Flexing my fingers on the bow, I’m about to push further just to see how he’d react to it. My gasp echoes in the night as he grabs my arrow, breaks it, and then turns me around, pressing my back to his chest. His hot breath fans my cheek when he whispers into my ear, “Caught you, darling. You should have never hesitated.”
He places his splayed palm on my stomach, gliding it up and down before fisting my dress as thunder continues to shake the night sky, covering up the moan that slips past my lips. “Now the huntress has become the prey.” The deep possessivenessand satisfaction in his tone send goose bumps all over me as the familiar scorching heat, along with lust, sinks into my veins. My whole body gravitates toward the hard muscles enveloping me. His thick arm flexes around me as he leans forward, pushing the top of my dress down with his chin right before dragging his tongue from my exposed shoulder to my neck, lightly scraping it with his teeth and adding to the storm brewing in my veins.
“You’re mine,” he whispers into my ear as the rain intensifies, soaking us both. The material of my dress feels impossibly heavy against my flesh, while the fire consuming me threatens to wipe away all common sense.
Focus, Diana!
I struggle in his grip and demand, “Let go of me!” I should fight this further, even if I don’t understand the sudden need to challenge him. Haven’t I already made up my mind that I don’t care about his past or how he decides to punish those who deserve it? My moral compass is skewed right now, so I’ll try not to blame myself too much for it later on. “You lied to me!” I try to peel his arm from my stomach, but it’s useless. I know it currently seems like the most irrational thing to get mad about.
He asked me to trust him and give us a chance, yet all of this was built on a bed of lies.
He has to know it’s no way to start a marriage, and at least we have some common ground here. Neither of us has any idea how to navigate a relationship.
He rubs his stubble along the area between my shoulder and neck, and a chuckle rumbles in his throat. “That’s why you’re mad?” I nudge him with my elbow, not appreciating his amusement on the matter. He hisses through his teeth, pressing his hips tighter to mine, and I hold back the gasp threatening to escape at his hard-on digging into me. It awakens everything inside me.
“You could have tried to explain it to me. And Actaeon!” Let’s not forget he’s related to a whole cartel! I’ve met Gael a handful of times over the years, and he was super charming with women, gushing all over him and wishing to be his next wife. Sadly for them, he always ignored all their advances. Rumor has it he’s been celibate for years, and according to hot gossip, his marriage was forced, and he never loved his wife. “So many lies, and you expect me not to be mad?”
The sinister energy swirls all around me, filling me with anticipation and heat that should have no place after everything that has happened. The man shot my father, for God’s sake, although it’s so hard to care for a man who abused me his whole life.
“What should I have said, darling? Be mine, and oh, by the way, I killed my father because he was a perverted, sadistic fucker? And afterward, I wiped out his entire underground organization with some help? Would that have worked?”
When he puts it this way, it does sound ridiculous, and I hate it.
I could have gone my entire life without knowing anything about his past, blissfully oblivious, but it’s impossible now. The cat is out of the bag, and we have to deal with it.
His other hand settles on my hip, and he clenches it hard, earning himself another gasp. “Or maybe I should have locked you up in the tower, forcing you to watch all the atrocities committed by me over the years and accept me anyway?” I still at this, and my heartbeat speeds up. Just imagining him doing that sends trepidation and…a weird sense of excitement, painting me as a rather stupid person. “Ah, my darling.” He clicks his tongue. “You would have enjoyed it, wouldn’t you?” He scrapes his teeth over my shoulder before biting on it hard, and I jerk in his embrace, my nails cutting into his arm andmaking him groan. “Should I lock you up in my castle now, Wife? I caught you, and now I can do anything I want with you.”
Oh my God.
He’s right, isn’t he?
What’s wrong with me?
“Nothing, my darling.” I realize I’ve asked the question out loud. “You just know where you belong.”
Despite the heat, his confident and amused tone leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, and I elbow him hard. Orion huffs in surprise, which gives me the opportunity to slip from his grasp and spin around.
Removing the wet strands of my hair from my face, I glare at him and groan inwardly at how his white shirt plasters all over his magnificent muscles. My hands are itching to touch him again as a tremor rushes through me.
Focus, Diana!
“It’s not funny, Orion.”
Something flashes in his eyes, and his tone drops a few octaves, sending a cold shiver through me as another bout of thunder booms. “Believe me, Diana. I’m far from amused. You ran from me. Put yourself in danger. Made yourself vulnerable.”
“What choice did I have? I needed to think, to sort everything in my head, and I couldn’t have done that there. If you were honest with me from the beginning, none of this would have happened!”
“There is no justification or explanation for my actions because no matter who I kill, I still killed all those people. Did they deserve it? Yes. But it wasn’t for me to decide. We have laws for that, and I went against them.”
I feel like I’m starting to lose the plot here. “So you don’t think what you did was right?”
“Two things can be true at the same time. What I did was wrong, but I feel no remorse. In fact, I’d do it all over again ifit ensured that the fuckers who kidnap and rape people stay six feet under.” He rakes his fingers through his hair, and the veins in his forearms bulge as I curl my toes into the soil. He takes a step forward, so I push back, holding his stare, which grows more intense as the seconds tick by. “The last time I killed someone was a long time ago. It doesn’t change anything.”
“You hurt my brother.”
“Calling that fucker a brother is a disgrace to every brother out there.” A beat passes. “Besides, he isn’t dead, is he? When punishment doesn’t fit the crime, I can be very reasonable.”
Hysterical laughter bubbles up in my chest at this, and I manage to keep a tight leash on it. I don’t think he’d appreciate that right now. “And you think that makes it all better?”
