Page 75 of Red Retaliation

I pull my eyes away from Arianna’s breasts heaving beneath her top. She’s already derailed me enough these past few days, but this latest show of defiance cements my resolve. “Bateman is your name now and best you don’t forget that!”

She tries to pull out of my grip, but it only makes me tighten it. I hate the obsessional hold she has over me. It isn’t happening any longer. “I think you must be confused again, princess,” I drawl, smiling coldly, knowing I’m actually enjoying this. “You donotget special treatment, even though, such is your spoiled nature, you believe you’re owed everything.”

“Spoiled?” Arianna shrieks. “You call being forced to marry one violent lunatic and then another, ‘spoiled’?”

Her eyes spark with defiance that roars the blood in my veins.God, she’s beautiful.

“I’m ‘spoiled’ because I’m upset that you’ve purposely estranged me from my family? I’m ‘spoiled’ because it bothers me that you hacked someone to death on our wedding night? I’m ‘spoiled’ for being unimpressed with you for not being content with killing only one woman because of your pathetic need to control everyone around you, that you’re determined to chalk up another on your scorecard!” She pushes her face closer to mine. “Well, listen up, Redmond Bateman - you might have driven your first fiancée to death, but your second will not be me! Look at you! Are you not even going to attempt to explain why you did such an awful thing to that reporter? Jesus Christ, you disgust me!”

Reeling from Arianna’s words, once again saying thatIwas responsible for Lorna’s suicide, I don’t see her hand until the stinging slap connects with my cheek.

It is now that I lose my temper.

So, Arianna thinks I killed Lorna and believes my wish is to control her too? Maybe it is... I don’t care, but I’ll give her what she expects. By the time I’ve finished, she’ll beg for me.

And that happens, I’ll enjoy walking the fuck away, leaving her to the sharks.

CHAPTER

53

Arianna

I’M TOO CLOSE. I see every hair on Red’s perfectly sculpted jaw. I also see the flush of his cheek where my hand struck.

I hope it hurts. I want him to hurt. I want his heart to bleed the same way he’s made my heart bleed. I...

Suddenly finding myself against the wall with his hand twisting my hair, I let out a gasp.

“You know nothing about my first fiancée. You know nothing about anything!” Red’s eyes are black with rage. “You accuse me of estranging you from your father when you’re too stupid to see that he sold you and, furthermore, doesn’t care about you?”

His body presses against mine. I need to push him away, but I can’t move. My nipples tighten against his hard chest. “That’s not true! My Papà, he’s...”

“You mean nothing! You’re a fucking commodity to your ‘Papà!” Red snarls, his lips an inch from mine. His other hand trails down my cheek, his fingers brushing across my bottom lip. “You think me a violent lunatic, yes? But I’m the violent lunaticyouwant...”

“I don’t wantyou!” I hiss, my lips burning from his touch. “How could Ieverwant you?”

A ghost of a smile plays on Red’s lips. I can’t take my eyes off them. But he’s talking shit. I’llneverwant him - he’s a thug, a murderer, an animal, a...

“Ask me to stop and I will. I’m nothing but a gentleman...” he says a split second before his mouth takes mine.

I resist.

I do.

For the first couple of seconds with his mouth on mine, one hand on my face, the other still wrapped in my hair, I fight against his strength and the scorch of his lips. Then my hands are in his hair, pulling him closer. The thick curls are soft and coarse all at the same time.

Beautiful - just like him.

His tongue invades my mouth, and electric currents shoot through my body. As the outline of his hard length presses against me, wetness forms between my legs.

A whimper escapes my lips. I don’t question it, I’m too wrapped up in the avalanche of sensations flowing through my system, my need for this man overriding all logic.

At this moment, nothing else matters.

His one hand moves to my ass, pulling me tighter against him, leaving my hand splaying over the hard ridges of muscle through the cotton of his shirt. My only thought is undoing the buttons to feel his flesh against mine.

I pull his shirt from his trousers, my fingers fumbling to undo the buttons one by one. His lips are now on my neck, his stubble scratching the tender skin of my throat in the hottest way possible. He trails searingly hot kisses, which burn me into a molten mass.