My fingers trembled on his skin as they hesitantly gripped the sides of the material. I wanted to see his face—all of it. I wanted to know what shape his lips were and know whether his jaw was as strong and chiseled as I suspected. I just needed to see him, not covered by darkness or by his mask. But with my own eyes. I wanted to see my capturer’s face, memorize it so that one day I could get my revenge on him and make him pay for breaking me. Because there was no doubt that I was well and truly broken.
His eyes sparked with something before he reached up and gripped my hand in his, stopping me from pulling away the mask. My gaze narrowed on him and I watched the outline of his mouth beneath the material move in what I guessed was a smile.
“Why?” I asked.
“Why what?” He took a deep breath. “Gonna have to be more specific than that.”
I frowned. I wasn’t even sure what I was asking him anymore. I wanted to know everything and nothing. I shook my head and looked away. I tried to pull my hand from his but he squeezed it painfully, making me look back up at him with tears in my eyes.
“Why what?” he repeated, his tone darker. “Ask me,” he ordered.
“Why this?” I finally asked, feeling vulnerable and confused. “Why everything?”
His expression was hard, dark. Like something evil lived inside him. His dark eyes bored into mine and he let my hand go.
“Because I can,” he replied simply. “Because I fuckin’ can.”
And that answer frightened me more than anything else in the world, because he was right. He could and he would, because I had allowed him to.
He was the king of the underworld and I was his willing victim.
~ 11 ~
Fighter
I spoon-fed her canned fruit, loving the way she glared at me defiantly with nothing but hate in her eyes as she chewed. Good—it was the best thing she could do to protect herself. Not that it would help her.
“What’ve I told you about looking at a man like that?” I growled, shoving another spoonful into her mouth. Juices dribbled from the spoon and down her chin, and I wanted to lean over and lap the juices off. She chewed like it was steak and not soft fruit, making me chuckle.
She continued to glare.
“That smart mouth of yours got nothing to say?” I asked, shoving another spoonful at her.
She opened wide and I shoved the fruit in. She snapped her jaws closed and I dragged the spoon back out as she continued to chew.
I’d decided to feed her. Woman was looking far too skinny after our time together, and since I wasn’t in the business of starving women to death—at least not unless I was ordered to—she’d gotten the pick of several cans of food—tuna fish, fruit, or beans.
I reached up and grabbed her chin and her nostrils flared in fury at me touching her. Woman was seriously holding a grudge; I liked it. Never met a woman like her. In another life I’d have had her over my knee before she knew what hit her, stoking the fire that burned within her higher. We would have both enjoyed that. But this wasn’t that life. This was what we had—kidnapper and victim. Devil and wolf. Penny and Fighter. That wasn’t where our differences ended though. Everything about us was wrong, different—not least that she was a Viper and I was a Highwayman.
I guess even in another world and in another time we wouldn’t have worked.
“I said, has your smart mouth got nothing else to say to me?” I let go of her.
I was goading her for no other reason than I was bored and she was a challenge. Her tears turned me on something fierce, but her defiance, fuck, that was what made my balls tighten.
“No,” she gritted out.
“You still sulking?” I asked, dipping the spoon into the can.
Her eyes narrowed. “Sulking?”
I pulled the spoon out and she opened her mouth like a baby bird waiting for her mother to feed her. Only Penny didn’t have a mother. She’d taken off when she was two and no one had seen her since.
I put the spoon to my own mouth and sucked the fruit off it, my dick twitching when her nostrils flared in outrage at me taking her food.
“’Cause you didn’t get to come,” I said, my dark eyes burning into hers as I accentuated each word slowly. Fucking loved that look on her.
A blush rose to her cheeks. “The only thing I’m sulking about is that my daddy hasn’t found and killed you yet.” Her words were laced with venom but her eyes betrayed a different story, flashing a sadness and worry that her words would never give away.
