Page 99 of Crescendo

I take a step back and steer her so that she’s facing the man on the floor. “Like that,” I tell her, my mouth near her ear. “But it will be messy.”

I can’t see the motion fully, but I...know she licks her lips. I canfeelthe wet slick of her tongue. I hear her throat work as she swallows. I sense her smile.

“That’s okay.”

My hands move to her shoulders, guiding her like a coach leading a boxer to the ring. We only manage to take a step closer before the man begins to thrash.

“All right! All rrright!” He practically bucks in an attempt to get away, and a stream of words and letters shoot from between his lips. It takes my brain a second to process what they are: addresses.

“Pen,” I snap, scanning around for one.

The girl’s already on it. She lunges across the room, grabs a customary pad and a pen from a desk, and scribbles until the man finally goes silent.

“Is he waiting for you?” I demand while the girl tears a page from the pad and crumples it in her fist. “Stacatto?”

The man grunts, shaking his head. “No... Gonna sell her.”

“Ah, I see.” I rub my chin as the fucker’s plan becomes clear. “You were going to use her to try and weasel your way back into Stacatto’s good graces. The video was your insurance.”

The man says nothing as his eyes struggle to focus. The girl gave him Mack’s best; he won’t come off cloud nine for a long, long while. The true extent of his fuck-up won’t even sink in until then.

I rove my gaze over to the camera. A red light’s flashing. It’s still recording. I don’t take my eyes off it when I reach for herand jerk my chin toward the lens. “Say hello,” I tell her. “Your fiancé is watching.”

She stiffens. Her eyes delve into the camera, and I doubt that her entire soul fully comes back out. She takes a step forward without seeming to realize it as she processes my taunt.Say hello.She turns to me, and I see the knife slash through the air. I don’t know why the hell I don’t fight. Why I don’t even flinch when the blade grazes my cheek as she hooks that same hand around the back of my head and draws me in. Her lips meet mine—that’s what I know. Warm. Wet. Soft. I move against them solely out of fucking instinct.

Before my teeth come into play, that is.

Whatever this is...it’s solely forhisbenefit. I tell myself that while I lash at her lips with my tongue. Pry them open. Shove my way inside. Bite her. Claim her.Kiss-the-living-fuckout of her.

It’s for his benefit, but that doesn’t mean I can’t put on a damn good show. That I can’t draw on her lower lip until she moans. Crush her to my chest with one hand against her spine and cradle her ass with the other.

Stacatto may be watching.

But that. Doesn’t. Mean. Shit.

For five seconds, she’s mine. I taste her. I own her. I make her bleed.

It’s five fucking seconds I know she never gave to him.

And it’s only five fucking seconds I have to save myself the same way I starved my veins of heroin and spent those first weeks writhing in agony while in the Pen. Withdrawing from her brings its own irritation, but I ignore it when I shove her back and wipe at my mouth with the back of my hand.

“You won’t say a fucking thing.” I direct the threat at the man on the floor and wait until he nods. “You say a word to Stacatto and I won’t only show him this video”—I gesture to the camera with a wave of my hand—“but I’ll find you. I’ll bring her with me.And next time...I’ll teach her how to cut a man’s dick off using nail clippers. It’s not very efficient, but I’m sure it’s doable.”

“Though messy,” the girl pitches in, shaking her head. She sounds so deadpan that she could be serious—though, fuck it, maybe I am as well.

I’d take her with me to hunt the fucker down. I’d show her a brand-new way to inflict pain and watch her get off on yet another way to get back at Stacatto. It’s more tempting a thought than I’d like to admit. I grit my teeth and curl my hands into fists, willing back the heat that creeps up them.

“Understand?” I demand of the man.

He nods again, and ignoring him, I spot the girl’s clothes—or what little she wore in—across the room.

“Get dressed,” I tell her. While she does, I head for the camera and rip it from the tripod. “How many men do you have?” I ask the man as the girl heads for the door.

A rich businessman with a hard-on for Stacatto, planning to kidnap the man’s fiancé from an asshole like Mack on his own?Bullshit.No man would form a plan that fucking stupid without sufficient firepower.

When he doesn’t answer, I take a step closer. Then I lift my boot and slam the sole of it down on his chest, applying just enough pressure to make him wheeze. “How many?”

Rather than speak, his beady eyes roll in the direction of a cell phone lying a few feet away. I reach for it and swipe my thumb across the home screen. Three text messages pop up, unopened and from a blocked number.