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We didn’t whisper or sugarcoat anything.

Yet she refuses to believe it.

Wish I could be in such a deep state of denial. Would’ve made my life much easier.

“The auction.”

A sob catches in her throat. She twists her head so I won’t see her agony.

I’m not having that. Tonight, her pain is mine. Every last bit of it.

With two fingers under her chin, I force her to look at me. Big, brown eyes burrow into mine. So fucking sad. So full of accusations.

And pleadings.

She squeezes them shut, and when she opens them, there’s fire in them.

“Why are you here, then?” she snarls, finally hearing the truth for what it is. She doesn’t fight me, though. I’m bigger. Stronger. She understands she’s lost the fight. What a precious feeling to evoke in her. “To mock me for falling for your son and ending up here? Well, fuck you. I don’t love him. I had a crush on him. That shit lasted, what? Two months tops.”

I shouldn’t search for proof that she really, truly is over him.

It’s infuriating that I do. My jaw tics as I stay absolutely silent. Waiting for her to fill the silence with more of her ramblings.

“I kept waiting for him to be something other than this…nothing.” Her lips pinch. Yeah, she isn’t into him. She resents him. “So, guess what?”

Caring about her feelings and their history is pointless. Come tomorrow, she’ll be gone.

I’m wasting precious time by listening to her. Time I could spend touching her. Humiliating her. Violating her without fucking her.

Doing everything in my power to get her out of my system.

I ask anyway, “What?”

“More of nothing.”

Her admission does things to me. Things I won’t entertain, not even in my own head.

Ophelia saves me from having to think about it a second later by stomping my foot. The soft contact of her bare foot hardly registers.

She growls at my stony expression.

“I didn’t love him. Do you hear?” I’m getting harder and harder with each word. It’s wrong to like it, how there was nothing between them. “I couldn’t. So if you’re here to mock me for being a silly little girl who didn’t see the signs, you can turn around and fuck right off. My only mistake was showing him kindness by agreeing to this one last dinner.”

She stops talking, and I…

Fuck. Fuck, fuck,fuck.

This isn’t an emotion that makes me pull her as close as I can.

These are my most basic instincts that make me thread my fingers through her hair. They’re the reason why I tug on her lush strands until she’s looking up at me.

I’m a conqueror. Itake. That’s what I do.

There’s nothing behind this primal act other than taking her.

Ophelia’s lips are far, though. She’s so goddamn far and I have to taste her. To press mine to her forbidden ones.

I slide my hands to the sides of her neck.