Page 85 of Villainous Rise

She remained motionless, a statue of indecision.

“You want to punish me. You want to make me bleed for what I did to you. I watched you tear yourself apart looking for Dread. I had the answers the whole time and I lied to your face every single night, Annie. And you let me.”

Her eyes widened behind the mask and her hands clenched into tight fists again but I kept going. I couldn’t stop now even if it hurt.

“I traded your sanity for a piece of technology,” I continued, letting the cruel words wrap around her, until they were strangling us both. “I let you sleep in my arms while I kept the monster you were hunting a secret. You should want to kill me for that.”

The crack of her palm against my cheek echoed through the room. The metallic tang of blood flooded my mouth from where my own teeth had cut me.

Three months of starvation clawed its way up my throat and before she could pull her hand back, I lunged. I pinned her wrist hard against my chest. My fingers dug into her skin, frantic and uncoordinated, desperate just to feel the heat of her pulse.

Horror flooded her eyes as she stared at our hands. “I didn’t mean⁠—“

“Lie to yourself, not to me.” My voice scraped out raw, stripped of the control I’d been pretending to have. “Hit me again.”

“I don’t want to hit you.” Her voice trembled and I could tell she wanted to believe the words.

“Do it.” I yanked her closer. “Make me bleed, Annie. Fucking ruin me for what I did to you.”

She tried to pull away but I held firm. I dropped my head and buried my face in the curve of her neck to inhale the scent I had been hallucinating for all the time we’d been apart.

“You’re angry,” I breathed against her skin. “You want to claw my eyes out. So do it. Take it out on me.”

“I can’t.”

I jerked my head up, my gaze meeting hers. My own panic was bleeding through but I couldn’t hide it any more. “Then hate fuck me. Do something, Annie. Just touch me.”

Her hands flew to my face and she crashed her mouth against mine. She bit my lower lip and it was fucking perfect. Her nails raked down my chest, leaving angry red trails across my skin. I hissed through clenched teeth, savoring the violence of her. This wasn’t how I’d imagined our reunion, but fuck, it was exactly what we needed.

“You left me,” Annie snarled, her teeth finding my shoulder. She bit down hard enough that if I’d been a normal man I’d have marks tomorrow. “You fucking left me there with him.”

I caught her face between my hands, taking her mouth with mine. “I know.”

She tore herself away, eyes wild behind the mask. “You lied to me.” Her palm cracked against my cheek again, the sting blooming hot across my skin. “You knew what Dread was doing and you said nothing.”

Another desperate kiss, my answer pressed against her lips.

“You betrayed me.” Her voice broke on the last word as her nails dug into my biceps.

“I did.” No point denying it. “I fucked up. Catastrophically.”

Annie’s teeth scraped over the pulse point at my neck before she bit down again. I groaned, tangling my hands in her hair.

“Three months,” she hissed against my skin. “Three months of nightmares. Of jumping at shadows. Of wondering if I ever knew you at all.”

I pulled her back to my mouth, swallowing her accusations with a bruising kiss. Her hands were everywhere, clawing at my shoulders, my back, my ass. She was marking territory she’d never stopped owning.

She shoved me backward toward the bed. I let the momentum carry me down and took her with me onto the black sheets.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she continued, straddling my thighs. “Couldn’t eat. Couldn’t think about anything but how completely I’d fallen for your act.”

I grabbed her waist, steadying her as she loomed over me. “It wasn’t an act. Not with you. Never with you.”

Her fingers tangled in my hair, yanking my head back as she leaned down. “Liar.”

She dragged her teeth along my collarbone, working her way down my chest. When she reached the juncture where two of my tattoo lines intersected just below my ribs, she bit down hard, sucking the skin between her teeth.

Holy shit.