Page 100 of In the Dark

Even so, as he lowered his head, moving my blonde-and-blue hair over my shoulder so he could sprinkle a light kiss on my collarbone, on my neck, and then up to my ear, I dragged the blade to where I wanted.

He bit my ear as I scraped the tip of the knife against all his muscles and watched it draw a line of red. He sucked on my lobe before he moved back to my neck to take more time there. He let me move the blade how I wanted, cutting his skin again and again.

As I watched the crimson red spread and drip down, I knew my pussy was dripping just as much.

He glanced down and smiled at first. “Jas, you’ll have to do better than that.”

“What?” I whispered in a haze.

But his smile fell slowly away as he realized what I’d done. “Baby …” he murmured as he stared down. In sloppy writing, I’d carved my name over theirs, and I was sure he could read it—sure he saw that I was replacing all of them with only me.

28

Callahan

I DIDN’T EXPECT MY viper to carve her name into my side or for me to like it as much as I did. Blood dripped down my stomach as I tried my best not to succumb to the woman who’d caused it.

I stared at her biting her lip, trying to contain what she felt. Did she think I wanted her to bottle it and hide it from me? I wanted all of her always, every mean bone in her body along with the vulnerabilities and soft spots to go with it.

“You know these women mean nothing?”

She tried to look as if she hadn’t noticed. I was supposed to be focused on who had hurt her. Who had tried to take her life. Whatever had happened on the footage my brother had shown me, because it was clear she was lying through her teeth.

But her vulnerability and jealousy were all I could focus on in the moment.

“You’re right to mark me, Viper. Your name belongs on me. No one else’s.”

She cleared her throat. “Sorry. I didn’t notice—”

“Bull. Don’t hide your truths from me when they’re all I want, Viper. Give them to me even if they hurt.”

She chewed her cheek for a moment before she huffed, “Fine. I hate them. Each and every one of those tattoos,” she said softly, but with bite. “You have other women’s names permanently written on your body. Even she has a spot there.” She poked at the last name on the list, one that she hadn’t dragged her blade across.

I wasn’t focused on any of the names, though. I frowned at her voice sounding so small when she should have felt like the queen of them all. I took the knife from her slowly and held it up as I said, “I was young, stupid, and drunk when I got their names inked.” I brought the knife down on the last name and dragged it across Demi so that instead, Jas was underlined. “Not sober and completely obsessed like I am with you now.”

I grabbed her and hauled her thighs up so she could wrap them around me, so that I could feel her body pressed to mine and hold her. I devoured her mouth, and she met my lips with the same amount of passion. My viper didn’t want to hurt me, but she did want to ravage me in the same way I wanted to ravage her.

Damn, I’d missed the taste of her, and I’d had that mouth within the last hour. I ripped my lips from hers to tell her, “You’re driving me wild in my own home, in my own town, in my own damn head, you know that?”

“Me? I’ve done nothing that wrong. I haven’t even been at your house this afternoon—”

“This afternoon, you left our house, and I still smell you in every corner of it. I wonder what you’re doing, who you’re talking to, if you ate enough before you left. I contemplate calling you, but instead I rush my brother to the club just so I can see you, and it’s barely been a damn hour.”

“You wanted a Ruiz as a wife. What did you expect?” She was smiling at me a little, biting her lower lip.

Instead of throwing her on the bed, I placed her down gently on it, way softer than I would have normally. Her wounds concerned me, and she saw my hesitation.

“Don’t you dare find your conscience now, Knight.”

“It was lost out at sea the moment you stabbed me in it, Viper.” I chuckled. “I’m just putting space between us so I don’t fuck you to death, okay? Those cuts are—”

“Almost healed. Don’t worry about them.” She grabbed my belt and started undoing it. I pushed her hands away, though, because she was on a mission to have me drop that subject.

“I’m more than worried. I want names. I want to know who did this. Who hurt you?”

She glanced away. “Or we could, you know, enjoy ourselves instead?” She tried one last time. “No need to wait now.”

I shook my head, realizing now what she’d said. “You wanted the wedding moved so that these would be healed.”