“Answer the fucking question, Eveli?—”
“Maybe I don’t like what you turn me into!!”
The stage goes pin-drop silent, and I wince.
“That came out wrong,” I sigh. “I just?—”
Vaughn surges into me and cups my jaw in his big hand. A shiver ripples through me as he tilts my gaze up to his, immolating me with his piercing eyes.
“I think you like it justfine,” he rumbles. “I think youcrave it, actually.”
Heat floods my core. But I steel myself, meeting his gaze steadily and shaking my head. “No. That isn’t me.”
“But itis,” he says tightly. “You’ve just spent your whole life pretending it's not. You’re welcome, by the way.”
I bark out a laugh, escaping his grip. “Forwhat? Brutal sex that leaves me bruised and battered? For fucking me with a goddamnknife?!”
He rolls his eyes. “It was only the hilt. Don’t be dramatic.”
“Jesus, Vaughn!” I yell. “Do you evenhear yourself?! This has to stop!”
I squeeze my eyes shut, trembling.
“Ithasto…” I say quietly. “Before I lose myself.”
Silence fills the theater.
“You know how to make it stop. You know how to end it.”
His low voice cuts through the stillness and silence, and a ripple teases up my spine as I open my eyes and look up at him.
“And yet, curiously,” he growls, “you continue tonotdo so.” His jaw ticks. “Is it because you just can’t get enough of my cock or of the darkness I bring out in you?”
I gasp quietly as he moves back into me, until his firm, muscled body is millimeters from pressing to mine.
“Or is it just because you haven’t dug deep enough into what youreallywant.”
I swallow thickly, and my brows furrow as I look up into his eyes.
“I just…” I rake my teeth over my bottom lip. “Why do I still feel like your possession?” I say quietly.
“Because youare.”
My brows pinch. “But that’snotwhat a relationship?—”
“This is the only way I know how to do this,” he murmurs quietly. “Thisis what I can offer you.”
I swallow. “And if I need more?”
“I don’t trust myself to give you more.”
I frown. “Why not?”
“Because the parts of me you haven’t met yet would send you running and screaming.”
I shiver, chewing on my lip as I look up into his eyes. “And what if I want to run and scream?” I whisper.
“Stop it,” he groans.
