Page 28

“There’s more, isn’t there?” I ask. I know she has more to tell me. I can sense it. My restraint on my anger is hanging on by a thread. Knowing he is there, a little further up the beach. knowing how easy it would be to erase him. I look to Emilia, she looks exhausted, my only priority right now is her, so I remain seated and I keep listening.

“I have changed the locks to my apartment over twenty times. He always manages to get inside. He hasn’t touched me like that since I was sixteen. He hasn’t been able to, since I started fighting back, but he still tries to catch me off guard, mostly while I’m sleeping.” She twists the necklace at her neck in nervous movements.

Realisation dawns on me. My eyes widen and I turn to her in question.

“That’s why you wouldn’t accept the sedating painkillers from the Doc?” I asked.

She nods and turns to the sea again. She likes the beach, I can see the way her face relaxes when she gazes into the water. The rage isn’t dissipating. I’m grinding my teeth so hard I’m surprised my jaw isn’t broken. I am going to kill him. Just when I think that’s it, she continues…

“I have never been with anyone willingly, Kade… he made sure I had no desire for anyone. I hadn’t even kissed anyone, not until—” she cuts herself off and looks at the sand beneath her.

“The club? You mean…that was your first kiss? I’m the only person you’ve kissed?” I say absolutely bewildered.

She just nods. “He took my virginity… he took my innocence, it was easier to avoid kissing him.” She chokes out.

“Viper, look at me,” I demand.

I drag my thumb along her jaw and tilt her chin to the side. I wish she would have told me this sooner.

“He took from you, but he does not claim your virginity, that is for you to give freely,” I say.

“I had no desire for anyone… until you. Every time he touches me, it makes me want to die, but you—” she whimpers. “Every time you touch me, even if you’re near me, it makes me want to live… and I hate you for it, Kade.” She cries and stands up suddenly.

I don’t have time to think. I stand quickly and start after her. I grab her arm steering her back towards the alcove, and press her against the rock.

“You hate me because I make you feel something?” I question.

I look down to meet her gaze, my hand sliding down to the back of her waist as I pull her closer. She gasps at the contact.

“You can’t go through life without feeling, Viper. You can’t remain numb forever. You’re not living.” I graze my lips over the sensitive skin where her neck meets her shoulder and her breath stutters.

“Then make me feel something, Kade. I’m tired of feeling numb.” She brushes her leg up my own and pins it at my hip, pressing me closer into her body. She grinds herself into me once, and I groan.

“I can’t do this. I’m not gentle, and I can’t be, especially with you. You have no idea the restraint I’m having to grasp here—” The words get stuck in my throat when she presses her hips into me again and I groan.

“I don’t want you to be gentle, it’s not who you are. I want all of you,” she whispers.

‘I want you rough.” Her tongue traces the throbbing pulse at the side of my neck, and I can’t hold back a guttural moan.

“Hard.” She kisses my mouth and slides her tongue inside.

“Frenzied.” She bites my lower lip.

“Feral.” My restraint snaps.

I plant both hands on her ass and lift her up, still pressed against the hard rock. My hand traces up her thigh slowly. The kiss is desperate. I can’t control myself. I need to have her. I bite her neck, and she cries out. I lick the spot of the hurt to take the sting away all while roaming my hand up higher. I pull back to look at her. I glance down at the slits in her dress on either side.

“You’re not wearing underwear, are you?”

She shakes her head and smirks.

I tilt my head to look up at the ceiling. “God Viper, you have no idea what you’re doing to me,” I groan.

She reaches for my belt and I grab both of her wrists.

“That’s not happening right now. The first time I fuck you, will not be in public. It’ll be in my bed, where I can hear you scream my name,” I announce.

“Emilia!” a shout comes from outside the alcove. My fists clench at the sound of his voice. I’m going to torture the bastard before I kill him, that’s a promise.