Page 125 of Broken Souls

HER

Varius rises as he spins to face the vampire. I push down my skirt as I stand behind him. If I had my magic, I’d be sorely tempted to set the fucker on fire.

“But I really need to take a piss,” Aleric says, leaning inside the archway of the kitchen as if the two of us aren’t ready to kill him. “Can you show me to the bathroom?”

“It’s through there, down the hall. First door on the left,” Varius says.

“Oh, but I get so easily lost. You wouldn’t want me to end up in Sau’s room. I’d be way too tempted to come all over her toothbrush. In her bottle of lotion. On the dildos –”

“It’s this way,” Varius snaps, stepping forward.

“Thank you,” Aleric purrs, his dark eyes dancing.

As they walk off, I don’t know if I should stay here and wait for him to return or run off to find Dayne so he can talk some sense into me. I’m not ready to forgive Varius for what he’s done to me, but fuck am I ready to fuck him.

When the front door opens, the decision is made for me. Khalid steps in, and knowing his girl will be right behind him, I hurry for the stairs.

It’s been absolute hel seeing her every day at the dinner table. I have managed to avoid having breakfast and lunch with her, mostly by not having an appetite, but by the time dinner comes around, I’m starving. The only saving grace is Varius only talks to her when she instigates.

Stepping into his bedroom, I shut the door behind me. I sag against it, taking a moment to breathe before striding further into the room and taking off my collar. I toss it on the bed before reaching around me to undo my corset. The lace is hard to pull through the grommets though, and in no time at all, I’m cursing the damn thing.

“Allow me,” Varius says, and I freeze, half twisted with my eyes straining to see my back. I never even heard him enter the room. The hairs on my neck rise over that, and the most primal part of my brain is screaming that I’m in an enclosed space with a predator that can kill me with one blow. Will I ever be able to trust him again?

“Turn around,” he says.

I hesitate for a second, but fighting in this dress will get me killed anyways. My eyes dart to the dresser where the wand is hidden while I turn around. Locking my knees, I force myself to stay still. I haven’t bonded with the wand yet, so attempting to use it has more risk of killing me than him.

The air feels weighted behind me. I can’t hear Varius moving at all, but every nerve starts firing. Every hair starts rising in anticipation of his touch.

With every second that passes, my body grows more and more taut until I can’t take it anymore. Surely, he must’ve crossed the room already to me? I start to turn, but two strong hands grab my shoulders and hold me still.

I tense, my muscles locking as I fight the reflex to stomp on his instep, then turn to elbow him in the kidney, followed by a punch to his solar plexus.

“You’re scared of me,” Varius says tightly, pain and guilt flowing through our bond.

“You tortured me,” I say. “That doesn’t normally make a girl trust you won’t hurt her. Next time, try chocolate and flowers.”

“So youdowant chocolate –” he starts, confused.

“No!” My anger comes back now, the frustration that he still doesn’t get me. “Oh my gods. Just undo the lace so I can get out of this thing.”

As he starts to work on the back of my corset, I can feel his irritation with me, and that pisses me off more. I’m not being fucking unreasonable. Just because I was willing to fuck him a moment ago doesn’t mean I was ready to forgive him. It’s not my fault if he came up here expecting me to be all loving and serving and back to being what he was used to having just because I had a moment of weak horniness. People have hate sex all the fucking time. I’m allowed to have hate sex.

Dammit. Hetorturedme. He raped me. He’s forcing me to live withThat Bitch. To see her every day, knowing she came from what he did to her. Did he suck on her large tits? Did he stroke himself inside her mouth? Kiss her? How long was their foreplay? Did he imagine me at all? Or was he glad to fuck someone who wasn’t so flat everywhere? Fuck. Khalid’s girl is so beautiful, and I’m just plain fucking Jane.

“I hate you.” The words flow out before I can stop them.

“I know.” He tugs on the lace, unthreading a section of it from my corset.

“I’m going to dedicate our entire marriage to making you miserable.”

A flash of amusement comes down the bond.

“Don’t laugh at me.” I start to turn, my eyes hard, but the corset is mostly undone, and the dress has sagged just enough to trip me. I stumble into him. The dress is yanked down by my feet, and now the top of it sits around my waist. The fabric of his jacket presses into my bare nipples, and I suck in a breath as arousal mixes with my anger.

I want to fuck him like I hate him.

I want him to fuck me like he did that night I killed him.