Page 27

His palm stills on my stomach. Scalding my skin. His teeth bite harder. Dig deeper.

He can tell when my pain becomes insufferable. When I fidget despite myself. When I fight back.

James parts his lips, releasing me. “Curious.”

I’m going to regret this. I just know it. “What is?”

“You’ve figured out what I did to her.” In one harsh, swift movement, he cups my pussy. Hums when I gasp. To my absolute mortification, he dips a finger and feels for himself just how wet I am. “Yet you’re still jealous.”

Damn him, how am I supposed to focus when he starts stroking me with not one, but two fingers. The heel of his palm is on my clit. I wish I were alone. Wish I could cry. Or release all those sounds of pleasure that climb up my throat.

“I’m not jealous.” Talking is better than moaning. Even if that means I’ll anger him. I might die from prying into his personal life when he told me I was not allowed to. Better than showing him how much I crave this. How depraved I am. “How did she die?”

“She served her purpose.” He’s lying; I hear it in his voice.

He didn’t kill her. Didn’t treat her like Topher treated me.

He’s reciting the words. Reading them from an invisible teleprompter.

“Gave me a son. Continued the lineage. After that”—his long finger curls inside me—“I had no use for her. I killed her.”

“Liar,” I breathe out. There’s no voice left in me. No fight. Just pure terror. Endless lust. “You’re saying that to scare me.”

“You act surprised.” His cock swells against me. “Why would you think I’m lying?”

“You had her in your dad’s home?—”

“Yes.”

“To put a baby inside her.”

“I thought I was being clear. I did. Then I killed her.” His voice is as level as it was before. He pretends not to care. That he hasn’t lost sleep over it. But he tenses behind me. He’s bullshitting me, and I don’t know why. “A bullet between the eyes. She didn’t suffer more than she had to.”

“More than she had to.” My hands clench into fists as angry tears roll down my cheeks. “More than she had to! The nerve of you. You bastard. You kidnapped her. You raped her.”

“I did no such thing.”

I’m done. Officially done with him and this sick game.

But James is a predator. He senses that I’m about to fight him.

He moves fast. Strikes. Flips me on my back, using his forearms to cage me in.

“She wanted me to fuck her. She wanted me . She came to the cell willingly. I was kind to her when no one was watching. I hated the thought of hurting her. I never, ever…” He shakes his head ever so subtly. “Doesn’t matter. She’s gone.”

“ She . Her .” I hate that I can’t hold back the tears. I take that anger and make fists of both my hands, punching his chest. It helped when I fought the bully foster sister I had. It does nothing to James. “You can’t even say her name.”

“Because she has no place in this room. It’s you and me here.

” This is the first time he’s really raised his voice at me.

The first fire I’ve seen in his cold eyes tonight.

“Yes, I’m telling you this to instill fear in you.

So you stop crawling under my goddamn skin.

You’re driving me out of my mind. I thought I was clear before.

I thought the punishment was enough. Yet you just keep…

Fuck . Keep going deeper. Why are you doing this to me? ”

My heart bangs loudly in my chest. This isn’t right, how every crazy, psychotic thing he says makes me lean closer to him. My soul shouldn’t reach out to this monster.

I’m losing myself.

“I don’t care about her,” he groans. This isn’t a lie. His eyes tell me so.

“Is that what I am to you?” More tears. My chest caves in on itself. I feel everything. His hard dick against my pussy. His heart beating against mine. My sore, welted ass. How drenched I am for him. “A womb to fill? A woman to dispose of? Someone you don’t care about?”

“Damn it, Ophelia, can’t you see?” He wraps a hand around my throat, tipping my chin up with his thumb.

His eyes flicker before he leans in to suck my tears off one cheek.

The other. His gaze is back on mine, icy and horrible.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen. I wasn’t supposed to check on you that first night you spent here.

Shouldn’t have developed an obsession with you for…

for too fucking long. You were never meant to be here.

The feelings I have, they’re all wrong. Terribly wrong, and they’re taking over me. ”

A barrage of questions swarms inside me. Toppling one over the other. Twisted attraction mixes with a new kind of fear. A horrible one.

One that makes me stop punching him. “I’m a problem for you, then.”

Every part of me needs James’s warmth, even a sliver of it. Anything he has to offer.

Every part of me wants to get the hell out of here.

His short hair is a mess. Face pinched in anguish. He seems younger. More human. “You are.”

“You’re going to deal with that problem.”

The sadistic bastard he is, he doesn’t answer. James leans in, his lips pressing to the corner of my mouth. A threat, one of many. I shudder once again, yet I cling to him. Begging him to save me. To keep me. To not do what I think he’s about to do.

All the while I’m begging myself to hate him.