I bottle my fear, schooling a neutral expression on my face. “Am I supposed to be grateful?”
He tightens his grip on my thigh, and his eyes drop to my bare skin for a brief moment.
A new layer of panic simmers underneath the surface.
“I’m not easily impressed, and it doesn’t often hold, so you have a choice here.” He leans down closer, putting his face all up in mine, and even though my natural instinct is to spit in his face, knee him in the balls, and get the fuck out of Dodge, I hold myself still, keeping a lid on my mounting fear. “Cooperate and live your best life,” he says as he moves his hand up under the hem of my dress.
I grab hold of his wrist, stalling his upward trajectory, because that shit isnothappening. “And if I don’t?”
“Then mommy dearest pays the price.”
My stomach plummets. I might be pissed at Mom now, but I don’t want him hurting her because of me. I dig my nails into the underside of his wrist as he attempts to move his hand up to my bare pussy. I’ve never regretted my stupid decision to go sans underwear more than I do right now. “I knew this was bullshit. That you don’t love her.”
“Oh, but I do,” he says, his jaw taut with tension as our hands battle for supremacy underneath my dress. “Your mother’s the only woman I’ve ever loved. But she betrayed me, and she needs to be punished for that. The severity depends on you.”
“Why?”
“Let’s cut the bullshit,Lo. We both know why.” He pulls back, removing his hand, and I fight hard to disguise my abject relief. “The mourning period is over. This is a new dawn. You will do what I say or you and the lovely Giana will suffer the consequences.”
I don’t hold back, leveling him with every ounce of hatred I feel in my heart. I don’t know how, but someday, that man is going to die, and I’m going to be the one with my finger on the trigger.
He drops my cell in my lap before walking off, pausing at the door. He turns to watch me. “Your destiny was set in motion the second Giana left me forhim. I don’t give a fuck about fairness or what’s right and what’s wrong. If you want someone to hate, hate your parents, because it’s always been their fault.” His mouth pulls into a cocky grin, and he blows me a kiss before exiting the room, leaving me frozen in place.
All the panic I’ve kept at bay surges forward, and my pulse throbs wildly in my neck as potent fear sluices through my veins.
I haven’t been fooling him at all!That he’s been watching me is no surprise, but the fact he knows I know is. “Fuck it!” I throw my cell at the wall, watching it shatter, as my stomach twists and turns.
I need to implement my plan, and fast.
Movement out of the corner of my eye captures my attention, and I whip my head up. My eyes latch on familiar blue eyes as Saint steps out from behind the shelving unit. Anger rolls off him in waves as he strides toward me slowly.
I climb to my feet, quickly recovering my composure. “Does Sinner know you’re spying on him?”Did Sinner sanction it, or Saint has doubts about his father, especially around me?
“What did he mean?” he growls, gripping my forearm and tugging me into him.
That same charge is in the air, and I sway in his arms as he lowers his fierce gaze to my lips. His erection prods against my stomach, and sheer liquid lust competes with raw rage on his face. He looks torn between wanting to strangle me and wanting to kiss me, and I can relate, because he invokes the same reactions in me. He reeks of unrestrained anger and danger, and I’m fucked in the head because I press in closer to him, turned on instead of being disgusted. His eyes darken, holding me a prisoner in place, and I couldn’t move right now even if I wanted to. Which I don’t, because my hormones have clearly eviscerated all sense of self-protection and logic.
“I asked you a question.”
His words warn me not to fuck with him, and his eyes burn through me, searching, probing, and attempting to strip me bare, to see everything I can’t let him see. But I’m powerless to break eye contact, drowning in those dangerous blue depths until I can’t feel where he ends and I begin.
His penetrating stare takes me back to the moment we bonded, and I don’t believe he’s forgotten.
I know I’m imprinted on his soul the same way he is on mine.
“You already know the answer,” I whisper.
“What the actual fuck?”
Galen’s snippy tone breaks us apart, and I turn my head to the door where the other three guys are watching us with matching suspicious gazes.
I’ve dropped my barriers, and I’m feeling too much right now. It’s a rare moment of vulnerability, and I’m wide-open in a room full of sharks.
I need to get out of here before I reveal something important.
I dash to the door, pushing my way through the testosterone barrier and fleeing to the safety of my bedroom.
No one stops me, but I know I’m on borrowed time.
