Page 37 of While He Breathes

I sigh and lean my head back, staring up at the high ceiling. Not for the first time, I’m all too aware of how out of my depth I am.

Before Orion walked into my life, the only men I had any interest in were my marks. They were a job, a way to make ends meet, and a path to being free. Hell, before he came along, the only person I would truly call a friend was Travis. Which is sad as hell, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

And that means my interpersonal skills could use some work.

“Why are you doing this, Orion?” I whisper.

“Because I love you.” There’s no hesitation in his admission, no doubt. How can he sound so sure?

“No, you don’t.” I shake my head, more out of denial than anything else. “If you loved me, you wouldn’t have lied to me. You wouldn’t have broken my heart.”

The couch dips beside me, and it’s not until he wraps his fingers around my chin that I’m forced to look up into his dark eyes.

“You can try to convince yourself that your love for me died the night you realized I was the Hunter, but I see through the bullshit. I see what you desperately try to hide from not just me, but yourself as well.”

“I don’t love you,” I lie.

“There’s a thin line between love and hate, Ember. You can tell yourself that you hate me all you want, but that’s not going to make it true.”

A frustrated growl tears from my throat a moment before I shove myself up off the couch and take the long way around so I don’t have to climb over him.

“Where are you going, Ember?”

“The bedroom,” I snap, not bothering to turn back to him.

“Keep the door open,” he reminds me.

“Fuck you!” I yell a moment before I step over the threshold to his bedroom and slam the door shut like a teenage girl in the middle of a tantrum.

I barely have a chance to sit down on the edge of the bed when Orion steps into the room, his eyes wild and his body rolling with tension.

He prowls toward me, and I’m too struck by how dangerous he looks to move a muscle to escape him.

“Give me your hand,” he demands, reaching into his pocket for something.

“No.”

He sighs and grasps my wrist quicker than I can pull it away. Before I have a chance to so much as blink, my wrist is engulfed in a leather cuff, and a moment later I’m attached to the same chain I was when he first brought me to his apartment.

“Orion, what the fuck?” I snap.

“You need to learn that your actions have consequences.” He shrugs, his eyes filled with heat as he stares down at me.

It’s not until he steps away from the bed that I realize this isn’t the same chain at all. The last time he had me tied up like this, I had enough length to make it to the bathroom and closet, but this is much shorter. So much so that my only choice is to sit where I am or lie down.

Orion rummages through a chest at the end of the bed, and I crane my neck to see what he’s doing. It’s one of the only things I never snooped through, and now I’m regretting that choice. Honestly, I just thought it was full of blankets, but now I suspect there’s something much more sinister inside.

He drops a few things on the carpet beside him before shutting the chest and meeting my eyes with a dark smirk.

“Time for you to learn what happens when you run from me, Little Flame.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

ORION

Truthfully, I planned to ease her back into the physical side of our relationship once I had her back, but after the stunt she pulled this morning, I’m amped up and desperate for her sweet cunt.

Her body is calling to me, and maybe some orgasm denial will be enough to remind her who she belongs to.