The Darkest Wolves - A.K. Koonce Page 0,12

ignore.

“Really?” With force, he shoves off from his leaning spot across the room, and he prowls toward me, one foot in front of the other, with perfect predatorial pride. When he’s near enough, his knee lifts and he props himself there at the foot of the bed. A safe space of four feet separates me from the arrogant Hell Cunt whose nose I’ve already bloodied once tonight.

Does he want to clean up his pretty boy face all over again?

Every move he makes is accounted for. I glare at him hard, but I note every single ticking muscle that tenses beneath that golden skin of his. His palms flatten against the smooth black blanket. One by one, his fingers dig in, fisting the fine cloth into his palms.

And then he pounces.

He shoves off from his perch so fast I don’t process it at all. It’s a blur of movement. And a slamming of hard body weight forces me down beneath him.

“You can take it?” he growls as his nails dig into my wrists above my head.

Power radiates off of him in heated waves, but I never move. I let him show me everything he’s harboring. Every inch of his body aligns with mine, his hips hard between my thighs as his lips graze along my jawline.

And still I do nothing but watch him.

And wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Confusion lines his brow, and he searches my face.

He embarrassed me, covered me in his mucus, and now he forces me down to show me who’s in charge.

I see the role here. I do. And I know exactly what the point is he’s trying to make.

Will I break in this kingdom of hell?

“Where’s your fucking fight now?” He jerks against my wrists harder, stretching me out even more beneath him. I don’t so much as shift against his dominating frame. “Fight, Cersia!” he commands, but it isn’t like Zilo. It isn’t the sound of dominance.

It’s the sound of desperation.

How did his prince break him so hard for his tortured soul to be so hellbent on hurting everyone he meets?

“No,” I whisper so softly it hurts to say the simple word to him.

Why do I have this reaction to him? Why do I have the sudden illogical urge to wrap my arms around him and never let anything in this world hurt him?

“You have to fight here.” Big jewel-like eyes are soft as he studies the curves of my features. “If you don’t fight—”

“They’ll break me,” I finish for him. Strong hands slip off of mine, and I catch his fingers in mine before he has a chance to slip away. I hold his hands the same way he was just holding me. But not to force violence from him. I do it to ensure he knows I’m here. I’m here because of him. For him…

“They’ll break me either way, Roman. How I react to their torment is what will earn me insight into who they are. And what their weaknesses are.” At that, he suddenly seems aware of how intimately he’s pressed against me. My fingers are intertwined with his, our chests are melded perfectly together, and…and his cock is very hard against my center.

Who would have thought kindness was this bastard’s weakness?

His long fingers fling out, and he pulls his hands as well as every single part of him swiftly away from me. He’s striding across the room in less than half a second.

It’s my turn to smile smugly.

“You need to get changed. Clean up. You look disgusting.” He lifts a hand, gesturing toward a bathtub in the corner, and I note there are several ivory gowns hanging on a hook just to the left of the shining black tub.

For the next several minutes, he does a fine job pretending his thick cock isn’t still jutting out as he pulls out a pair of black jeans and starts carelessly pulling them on.

While I watch him like he’s my new favorite hobby.

I will understand him. I will learn everything about him. And then…yeah, then I might do him.

Because that’s what hobbies are for, filling the hole in our life and such.

A frustrated sigh parts my lips, and I mimic him as I too pretend he isn’t just a few yards from me while I consider the massive bath filling the corner with strange but mesmerizing glittering black water practically inviting me in. It all feels sort of unreal in a way.

The last twenty-four hours are a chaotic mess in my mind.

I really changed my life.

I might