Page 55 of Bleed with Me

“Seriously?” She laughed hysterically, making the tiny hairs on my neck stand on end. “These are your last words?”

“You won’t kill me.” My voice was gentle, complemented by a small, knowing smile, as I stared directly into her fiery eyes. “You won’t hurt someone you want to keep.”

A brief flicker of rationality in her gaze gave me hope that she’d come to her senses, but that hope was only wishful thinking. It was gone in a split second, replaced by a maniacal resoluteness that struck me to the bones.

“You’re right,” she agreed, her hand tightening around the gun. “But I don’t want to keep her.”

I saw the movement a fraction too late. Her wrist turned, the silencer shifted away from me, and toward Leigh. My body reacted before my brain did, but I was too slow.

Pop.

The sound wasn’t loud enough to be dramatic, but the damage it represented was fatal. I watched Leigh fall from the bed. I stretched my arms to catch her, but I was unsuccessful. The bullet hit her right in the middle of the forehead, cutting through her skull with terrifying ease.

“Leigh!” I shouted, forcing my body to move. I jumped over the mattress and knelt beside her. She lay on the floor, her blood soaking into the grey carpet, creating a nasty stain. I checked her neck, trying to find a pulse, but there was nothing. Lifting my gaze from her empty, lifeless eyes, I stared at the bloodied wall, a few drops falling on the cushion.

“Enough mourning,” ma vilaine’s firm voice stirred me, and I looked up at her. She stood a couple of feet from me, pointing a gun at my chest. “I didn’t come here to watch you give your attention to another woman.”

“Dead woman,” I reminded her sternly, standing up. “You fulfilled the famous ‘touch him, and you die’ book trope to the maximum.” I shook my head in disbelief, unsure how I felt. I should be horrified, right? RIGHT? “Is that where you take your inspiration from? Romance books?”

She scoffed. The gentle light from the lamp on the nightstand reflected in her irises, making them shine like gems.

“Romance books?” Her incredulity and offense were palpable. “I read only one and never tried the genre again. Those women beg.” She spat the last word as if it were the most despicable insult in the world, but then her eyes lit up with madness that made my insides flutter. She was smiling under the mask. “In my book, men are those who beg.”

“After a cold-blooded murder?” I asked, ignoring the fact that I stood bare-ass naked before her with a dead body cooling two feet away from me.

The situation was utterly ridiculous, not to mention that my dick decided this was a great time to wake up. I should’ve been horrified, maybe even scared, but instead, my brain circled only around one thought:

My wife killed a woman who touched me. That was fucking romantic!

“After you cheated, Dorian!” she snarled, the gun pointed at me shaking a little from the surge of emotions that racked her body.

“I didn’t cheat, ma vilaine.” I shook my head firmly. “Nothing happened.”

“How stupid do you think I am?” Her voice jumped a little, but she quickly got it under control. “Two naked adults in a hotel room. Were you playing Scrabble?”

“Baby, please.” I clapped my hands before my face in a pleading gesture. “Be reasonable and let me—”

“The only thing I’ll let you do is beg me for forgiveness.” She tilted her head to the side slightly, pointing with the gun to the floor. “Kneel.”

“What?” I chuckled, amusement at her demand evident in that single word. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m deadly serious,” she retorted, glaring at me. “Kneel.”

“Baby,” I whispered in a gentle voice, taking a small step toward her. But it turned out to be a mistake. Before I could say anything else, my wife swung the gun down and fired. My eyes widened in surprise, the skin on my toes burning because the bullet stopped millimeters from my feet.

“What the fuck!” I yelled, staring at her in shock. “You could’ve—”

“I never miss,” she hissed through gritted teeth, her gun again aiming at my chest. “Now do as you’re told, or the next time, it’ll be your cheating dick.”

The threat reached my ears, but the effect was entirely different from what she could’ve expected. The challenge was accepted immediately.

“Oooh, ma vilaine,” I snarled, my heart speeding. Not from fear, but from excitement. All my will to handle this gently vanished into thin air. “You have no idea what you’ve just started.”

-30-

Dorian

Knowing ma vilaine had no intention of killing me was an advantage I was ready to use. The mask would come off tonight. She was challenging the beast and had to bear the consequences.