Page 31 of His Darkest Obsession

No. No, she won’t.

“Shall I send her the words as well?” I ask.

Eto moi prikaz.Three simple words that carry the weight of the world, and issue a command where disobedience means death.

“Ne nado.” Roma shakes his head. “But do me favor, and don’t forget what you’re doing this for. Don’t lose sight of what’s really important.”

Without waiting for me to respond, he opens the door and walks out.

After Roma leaves,I look back down at the razor on the table and I can’t stop thinking back to the moment our bodies met and her face inches from my own

Miels tells us that she wants us to call her Indigo now.

I’ve never heard a name like that before. It must be short for something. Miels. I run the name over my tongue, but it doesn’t sound quite right. It feels wrong on my lips, like I’m corrupting something good. Something whole.

I take another drink, hoping to use the burn to chase away the nagging answer to the question of why do I care.

Bennet fears her. Wants her dead. That makes her valuable.

She’s just a means to an end. And this is the best way to go about it.

Be convincing.

But my thumb runs over the thin red line she left on my neck, and I think about when she gazed down at me while I stared up at her. Those hazel eyes had been everything. Isawthe fear and desperation in her eyes then.

A lifetime of watching men die will do that to you.

But I also saw just somethingdarkerflicker in her eyes at that same time.

Because the barbershop wasn’t the only place where I saw that. She had that same dark look in her eyes after she sank her teeth into my hand. A look that tells me she won’t go down without a fight.

You don’t get that look in your eyes unless you’ve stared the devil in the face.

Miels is crying again.

Rage creeps back into my blood, and I replay the events of the last twenty-four hours over in my head. Slowly, realization takes shape in my head about why I have this sudden and growing fascination about her.

It’s not because I saw innocence and goodness in her, even though I did and even though I cantellthat’s who and what she is at her core.

It’s because someone nearly extinguished it.

Enough that she drew my blood twice to preventmefrom doing the same thing.

I want to know the cause behind it. And then I want todestroywhoever dared to do that to her.

“Fuck.” I take another long pull from the bottle, but the heat spreading through my chest now has nothing to do with the alcohol.

Tomorrow we'll pick out a wedding dress. I'll see her in white, draped in lace and silk.

My innocent bride.

Yet every thought that comes to mind is the exact opposite of innocence. And in every thought, all I see is her soft hazel eyes and her long blue hair. In my bed. Against the glass. On the floor.

After the third time, therewillbe consequences

I drink again, determined to silence my thoughts.

But a part of me is praying that she crosses that line one more time.