Page 66 of The Cruelest Chaos

Her gorgeous red lips tug up into a smile, but she shakes her head, running one hand through her hair. She’s wearing my shirt and her underwear and nothing else. I think I wouldn’t mind seeingthatin my kitchen every damn day, but I know that’s foolish. The cloud of lust making my head spin.

I’m not made for marriage, and besides that, Ria… I don’t let myself think about that. About her.

Ella swallows. “What happened to your back?”

I exhale, run a hand through my hair and turn to the island in the kitchen, reaching across the sink to grab the vape off of it. It’s already loaded and ready to go.

I bring it up to my mouth, but she closes the space between us and covers my fingers with hers, pulling the red vape down.

She gently pulls it from me, and I let her.

She sets it beside the sink and turns to face me, crossing her arms. “Talk to me.”

I run my hand through my hair. This conversation reminds me of last night’s, before Lucifer and Ezra came over. And that conversation did not go well. And I know it’s my fault. I know I’m an asshole. I just wish…I wish she’d open up to me.“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Maverick.”

I don’t like this. Now I guess I know how she felt.

“You know my secrets. Tell me one of yours.”

I don’t actually know her secrets, but I understand I know more about her than she knows about me. Still, my jaw tightens. I fold my arms, mimicking her posture, leaning against the sink as we stare at one another. “Tell me, Ella. Tell me…what’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”

She blinks, taken aback as she looks down at her feet, rocks back and forth on her heels. “I don’t know,” she finally says, looking back up at me. “What’s the worst thingyou’veever done?”

I smile. “Nu uh, baby. That’s not how we’re gonna play this game—”

“It’s not a game, Maverick!” she snaps, dropping her arms and stepping toward me, her playful demeanor gone.

Here we fucking go.The thing about Ella is she doesn’t like nice. She doesn’t like calm. I think that’s why she goes to that fucking school. I think that’s why I fucking like her. I think she enjoys our arguments, and I think… I think I do too.

“This isn’t a game! You follow me at work. You follow me at home. You hurt my mom, take me back here like you fucking own me or something!” She jabs a finger in my chest, her face flushing pink with her anger. “You let your friends touch me, show me off like I’m a fucking toy! I don’t belong to you! And you don’t wanna tell meshitabout—”

I grab her wrist, yank her close to me, cutting her off. “I’ve never heard you say so many words at one time, kid.” My mouth is over hers, our lips touching. “It’s a shame it has to be fucking bullshit.”

She opens her mouth, but I press my palm against her lips, cutting off her words.

“Youdobelong to me.”

She jerks her head away from me, tries to yank her wrist out of my grip too, but I don’t let her go.

Every muscle in my body is coiled, and I feel hot all over. Like I just want to fucking break something. Like I want to rip her apart. Kiss her until she can’t breathe. Until she disappears into me, and me into her.

She knows nothing about the Unsaints. The 6. My real life. She’s an escape. She’s what my life might be if it could be something else. If there wasn’t a girl locked inside my basement. If there wasn’t a price on her head. A price I’ve gotta pay in five weeks.

This, between me and Ella…it’s nothing. It can neverbeanything more than nothing. But if she wants to make it hurt, if she wants to make this painful, too, our time together, then that’s fucking fine with me.

She lifts her free hand to slap me and I catch that wrist, too. I spin her around, shoving her against the sink, holding down her hands and she snarls up at me. She lifts her knee to kick me, but I press my legs against her bare ones, shift both of her wrists to one hand, and then I snatch up the chef’s knife from the block on the counter.

She stills.

Her entire body is frozen, her eyes wide.

I held a knife to her throat in the woods at Liber and she didn’t react likethis, but then again, she had taken a fucking handful of Xanax and been drinking.

I skim the point of the blade down her bare arm, beneath the sleeves ofmyshirt.

I watch as goosebumps rise on her skin, look down at her as she swallows.