He hadn't been planning to do anything to me now, I realized, but my words changed something inside of him. My readiness, my willingness, had shown him that I was contemplating something dangerous, a place at his side. I wanted to know what it would be like if maybe I actually stopped fighting him and instead joined him. Waiting for several more hours to find out seemed like a hellish pursuit.
"Oh, Angel." The sound of my name rumbled in his chest. "You're going to wish you hadn't asked me that."
"Are you going to hurt me?" I challenged him. “Makeme like it?
He smiled. "Yes," he admitted. "I'm going to rip you open and get myself inside of you, sweetheart. I'm going to tie you down and fuck you until you can't breathe.”
“You’ve already done that.” My voice was already breathless, as if all the air had been stolen from my lungs.
Gaven moved even harder against me, thrusting his already hard cock against my belly as I stared up at him in my whitewedding dress. “I’m going to do more,” he promised. “I'm going to shove my cock so far between those pretty lips of yours that all you'll know is the taste of me. I'm going to fall asleep tonight with my cock in your pussy, wake up, fuck you again, and then do it all over the next night.”
“What happens if I let you this time?” I prompted. “What if I were to stop resisting? What will you do if I become the queen you’re looking for?” Will it be better for me in the long run to just give in? To use him and let him use me?
Ice-blue eyes locked onto my face. “I’ll make it worth your while.”
“How?” I demanded.
A finger touched the side of my face, the slight touch gentle and so damn contradictory to the pain he’d given me before. “Our relationship doesn’t have to be one where you get nothing but protection,” he said. “We can both get something out of this.”
“Why tell me this now?” I asked. “You’re going to get what you want regardless; you’ve made that clear.” Could I trust him? Could I trust the words of a monster?
“You’re right,” he said, nodding. “After today, you will officially belong to me.”
“A pawn in your blood games,” I murmured thoughtfully.
It was curious that Jackie wanted that so damn bad. Why? Because she liked being a beautiful woman on the arm of a powerful man? I shook my head, accidentally removing his finger from my face.
His hand came back quick enough, though, and he tipped my chin up again so our eyes were locked together. Gaven’s expression was thoughtful, considering, as his steel blue gaze roved my face. His brows pinched together, creating a v.
“I’ve never owned anything I couldn’t bear to let go,” he finally said after a moment. “When you grow up with nothing, you learn not to get attached.”
“You grew up with nothing?” I repeated his words, curious at the hint he revealed of the man behind the mask.
Gaven chuckled, but the sound was dry. “I grew up hopping from one shithole to another, Angel,” he replied. “Meth labs, crack houses, you name it. I’ve lived in it. Crime is a way of life for men like me. It’s the easiest path to take. I’ve built myself up good and well from the things I’ve done. I don’t regret any of it.”
“There’s never been anyone you’ve killed that you later wished you hadn’t?” I frowned. Did that mean he didn’t have emotions? No, that wasn’t right. He obviously did. I’d seen him intrigued, angry, and even curious. Gaven Belmonte might not have acted like the average man, but he still had emotions—no matter how deeply buried.
“I’ve never looked back,” he answered. “The people I’ve killed, I forgot as soon as the job was done. Just as I try not to think about my past, I don’t want you to think about yours.”
“Then what do I think about?”
“Your future.” My skin tingled as he stared down at me. “Evangeline Price,” he said, his lips forming my full name. “If you give me what I want, then I swear to you there will be no regrets. But you should be warned—once you’re mine, there will be no going back, and there's nowhere you'll be able to run that I won't come hunting for you.”
Perhaps it was curiosity—Gaven’s words, the small tidbits of information about him slowly revealing the insides of a profoundly secretive man—or perhaps it was reckless hope. Whatever the case, I doubted there was a way to stop my fate now. So, I nodded. Silently, I agreed to his proposal. He would use me, but I would use him too. Two players in a fucked up game of chess, both needing the other and hating them too. I only hoped that the game would end with both of us alive.
Chapter 17
Gaven
Stronger women have bowed to me. More fierce women. Women who wouldn’t hesitate to put a bullet between my eyes. This one, though, this one is different. In a few short hours, Evangeline Price would become my wife.
Her big, hazel eyes gazed up at me. She looked like her namesake—an angel waiting to be defiled, an angel ready and willing to take that leap into the dark abyss of hell if it meant she got what she wanted. I liked that about her. It made her predictable.
The more and more I got to know her, though, the more she surprised me. I’d chosen her because I thought she would be the easiest to control and over the past few weeks, I realized that my initial impression of her had been wrong. It was rare for me to admit a mistake.
Now, it was too late.
She intrigued me too much, and who would want a wife that cowered before him anyway? Certainly not me. I’d seen far too many bow their heads, either in defeat or in false loyalty. I want to see her bow hers in true submission. I had come to crave that sight. To see her bare before me, not because I forced her to be there, but because shewantedto be. If she never wanted to be,well … I’d take what I could get, even if I couldn’t have what I wanted.
