Page 114 of Severed Heart

She remains mute, staring back at me without expression, her eyes void of all warmth.

“Jesus.” I shake my head. “You really do play your part so fucking well.”

“I don’t act,” she snaps. “Not for you, not for anyone.”

“Maybe not. Your self-destruction and sabotage is far too fucking messy to be rehearsed. Did. You. Fuck. Him?”

“Go home, Tyler. I should never have entertained this.”

“I am fucking homeand just in time to clean up another mess,” I hiss. Leaning in, I slowly grip her neck, sliding my thumb to her pulse point as it pounds at a steady rate—not the accelerated beat of someone who just actively had sex and is coming down from any type of high. Even so, her expression remains calm and defiant as her void, lying eyes roll over me.

“My mess, Tyler, not yours.”

“We’ll see about that.”

She grips my hand and squeezes it, cutting off her own breath. “You don’t have it inside you.”

I cut off her air altogether. “You’re sadly mistaken, but I would never fucking hurt you. You know that. You fucking know that. Physically or otherwise. Not in the ways you’ve been hurt. Not in the same ways he hurt you. But unlike that piece of shit you married, Iwill fightfor you, Delphine. I’ll fight you with everything I have to make you mine and to keep you mine. To keep you smiling and happy. To keep your beautiful face free of fear. To keep you protected and feeling safe for as long as there is breath in me.”

She stares off with me, unflinching as I relax my grip enough for her to breathe and she laughs in my face. “Isn’t it past your bed—”

In an instant, I’m jerking her soaked body out of the tub and pulling her onto my waiting lap. Her back to my chest, she thrashes in my hold as I steady her and keep her in my steel grip.

“Let me go.”

“Such a weak protest, you don’t want that. You’re fighting a man who only wants to show you differently... did you fuck him?” I can hear the crack in my voice in the delivery.

“Did he make you come?” I ask, spreading her legs before hooking each one over my knees. She doesn’t at all struggle when I palm her stomach and rest a beat, careful not to cross the fine line I’m walking. When she remains mute, I lower my palm and slide a finger through her pussy, revulsed at the thought of someone else having just touched her.

My chest goes inferno as I force myself to forge on, unsure if I can forgive her, but in the next breath, I do. Knowing I’ll probably have to a thousand more times before this war is over.

“Did he come inside you?” I croak, my heart threatening to give out.

She remains mute, her body pliant as her silence slices into me.

“Did you let him use you to punish yourself for kissing me? For wanting me back?” I push another finger inside her as she starts to writhe in my hold. “Did you imagine it wasmeas he fucked you?”

“Non,” she snaps, as I widen my thighs to widen her own as she soaks me through my jeans and T-shirt.

“Did he make youfeel anything? Because I knowI do. That’s what you’re fighting. It’s not me.”

She moans when I add another finger, and I feel her begin to shake in my arms as I glide them in and out. In and out.

“Nah, you’re not capable of that, right? You feel nothing. Just an empty shell, only meant for abuse, or whatever cock you decide on.”

It’s then she snaps, lashing out, clawing at the arms encasing her as I continue to fuck her with my fingers, opening her up, giving just enough pressure on her clit to get her agitated. Stilling her head with my own, I put my lips to her ear.

“What’s wrong, Delphine? You want the fucking conclusions drawn but just don’t want anyone to put a voice to it? It’s the decision you make, over and over, and you expect someone to view you differently? To see you differently. You want to be viewed asmore,but act this way.”

Ripping her head from mine, she turns and looks me right in the eyes. “I willneverlove you.”

“You’re already starting to,” I declare confidently, even as that burn has its way with me. “And you’re fighting it. Have been. That’s why you’re punishing us both. Did you stage this or see it through? That’s where I’m stuck. Guess what? You’ve done your worst, and my feelings haven’t changed. There’s not a fucking thing on earth you could ever do to me to change them. So your little show was all for nothing.”

“I never should have trained you,” she snaps. “I never saw you as anything more. You’re lying to yourself.”

“Now on that, we agree, until it happened, it’s still happening. See, we’re both hungry, butyou’re the one starving. Fuck how you need it and how much I’m desperate to give it to you.” I press my fingers in and flick the tips over her G as she bucks her hips against me. “And not just for my touch, but for what’s inside me.”

Her head falls back on my shoulder when I begin to touch her like I want to, caressing her clit with tenderness as I slow my fingers and run them across her swollen flesh, my cock past full mast beneath her. “Should I feed that starving woman?”