There’s a glitch in my reality, or maybe in me. My reaction when he says that should not be the one I just had.
I shouldn’t ripple with heat I don’t understand.
I shouldn’t be instantly squeezing my thighs tightly together.
I shouldn’t feel warmth liquifying my insides.
The seconds tick by at a glacial pace as I stand there pinned to a tree in the woods by a monster with a blood-soaked hand around my throat, dangerous, viciously alluring thoughts bleeding through my veins like delicious poison.
“I…” My throat is so dry I can barely speak. I swallow heavily against his hand and try again. “I was going to ask him about…about my father.”
A bleak, mirthless smile spreads over his lips.
“You genuinely thought the Torvallés family would give a single flying fuck about your father.”
I flinch. “I…” My eyes close as I drag in a rough breath, then I open them again to glare at him. “I don’t exactly have a lot of options,” I hiss.
“Then perhaps it’s time to let nature take its course.”
My heart twists. “He’s myfather?—”
“That means very little to me,” he spits back.
“So why do you care if I was asking Andrés for help, then!?” I blurt. “It bothered you so much that youkilled him!”
Vaughn barks out a cold, quiet laugh. “I killed him because we had our own issues that needed addressing. Believe me, it hadfuck-all to do with you.” His lips twist. “If you’re under the impression that I’m your knight in shining armor, you should immediately purge that idea from your system.” Vaughn’s captivating eyes narrow. “I don’t give a shit about you asking that walking cum-stain for help, or fucking him, or whatever you got all dolled up tonight to do with him.”
My mouth falls open. “Excuse me?” I squeak.
“But what I do give a shit about, Evelina,” Vaughn continues, “is you seeking assistance from the Torvallés family.”
My mouth purses. “Like I said, I don’t exactly have a lot of options.” I frown. “Why do you care that I went to the Torvallés family?”
“I have a complicated relationship with them,” he growls. “And unfortunately, you and I are too few degrees of separation.”
My brow knits. “What?”
“Yourbother is sleeping withmybrother,” he says tightly. “Ergo, we are too closely connected for you to be trying to get in bed with the Torvallés family.”
My face heats. “I wasn’t…getting in bedwith anyone.”
He says nothing. But his thumb strokes slickly through the blood over my pulse point again, sending another ripple flickering through me.
“Please—”
“Don’t.”
The word barks coldly from his throat, startling me.
“Don’t what?”
“Beg,” he murmurs, his cold eyes holding mine captive. “It makes me hard.”
Jesus..
Again, the response that flickers to life inside me like a dirty little secret isnotthe one I should have.
Heat shouldn't simmer and liquify my core, and I shouldn't get a tightening sensation in my belly that zips down to my thighs.
