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“You could have kept your money,” I counter, “because there’s no us. There will never be an us again.”

He grinds his molars together and the chains squeak. I eye the ceiling; more cracks are starting to appear around the ring. “I’m serious, Tian, there was never an us to begin with.”

He loses his smirk, his face going cold as the last word leaves my mouth. “After I’m done with you, you’ll wish that were true, Dash.”

Present day, Shanghai

Tian and Dash

Her eyes widen when I call her by her nickname. Fuck, I missed playing with her. A year has gone by since I last watched her sleep in New York. Since she fucked me while I struggled and begged her to stop. I know me and Moon fucked up. We should have told them what we were doing. We did it all for them after all. From the beginning, all we’ve done has been for them. But something happened along the way, making them act out like this. Maybe Tokyo has something to do with it. We lost their trust and now we have to do everything in our power to get it back.

What she didn’t know is I needed her to hate me. To protect her. But I’m sure as shit not going to tell her. I still have some sort of self-preservation, but I can’t help feeling proud of her for what she did to me this evening. Moon taught her well.

I missed her. I exhale hard through my nose, cursing under my breath from the strain on my wrists. My toes can barely touch the floor. She strung me up good. The blood is starting to drain from my arms and I’m getting lightheaded. I watch her while she slowly walks to the dresser, with Eliot’s knives all laid out. I could ask her to use one to cut open my belt to give my dick some breathing room. I’ve been hard from the moment I abducted her from that rooftop bar. The moment we busted through the door the surprised look in her eyes was enough to get me hard for years to come. I maybe should have asked Moon to take it easy on El. They were still pointing their guns at each other near the elevator when I hauled her ass outside and pushed her in the car to bring her here. How she got the better of me, I can’t really remember. Maybe the splitting headache has something to do with it along with the bloodstained baseball bat in the corner of the room. Or the fact that I’m hoisted up. I should’ve thought it through when I secured those pins to the ceiling. This is not the kind of foreplay I had in mind.

“Are you kidding me right now?” she says, angrily taking a step toward me.

I swing from left to right. “Did that come out wrong?” I question lifting a brow. I don’t know how long I can keep acting tough when the blood is slowly draining from my arms. I can feel the tingling sensation starting. It’s probably not a good sign when I’m not able to move my fingers, right?

Without warning she grabs the rope to give me a little more room. My feet hit the floor with a thud. Leaning to the side, I try to get the feeling in my hands back. She takes another step, ripping open my thighs. The water from the towel I’m standing on seeps through my toes. She better fucking not flip the light switch again. Grinning she grinds her body against me, and I can’t help but groan. I feel her hands moving over the front of my pants, to my ass while I struggle to keep my eyes open.

She takes out a small knife I’d hid in my front pocket and twirls it between her fingers.

“Was that everything?” she asks, pushing the knife against my throat.

My cock twitches painfully against my zipper.

She arches into me. “I can’t hear you,” she snaps.

“That’s the last one.” I laugh, dropping my lips to hers.

She presses the blade in my skin as she pulls my hair and yanks my head to the right exposing my neck. “Shut up.” She runs her fingertips over the barely healed scar there.

“You can thank your brother for that one.”

“You probably deserved it.” She smirks against my mouth.

I bite down on my bottom lip, trying to hold the moan locked in my throat that’s threatening to come out. She isn’t far off; I insulted his wifey, though Eliot’s been in the same boat as me. Moon’s anger spilled over just by mentioning his name. Last month we got into a huge fight in Bangkok when I caught him watching a homemade movie of him and Eliot from years ago. Didn’t help he was drunk; the guy always gets superhuman strength when he drowns in his sorrow. He’d better lock Eliot up in his house, or chain him to the bed for real this time, because I can’t keep dealing with his depressive episodes of not having El by his side every single day.

With a grunt I wrench myself away from her as far as the chains let me. I’m panting already and the glare she gives me is not helping with my hard-on. Fuck, I can’t breathe, I need to come so bad. I haven’t touched or looked at another woman since I got her ten years ago. I feel like a fucking virgin, with my eyes glued to her ass making my dick throb painfully from the need to bury myself inside her. I want nothing more than push her against the dresser, tug her pants down along with her panties, and disappear inside.

“What have you two got planned?” she demands, echoing my question.

I give her my best smirk, flashing my probably red with blood teeth at her.

Her ice blue eyes lock on mine; slowly I feel the wall crumbling, if there was a wall to begin with. Maybe in the beginning when I forced Moon to make her my wife. She never had a choice, in the end, I made it for her by claiming what’s always been rightfully mine. I hurt her by being the person I became, the man I was, the man I am with her.

“Untie me, I’ll make it hurt less,” I promise half-heartedly. I hate how much my voice wavers. I hate how much I want her. I need her, like Moon needs Eliot.

She eyes me warily; she knows once I break free, she’s fair game. I held on too long for it not to hurt; I know she knows it too. That’s why she’s stalling for time.

“Fuck, Jade,” I growl, trying to roll my shoulders back to ease the strain. She turns around holding Eliot’s favorite knife in her hand. Her knuckles red and covered in open wounds from the fistfight we got into before she knocked me out with the bat. I start to laugh. She was the only one throwing the punches though. A part of me couldn’t help feeling proud of her. She takes a reluctant step toward me. It’s only a matter of time before I break free from these chains and wrap my hand around her throat, squeezing as I watch her life flash before her eyes. Scowling I dislocate my thumb, slide my right hand from the cuffs and pop it back in with my teeth.

I shoot out my hand and grab her by the throat as her eyes widen. She struggles, trying to get me to let go. The knife falls to the floor while I laugh. “Don’t play with me, Dash.” My eyes don’t leave hers. I pull her shirt down; it tears down the middle revealing her white lace bra underneath. I can see her nipples pebble against the white cotton. What I would give to seal my lips around them and suck. I close my eyes on a moan, imagining what it would feel like to run my lips over her skin again. What it would be like to circle them with my tongue, leaving a trail all the way down to her stomach. Going all the way to her panties, not breaking eye contact. My dick takes notice, fuck, I can’t wait any longer.

“Who says I’m playing?” she counters, her voice hollow, but I can still hear it break at the end. There’s still a part that feels for me.

“This is the end of the line fucker,” she promises.