“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked, my voice harsher than I intended. My jaw tightened as I snarled through gritted teeth. “Back to Lucien, so you can fuck him, too? Was last night not enough?”
I knew I wasn’t being fair, but I hadn’t expected that, although it was there… the intense need to claim her.
She slammed her tiny fists into my chest, trying to push me back but unsuccessful in her poor attempts. I crowded into her space with a low growl, kicking her legs apart, pushing my knee between her thighs, holding my Lila captive.
Maybe it was the adrenaline pumping through my veins, but I was so damn angry. At her. At myself.
For wanting her to stay.
I… couldn’t… think… straight.
When Lila tried to push me away again, my palm slid up her neck. Her eyes widened as she stopped struggling, her lips parting with a silent gasp, and my hold tightened around her throat.
She came to me last night. She wanted me as much I needed her.
My gaze lowered to her pouty lips, begging to be kissed. My hand moved up, cupping her jaw. Slightly unhinged, with a fierce need to push her past her carefully set boundaries, I stepped over the line. “Is your sweet cunt that greedy, Lila?”
Yeah, I was an asshole.
But she was a coward for running away.
“Let go of me! What is wrong with you?!” she spat, raising her hand as if to slap me.
Finally, the reaction I was waiting for.
Before she could hit me, I clasped her wrist and jerked her hand down, pressing her palm over my chest. Feel me.
She hiccupped a soft breath, and I swore I could hear her heart pounding, just as hard as mine. Thud, thud, thud.
There was a moment, where time stopped, the world coming to a halt, before I slammed my lips over hers.
Feel me.
The moment our lips met, the world fell into a spinning silence.
Before we crash-landed. Gasping, kissing… fighting a silent war. She pushed me away and then pulled me harder against her.
Lila groaned into our kiss and opened her mouth for me. I wanted to possess her – her heart, her body… her mind. I must have completely lost it.
There was nothing sweet or gentle about this kiss.
I punished her with my teeth and my tongue, still mad that she even considered leaving me behind.
Walking… away… from… me.
My fingers gripped her nape, and she let me brutalize her mouth, whimpering but not pulling away. My teeth grazed her lower lip, feeling it swell, and the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. I must have cut her… or she bit me hard enough to draw blood. I didn’t know. I didn’t know where I started and she begun.
Her nails dug into the skin over my heart, and I hissed against her bruised lips. I pulled away, only slightly. Lila’s chest heaved with every labored breath she took. Her lips were swollen and red, ravished. Beautiful. Mine.
My breath lingered over her lips, before I pressed my mouth against hers again.
Feel me.
Everything about this kiss was… sweet and tender.
I kissed her as if it was our first kiss – how I should have kissed her the first time – when we were seventeen years old. When we had been too young and too stupid.
Lila melted in my embrace, her arms curling around my shoulders.
“I dare you to kiss me,” I rasped between our kisses, throwing her own words back at her. She dared me last night, it was my turn now.
“I dare you to stay.” My lips touched hers again. Feel me.
My heart thudded in my chest. Lila trembled in my arms, but it wasn’t from the cold. She dug her fingers harder into the curve of my shoulders.
“I dare you to give us a chance,” I said, looking into her dark, muddled eyes. “I dare you, Lila.”
When I claimed her lips again, I didn’t let go.
I knew Lila was going to fight me on this, but I had to find a way to convince her to stay.
I wanted her to need me, the same way I needed her.
The perks of being Lila’s best friend for almost four years…
I knew how to break through her walls, tear apart the carefully put together pieces of her heart.
And break her, I would – so I could put her back together and make her fall for me.