“Tonight, Evelina,” Vaughn says evenly, rolling his neck and cracking his knuckles, “you’re going to face your greatest fear.”
My brows knit. “I…I don’t think I know what that?—”
“Sex.”
The word hits me like a slap across the face. Reality twists at the edges, and a siren starts to whine in the back of my head.
“What you fear issex,” he continues in an even, emotionless voice.
“N-no, I?—”
“So tonight, I’m going to fuck you.”
The moonlight dims. All sound fades until all I can hear is the high-pitched whine in my ears. All I can feel is the cold, damp air settling over my skin.
All I can see is the sharp, venomous, glint in his brutal blue eyes.
“I will be rough. I will not be gentle.”
The ground turns to ice under my shoes, freezing me in place as pure dread creeps up my body.
“I will hurt you, Evelina.”
Holy hell.
Holy freaking HELL.
My pulse roars. My legs shake. My lip trembles as I look up wide-eyed into his uncaring, masked face.
“Midnight,” he says quietly. “Use it, or I willruin you.”
The darkness itself seems to throb around him like a black aura. I don’t realize I’m backing away from him until I feel a twig crack like a dry bone under my foot.
“Now, if I were you, I wouldrun.”
I go still, staring at him with pure adrenaline flooding my system.
“Run, Evelina. And run fast. Because when I catch you, I’m going to fuck you until youbreak.”
10
EVELINA
Run.
RUN, you idiot.
But I can’t. Half because of the pure fear exploding through my body, and half because of the sheer disbelief that any of this is happening.
This cannot be real.
I slowly back away from this man I’m just now realizing Itrulydo not know. I’m aware that I view pretty much the whole world through rose-colored glasses, looking for and assuming the best because that’s just how I am.
But it’s suddenly hitting me how dangerously misguided that is with Vaughn.
“Andif I say no?” I croak, my voice cracking. “If…if I tell you to stop?—”
“There’s only one word that will stop me,” he growls deeply. “Nothing else will do a fucking thing once we begin.”
