This time he grunted for real, his forehead dropping briefly to my shoulder as he absorbed it and releasing my hands. For one clean second, I wasn’t trapped or cornered or afraid. I was force, a momentum.
Then he looked at me again, his eyes alight with undisguised challenge. “I was worried you’d disappoint me, little fox.”
“Did you think you can just what? Touch me, take me?” I snapped, voice shaking with adrenaline, my right hand slipping into my coat pocket.
He laughed softly. “I will take you.”
“Over my dead body.” My fingers curled around the ring knife I carried, always.
“Eventually.” He winked.
Knife in a death grip, I slashed out, fast and sharp. He reacted instantly, catching my wrist mid-swing, twisting hard. Pain detonated up my arm. I winced, driving the blade forward anyway, clumsy, desperate.
He flipped the knife from my hand easily, metal hitting the floor with a disappointing clang. “Too slow,” he mocked.
I threw punches in quick succession, but it felt like I was pummeling a rock-solid wall, like the man felt no pain. Irritated, I tried harder, and he evaded every one of them. Caught up in my need to land a hit, I wasn’t prepared when he pushed me up against a wall with a knife to my neck.
I froze.
His eyes locked with mine, one brow slowly rose followed by a faint smirk that hinted he got a kick out of terrifying people.
“What…what are you doing?” I stammered, feeling the silver blade press into my skin.
“Never entice the devil unless you’re ready to give him your soul, little fox.” He leaned forward, whispering in my ear, “unlike him, I take without an invitation.”
My breath whooshed out in a shaky exhale. Clearly, I’d locked horns with the wrong man even though his men were easy to overthrow. “What…do you…” The question caught in my throat, the burn on my neck intensifying. I gripped the counter to the side of me, forcing calm into my body. “What do you want?”
“You on your knees.”
I frowned before understanding took root. “You want me to apologize on my knees? How archaic,” I couldn’t resist the jibe.
“Apologize?” He chuckled again and I chose to ignore the reaction of my body to that throaty sound. “I want you on your knees, sucking my cock.”
His earlier threat came back with harsh clang. “You…you’re kidding.” My mouth hung open, chaotic thoughts making my mind go numb. I prayed this was a joke that someone had taken a little too far.
“I never kid about fucking, the bone crushing or the pussy-wetting kind.” There was a dangerous predatory tone to his words, warning me I should believe him. “Now.” I felt the knife press harder, the pain the least of my worries. “Either you suckmy cock, or I slice your pretty little neck. I like pussy but I like blood even more.”
Disbelief rushed out in a shocked laugh hearing him confirm the notorious rumors I’d heard but paid no attention to. Attacking his men wasn’t the best decision I’d ever made in my life. One of the girls had also mentioned the Rossi brothers lived abroad, where exactly I had no idea. Which begged the question why were they here?
Terrorizing innocents like me. “This isn’t funny,” I rasped, trying to cause minimal movement to my neck.
His eyes held mine, their darkness an ominous threat. “Do you see me laughing?”
As if I’d just insulted him, the knife moved. I shuddered feeling my flesh give way. His gaze shifted, watching the slow trickle of blood down my neck. Yet his expression remained the same. Lifeless, heartless, detached. How could a man this beautiful appear this cold?
“Exquisite,” he muttered a second before his head dipped.
My eyes widened, my breathing rapid as I felt his warm breath fan over my skin followed by the soft caress of his tongue rolling over the cut.
Holy shit.
He was licking my blood. Baffled, my breath stuttered with another swipe of his tongue, his throaty groan of pleasure filling my ears.
“Oh,” I whispered, hating how his soft suckling influenced my body’s temperature, to say nothing of the tingle between my legs. What he was doing shouldn’t have my lower abdomen tightening with an unfamiliar need. I shouldn’t be enjoying something so shockingly revolting.
And by God, I was.
“Fuck, you taste so goddamn sweet.” He lifted his head, looking at me but all I could focus on was the red tinge on his bottom lip.
