Page 136 of Too Far

Thankfully, because of the arrangement we came up with tonight, I’ll have a lifetime to make it up to her and prove myself worthy.

Her shoulders shake with a dismissive huff. “You know what’s funny about all of this? I’m not sad. I was at first, but now I’m just mad.”

Good. I want her mad. I want to feel that fire.

“And why’s that?” I ask, inching incrementally closer.

“Because I see right through you, Decker Crusade. I see through your bullshit armor and this martyr act you love to default to. You’ve been pushing me away to protect me, but I’m still so fucking mad at you.”

She grits her teeth, her arms still locked tightly in front of her. Her leg twitches, as if she’s holding back from stomping her foot.

“So punish me,” I offer.

Her pupils blow wide—from surprise or desire, I’m not sure.

“What?”

“Punish me. Make me pay for putting you in this position, for all the pain I caused. I know there’s nothing I can say to make this up to you. So punish me. Use me however you see fit.”

Her face screws up. “What is wrong with you?”

“You’re about to be my wife,” I remind her.

Fire flashes in her eyes when I murmur those last two words.

“In name only,” she sasses.

“Punish me,” I repeat. “Let me have you tonight. Then you can go on denying me for the rest of our lives.”

My proposition lingers between us, desire thrumming in the room.

She has me pegged. I am a coward. I’m weak. But if she’s going to spend the rest of forever spiting me, then I’ll take the scraps she’s willing to give.

I’ll do anything to be closer to her in this moment.

I’ll give anything to chase the high only she brings, to taste her and savor her one more time. To make her come undone just for me. Even just this once. To prove to myself that the night I claimed her wasn’t a fever dream. To remind myself that she was fucking made for me.

“Punish me or go back to your boyfriends, Josephine. We don’t have all night.”

Except we do.

But just as I suspected, my flippant remark sets her off.

She charges forward, claws at the back of my head, and growls. “You are infuriating.”

She slams her mouth to mine as the energy notches up in the room.

Dipping down, I palm her ass and sweep her off her feet.

She clings to me with fervor and desperation as I march to the bed. Fuck, I can’t help but revel in the moment. It’s impossible not to get caught up in her desire.

When she nips at my lip, I remember it’s not desire. At least not right now. It’s anger. It’s deeply seated frustration. It’s loathing fueled by every fucked-up thing I’ve put her through, culminating in tonight’s life-changing decision.

A decision that seals our fates, crushes her future, and unlocks my wildest dreams.

Tomorrow, she’ll be my wife.

Tonight, right now, when it’s just the two of us, possibly for the last time—she swears she won’t give up the boys, and she means it with every fiber of her being—I’ll fuck her like she’s the most precious thing in my life.