Page 57 of Wicked Princess (Knight's Ridge Empire 2)

“Let me show you how serious I am about missing you. Let me prove that the person you think I am isn’t the only part of me.”

“So you’re not a complete cunt, then?” I ask, trying to keep my head on straight. I can’t fall straight into this… this bullshit. I can’t.

My head knows it’s wrong, but my heart… that wants to dive headfirst into what Seb’s offering, and I can’t allow that to happen.

“Just don’t tell anyone else. There’s usually only one girl who gets to see another side of me.”

“Another girl?” I ask as the fabric around my hips falls loose.

“My niece. Come home and you can meet her. She used to be the only one who could wrap me around her little finger.”

“Used to be?” I whisper as his fingers drag my straps from my shoulders, baring me to him.

“Yeah. Fuck, baby.”

Before I even know he’s lifted me, my back hits the mattress and he crawls over me, caging my body to the bed with his and dipping his head to capture my lips in a searing kiss.

Silently, he tells me everything I’m too terrified to acknowledge in his words. And as he brings his hands to my body, he touches me as if I’m the most delicate, precious thing in the world.

It makes every inch of me sing in a way I’ve never experienced.

And I fucking hate it.

I need the old Seb. The vicious, brutal lover who ensured I knew that the only thing between us was pleasure, if he allowed it.

This… this is too much.

“I-I need you to stop,” I tell him, my voice firm as I plant my hand in the middle of his chest and try to push him from me.

Taking pity on me, he lifts up.

A deep frown mars his brow as he stares down at me.

He looks like a confused puppy. It’s almost cute. Or it would be, if I didn’t know the brutality he was capable of.

Pushing a little harder, I force him to roll off me and quickly scramble from the bed before swiping his shirt from the floor and fleeing from the bedroom.

My chest heaves as I fight to drag in the air I need, the walls continuing to close in around me.

“Fuck,” I breathe, pushing my hair back from my face as I race for freedom.

I’m at the front door, ready to rip it open and drag in lungfuls of fresh air, when his booming voice stops me.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

The anger in his tone stops me in my tracks.

“You need to stop with the act, Sebastian. Stop pretending that you’re here for me because you care when we both know you don’t.”

He gasps, sucking all the air from the room as if I’d just hit him.

Spinning on my heel, I almost smile at the sight of the fury on his face.

“You don’t get to keep running from me, Stella.”

“Says who? You?” I ask, throwing my arms out. “Newsflash, asshole. I don’t, and never will, answer to you.”

His jaw tics as his teeth grind.