Her eyes changed, honeyed uncertainty altered with a blink. An immaculate mind’s attempt to understand, to rationalize such an uncharacteristic outpouring of words. Her quick assumption that maybe he longed for acceptance, that her terrifying Beta mate had his own fears and worries.
Good.
Tickling her senses with a fluttering of well-applied anticipation, he asked, “Will you?”
She was every bit the innocent maiden he’d coveted and stolen, every bit the woman who’d taken his breath at first glance, as she timidly asked, “You really promise to never release the virus in Bernard Dome? Because, yes, if you swear it, I vow I will stay here forever.”
And just like that, she signed over her life to him, unaware of what she’d done.
A promise not even Rebecca would have made.
Purring, lips curving into an honest smile, Jules kissed her as he poured his ocean of regret all over her light, knowing she would cleanse away the grime and make it clean.
And then his lips went back to her perfect ear, where he whispered nine secrets. Unassuming locations throughout the Dome where the virus had been tucked away—knowing a mind like hers would never forget a single detail.
It was vital she remember.
And when he got to the tenth hidden nook—a place no one would ever think to look—when he whispered where he’d tucked the most dangerous world-ending nightmare, his full weight upon her body, Brenya was too distracted memorizing every word that spilled from his lips, too taken in by dark secrets, to notice his hands were already about her wrists. Pinning them beside her head so she couldn’t strike him and accidentally hurt herself.
She understood.
Her whole body went rigid, her eyes wide.
The way she shrieked…
It was everything he needed, everything he’d orchestrated, because now she would be safe forever.
9
The rasp of the zipper engaging from navel to neck spelled her doom.
Jules had won.
Her once loved jumpsuit like sandpaper against Brenya’s skin, constrictive, uncomfortable. It wasn’t the scented softness of his used shirts. Itwasn’t safe.
She wasn’t safe. Not anymore.
Two months ago, she would have willingly sucked Jacques’s cock from dawn to dusk just to wear a Beta Sector jumpsuit for five minutes. Now, she wanted to rip it off and see it burned.
Loathed it.
Because Jules, the diabolical, gentle male who gave delight and confused the senses, wanted to take her away from the Red Room.
From her nest.
The nest sheneededto be in, caught in a compulsion beyond her understanding.
To the most dangerous place in the Dome.
“This is for the best.” That was it. That was all the Beta said before he pulled her into a hug.
Bastard.
Yet his hungry corpses slithered in and out of her psyche like they were playing house in her brain. Cleaning out the cobwebs, caressing her anger.
After all the sweetness and pleasure, even after the threats… she was certain now.
She was going to kill him.
