Page 200 of Boys Who Taint

I can barely hold on to the door.

She kicks it in and tries to aim the fire on the old carpets on the wall and all the beautiful tapestries, so I do a triple kick and knock both the canister and the lighter from her hands.

“Aspen?” Grey mutters in shock as he walks into the hallway.

“Stay away, Grey!” I yell. “For your own safety. Just douse the flames.”

Levi exits the kitchen too, coughing wildly. “I put it out, but there’s lots of damage and—”

Laying eyes on her immediately makes him shut up, and he’s not the only one.

Several Phantoms have come down to witness the wreckage, stopped only by the violent rage following her around like an aura of destruction.

I have never seen her this violent, this unhinged.

And my God, am I in love.

She pulls out a knife and aims it at my neck, leaving me with only a split second to grab her wrist. My heart just started to beat in my throat for the very first time in my life. I got this close to losing it.

Damn, what a fucking fiery vixen.

“Freckles, I love your ferocity, but could you tone it down just a little? You’re making me think you actually want me dead,” I say.

“Maybe I fucking do,” she hisses, trying to punch me with her free hand, but I grab that too.

“You can’t win this, but I love the effort you put in. It gets me all hot and bothered,” I reply.

“Fuck you,” she hisses, trying to free herself as I spin her around and wrap my arms around her.

“I love a good feisty girl. It gets me going,” I say as I lock her in tight between both arms.

“I don’t care!”

“You don’t? After all we did in my room? That hurts my feelings. I thought you enjoyed all the kinky shit, Freckles.”

She growls but stops fighting me once she lays eyes on Levi.

“Aspen …” he mutters, completely out of it.

“I have her under control. Are the fires out?” I ask him.

“Yeah. The rest of the Phantoms are throwing all the fireworks out. Was she on her own?” He looks baffled that she did all this.

“I should’ve waited until the middle of the night,” she growls back. “Until you were all asleep and I could’ve burned this whole place down without a fucking blip.”

“You bring any more?” I ask her, keeping her locked in place. “Tell me, or I won’t let you go.”

“That’s all I fucking had.”

I take in a deep breath. Guess we’ll have to see to know for sure.

“I trust you.”

“I don’t trust you,” she hisses back.

Still, I release her and push her away so she doesn’t try anything on me.

She bolts down the steps and gets as far away as possible from us before turning around to scream, “Fuck you all!”