Page 59 of The Cruelest Chaos

My eyes go wide as I try to catch my breath. To take in everything I just did. “No, Maverick, no—”

“But you like being hit, don’t you?” He slaps my ass, hard, and my breath catches in my throat.

I try to twist around to see him, but he grips my hair tighter, my scalp burning.

“Answer me.” He yanks my underwear down to my knees, and I hear something that sounds like a belt being unbuckled, his zipper being pulled down.

“Maverick,” I say again, my throat dry, “don’t—”

“Oh, so youdon’tlike it?” he asks me. He pulls me by my hair down onto the couch, spreading my thighs apart with one hand and then I feel the tip of his cock against my ass. “Even fucking better.”

Part of me wants to give in. Part of me wants to come up on my knees, arch my back, let him have anything he wants. Part of me wants to fall to my feet, worshipping this beautiful, violent god. I knew the night we met in the forest he’d be the next Shane. The next one to make me fall fucking head over heels and I knew that he’d use and discard me too.

But right now, he’s still using me, and I want him to.

Until he spreads me apart with his hands and his cock brushes up against somewhereI don’t want him to be.

My limbs lock and I shake my head, trying to push up on the couch. He presses his hand against my back, keeping me down.

“Maverick, no,” I say clearly, trying to let him know this isn’t a game anymore. That this is serious. “Not there, Mavy—”

He presses his chest to my back and reaches around for my throat, making me gasp. “That’s not my fucking name.”

He thrusts his hips, his cock still where I don’t want it to be, but without his hands helping him, he’s not getting inside my ass.

He seems to realize that, and he lets go of my throat, pulls back to spread me wider. I twist around to look at him, coming up to my knees, but that just gives him better access and he smirks at me.

“Maverick.” I swallow, locking eyes on him as he guides his cock to my ass. “No.”

“You want to talk now?” he taunts me, his eyes on mine as he stops for a moment.

I shake my head. “I don’t want you to—”

He presses his index finger against the tight hole, and I suck in a breath.

No.But I can’t say the word again. He wouldn’t. But I remember my words to him in the woods at Liber.Make it dangerous.

He pushes his finger into me, still holding my gaze.

“No.” It comes out in a hushed, shaky voice.

“Ella,” he says, his eyes darkening, “why’re you at that farm?”

I almost laugh at how he says it. But I don’t laugh. I don’t say anything.

He sighs, rolling his eyes and flexing his jaw. He pushes his finger further into me and it burns. “Ella,” he growls, “you don’t want to play this game with me. Not tonight.”

“Why is that?” I taunt him, refusing to give him what he wants as my entire body clenches.

“I’m in a bad mood.”

“Are you ever in a good mood?”

His jaw clenches and I can see it in his eyes, just how much he wants to hurt me.

“Talk to me,” I plead with him, tensing around his finger. “Talk to me instead of this. Why are you in a bad mood?” I try to reason my way out of this, try to use words and turn them on him. Makehimtalk.

He stiffens, anger replaced with something else. Just for the briefest moment. He moves his finger in and out of me, gripping my ass. I feel his hot cock against my thigh. “That doesn’t concern you.”