"I guess... I'll see you in the morning then," I mumbled when he made no acknowledgement of me standing there. It made me feel scared and guilty and worried and... and angry as hell. Did he think I'd somehow done this all on purpose? That I’d been involved in the Society all along?
Because if so, he could go straight to—
"Violet," Rafe called out after me as I started up the stairs. I was heading for the room I'd stayed in with Mattie when we'd all come out for that blissful week before the Spring Ball.
I hesitated on the stairs, my hand on the rail as I turned back to look at him. I thought maybe he was going to apologize for his cold attitude or maybe just make an excuse that he was over-tired and stressed... or something. But nope, not Rafe.
"The guest rooms are all full," he told me, his voice clipped and unemotional. "Extra medical staff are here to care for my father and Mom didn't want them too far away, so she put them in the guest wing. You can sleep in my room tonight. We'll sort something else out in the morning."
My brows shot up, but he ignored me. He just brushed past and led the way up the curving staircase without another word until we reached the ornate double doors at the end of the third-floor corridor.
By the time he was holding the door open, indicating that I enter, I was fuming mad.
"What?" he snapped as I stomped past him with folded arms.
I spun around, arching a brow as he stood in the doorframe—not inside nor outside the room, as if he didn't want to be shut in with me but also didn't want to let me out of his sight.
"What's going on here, Rafe?" I demanded, feeling my anger bubbling over. "I get that you're pissed at me, but can you spell outwhyexactly? Because I'm too damn tired to spend the rest of the night assuming the worst."
His brows hitched, and he took one step into the room. Enough that the door could swing shut behind him. "You've got that look on your face, Vi," he commented, his sapphire eyes running over me in a way that made me feel totally seen, stripped naked, andjudged. "The look that you get when you’re in the fight arena. You want to hit me, don't you?"
He had totally ignored my question, and I wasn't sure I really cared. There was a flicker of something in his eyes that I grabbed onto like a life raft. Something more than just cool apathy or frustration. At the end of the day, I'd rather spend forever locking horns with Rafe than have him ignore me like I didn't matter.
"You're damn right, I do," I snarled back. "What the hell is going on? This cold, aloof bullshit you're rocking today doesn't suit you, Rafe."
His eyes flickered, and the corner of his lips pulled up in a mocking smile. "So? Hit me, Violence. Give me your best shot."
I knew he was just taunting me, making some point that I was totally missing. But he should know better by now. There was no dare I wouldn’t take.
My balled fist struck out, catching him across the face and causing him to stumble back a step from the sheer force of it. Yep, he definitely hadn’t expected me to follow through. Arrogant idiot.
"Fuck!" he exclaimed, rubbing his cheek and glaring at me with fire-filled eyes. A second later, he launched forward and I braced myself for retaliation. I'd been wanting to pair my skills against his in a real fight for ages, and even if this wasn’t exactly how I imagined it happening, I wouldn’t back down.
He didn't fly at me with fists swinging like I expected, though, instead his strong fingers grasped my wrists where I held my hands up defensively, wrenching me off balance. Our lips collided in a crash, and the next thing I knew, my feet were off the floor as Rafe's strong arm banded around my back.
My shock quickly melted to arousal, my violent fighting instinct shifting effortlessly into sex as I climbed his body, linking my ankles together behind him as he walked us across the room. Our kiss ended abruptly as he slammed my back into the wall beside his dresser, but not for long. With one hand he shed his black shirt, then reached for mine.
Clothing flew across the room in a tornado of undressing, and when Rafe's strong hands lifted me back up, there wasn't a scrap of fabric between us.
This time when our lips met, there wasn't a scrap of confusion between us either. We both wanted the same thing. We bothneededto feel that electric connection between us, that same pull that had drawn us together over and over, despite how we both fought the attraction.
There was no foreplay this time. I clawed at Rafe's back, spreading my legs wide and angling my hips to his in a silent, desperate plea. One he fully intended to answer. The head of his cock pushed inside, the burning stretch just painful enough to have me moaning. My own arousal helped him slide the rest of the way in, seating himself deep inside, and my body arched as he started to move.
Rafe didn't give me any chance to adjust, slamming hard into me over and over until I was clawing at his shoulders and screaming his name. It was almost as if something possessed him as he fucked me because I'd never seen him with quite the same light in his eyes—focused determination.
Meanwhile I was unraveling, the pain fading out completely as the pleasure took over, sending my head into dizzying spins as my legs wrapped tighter around Rafe. "Fuck, Rafe," I sobbed as he slammed into me harder and harder, our lips crashing together as he swallowed my moaning screams.
My orgasm hit me hard and fast, and I couldn't breathe or think or do anything other than react, my head slamming back into the wall as I gasped for breath. Rafe didn't stop or slow, and my body decided that we'd try and break a world record for longest orgasm.
My breaths heaved in and out as I finally stopped pulsing around his cock, and he swung me around, dropping me down onto the bed. There was no time to wait and see what was going to happen next because he was already sliding into me; this time, though, it was slower, more controlled, as he teased my pussy, seating himself deeply, before sliding all the way out again.
"You belong to me, Violet Spencer," he said, his eyes so dark as he stared down at me. He was holding himself up a little, staring into my fucking soul as he moved. I couldn't keep still under him, legs moving as the tingles started in my gut again.
"If anyone," he muttered, leaning down, "touches you again," his teeth landed on my skin, "I will fucking kill them."
He bit down into one of the bruises on my face before his tongue swirled over it after, chasing the pain away. Piece by piece as his cock plowed into me, his teeth marked me in every spot that I'd been marked by Uriel and Brandon, replacing their bruises with his touch and his teeth.
The pain had me groaning, and when he finally lifted his head, there was the smallest of grins tipping up one corner of his lips. "You like the pain, don't you, Violence?"
