to tightly roll it up and then slide it underneath her head so I can wrap it once around her neck.
“I—”
I pull the ends tight, cutting off her words.
Eve rises up a bit, her head a few inches off the bed. I push forward and tenderly kiss her parted lips. “This is me proving my point, angel.” I make sure to talk slowly so she can follow what I’m saying. Right now, her bottle green eyes are large and swimming with tears that haven’t fallen yet. Her body fights the restraints while she desperately tries to breathe. “You do not allow any other man to kiss, touch, or fuck you. No one gets to play with what’s mine, do you understand that?”
