I can’t tell her that if she says they’re not true, it’ll change everything for me. My entire perception of her will change. And I’ll have some people to kill.
“Because you’ll be my wife soon. I deserve to know who’s been inside you.”
She grimaces. “Tell me who you’ve been inside then.”
I scoff. “I haven’t got that time to list them all off to you. Just spit it out.”
She does. In the literal sense.
This disobedient little brat spits in my face. “Go to Hell,” she says, “along with your fucked-up family.”
There’s an eruption of rage inside my chest when her saliva hits my cheek. It’s almost as palpable as the rage that hits whenshe cusses out my family. Did Alfie not warn her of anything today?
It jolts my body into action. I grab both her wrists and hold them above her head in one of mine, then I claw her jaw with the other. “You disrespectful little whore,” I sneer, blood roaring in my ears. “I could snap you like a glow stick, you know that? I can bruise you worse than the ones you’ve already got. You think you know pain? You know nothing.”
I drop my hand to her neck, wrap it around and squeeze. She splutters and gasps before my tightening cuts it off, her shining blue eyes growing wide with panic.
“You feel that, sweetheart?” I drop my voice to almost a whisper. “You feel how easy it would be for me to rip the life out of your lungs with a simple squeeze?”
She doesn’t answer, obviously. Her legs jerk beneath my weight, flail madly, but get her nowhere.
“Pathetic,” I spit. “You want to be a problem for me? The fleas on my dog are a bigger problem for me than you’d be. You step out of line, you’ll get disciplined. Simple. Welcome to the Blackwoods.” As her eyes start rolling to the back of her head, I loosen my grip and let her suck in a lungful of air. “Now answer my question. Are the rumours true?”
She chokes out, “No.”
I twist my lips, thinking, then I take a shot in the dark. “Are you a virgin?”
Tears leak from her eyes as she gasps around my hand. “No.”
My whole mood crashes. Worth a shot. I let go of her neck and let her splutter while I collect my thoughts.
“So, where are the injuries from? Your father, or someone else?”
She gurgles a little, coughs even more. I try to wait patiently. I scan her naked body again, soaking it in now my head’s clearer. I’m usually the one to mark a girl like this. If this is fromanother man, another man who’s beeninsideher… I fight back the shiver. I don’t know how I’ll handle that. Despite the odd twisting sensation in my chest at the prospect, the longer I scan her body, the more blood returns to my cock.
Then I realise she still hasn’t responded. I look back up at her. “Well?”
Elodie’s still slightly gasping, throat bobbing up and down. “Well, what?”
I slam my fist down on the mattress beside her head. Her infuriating evasion snapping the last thread of my patience. “Fuck, Elodie!” Her flinch makes me pause.
Pull yourself together, Cade.
I take a second to gather my composure. Then try a different tack. “Is this what you’re into?” I nudge my head down between us. “Is that why you won’t answer? You’re afraid to confirm the rumours are true, confirm that you are a dirty masochist whore?”
Her upper lip curls up into a snarl. “No.”
I see a flash of something in her eyes. A phantom pain dwelling there. The flashbacks of terrible memories.
Fuck. I have to kill some people. “Who did this to you?”
She scoffs. “I’m not telling you.”
Why the hell would I kill for this girl? Ungrateful, stubborn brat.
Because I have a reputation to uphold. Imagine I see the guy walking down the street. Imagine he sees us together. The humiliation. Unfathomable.
“I’m going to need a name,” I say through gritted teeth.
