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I not only let him dominate me, but I had loved it. It was the most intimate thing I had ever done. Besides purring…

Embarrassment covered my cheeks, causing me to rush faster, tugging on my pants and top.

“Stop.” He grabbed my shoulder, turning me to him, bubbling terror up my throat because I had no resistance to him. Defenseless. His dark eyes pierced me, his naked body calling to mine. He loomed over me, causing me to tremble with desire, the need to press into him, to feel his body against mine. To lose myself. “Giving me a complex, Kitten.” His voice rumbled low. “Neverhad anyone running out on me… especially after I fucked them senseless.”

My lungs hitched.

“Well, I guess if you did it right, I wouldn’t be walking at all, would I?” I lashed out, jerking away from him.

His jaw clicked, lids narrowing, like he could see right through me.

“It was a mistake. Our emotions were heightened.” I gestured around to the dead bodies. “I was not myself.”

“And you liked it.” He grabbed me, yanking me into him, his cock hardening against me. My head spun, throbbing with stimuli. Magic filled and sparked through my entire body, causing me to shake more. “You liked being out of control.”

“No, I—”

“You can’t lie to me.” His mouth skated over my ear. “I can hear you purring again, Kitty-Kat. I can feel it.”

Humiliation. Weakness. They both scorched me to cinders as my body betrayed me so acutely. It was low, almost inaudible, but somehow, he heard it. Just his nearness had me vocalizing something I could not face.

I retreated, my bare feet stepping on something cool and hard. I looked down, my gaze landing on an item.

Air stuck in my throat, and ice slithered up my spine, spearing into my veins. As if my father’s ghost rose from the depth of the sea, to remind me of my promise to him.

His dagger, smeared with blood, lay at my feet. A symbol of his life. An omen of his death. And what did I do? I slept with his murderer, insulting his memory, his honor.

Everything I had lived, fought, and killed for, and I had cast it all aside in one moment. When I spread my legs and let my enemy in.

Croygen’s physique tightened, his gaze locking on the same object and then lifting to mine.

“Katrina…”

“No.” I stumbled back more.

“You don’t understand—”

“Understand?” My voice pitched higher than I expected. Anger bulldozed through my hollow chest. “There is nothing to understand.” My teeth gritted, emotion tumbling from me. “Did you or did you not kill my father?”

His mouth opened, pain creasing his face.

“Tell me!” I screamed.

“You want to know if I stabbed that dagger through your father’s heart?” Croygen barked back, his own fury matching mine. “Is that theonlything you want to know?”

“That is the only thing I need to know!” I was unraveling, wishing more than anything he would tell me no so I could find an excuse for what I just did. Absolve myself of my despicable crime. But I didn’t deserve that. I earned the penance.

“A slice of a fact is not truth.” Croygen snarled.

Frustration and ire gurgled up my throat. Swiping up the dagger, I got in Croygen’s face, the blade lining up with the cut already across his neck.

“What are you gonna do, Kitty-Kat?” His gaze darted to the blade, his lips wrinkling, his erection hardening as I pushed it against him. “Have the guts to finally do it?”

“No more skirting the question,” I ordered, wrath oozing off every word. “Killian saw you kill my father. Did you stab him like he said?”

Croygen peered down at me with a scowl.

“You want a villain? I’ll play the villain for you.” He inched closer, the knife cutting deeper. He leaned in, his mouth near mine. “Yes, Kitten. I was the one who stabbed him through the heart. I felt his life bleed from him.”