well go out with my head held high. She swallowed and finally summoned her words. “How dare you?”
He laughed. It was a low, cruel, vicious-sounding thing. “How dare I what?”
“How dare you think that you could not tell me the truth? How dare you think I would prefer the lies to the facts? Did you think I would loathe you as you clearly loathe yourself for what he did to you?”
“Careful, pretty girl…” He stalked back toward her, calling her bluff, and she pressed to the wall. “Watch your words.”
“Or what, you’ll cut out my tongue?” She sounded stronger than she felt. She took pride in that much.
“No. I’ll stuff your mouth full of something else and put it to better use.” He pressed himself to her, and she felt something large, eager, and demanding against her abdomen.
Holy Hera.
His hand twisted in her hair and yanked, forcing her head to tilt back and to the side, allowing him to nuzzle her throat. He bit her—actually bit her! She squeaked and punched at his shoulders. He didn’t break the skin, but it stung.
She pushed him back and slapped him again.
Smack.
He laughed. “Eleven and twelve, pretty girl…getting dangerously high. One more, and I get something in return.” He pressed into her again, refusing to let up. She went to hit him, not caring about his threats, but he caught her wrists. He pinned them to the wall over her head with one hand and drifted his lips up toward her ear. He ground his body into hers, and she whimpered at the feeling of him there, outlined painfully in his trousers.
He groaned profanely, his voice as dangerous as it was sultry. “Do you know how hard it made me to watch you dress Viktor down like he was a schoolyard bully? How much I loved you when you defended me? No one has ever defended me. Not once in my life. And you…fuck, Hope…Slap me again. Do it. Do it so I can throw you down onto my bed and love you like you deserve.”
“You lied to me.”
“I did. I’d say I was sorry, but…I’m not. I like my stories. They’re better than the truth. I’m not the madman they say I am. I know my fantasies are just that. But I will say this…you’re right. I should have told you. Out of anybody, you would understand. You’d understand that even now, as a god, I’m still a slave all the same.” He ran his tongue up her throat, trailing back down to circle the spot where he had bitten her. He sucked on the skin, pulling it between his teeth, making her wail and writhe. She didn’t know which was less escapable—him or the stone at her back.
He moaned and wandered his lips back up to her ear. “Do you like it a little rough, pretty girl? Do you?”
“I don’t know…”
“I’m going to have a lot of fun finding out. And I’m going to find out the answer right now.”
She went to protest.
But when he kissed her like he would devour her soul, she couldn’t. She couldn’t breathe. And the fire that coiled low in her body demanded she shut up and find out with him.
14
Nero held Hope pinned to the wall. By all the gods above and below, she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Not just the most beautiful—fates—what he felt transcended lust. Oh, how he loved her. She had put Viktor in his place like the East Wind was nothing more than a boy.
Damn the East Wind to the pits. Damn him to the fiery rivers of Hades for what he tried to do! He was sure the asshole tinker considered himself “noble” and “kind” for whispering Nero’s secrets to his hopeful bride.
Viktor had always wanted to destroy Nero at every turn.
He watched the mark he was leaving on Hope’s neck gradually turn red. It would be a bruise in the morning, and it would be beautiful. It was high enough that it would be hard to hide. Good. It was proof that she was his.
Hugo was going to stay the night. Viktor wasn’t. Not that he was welcome, anyway. He grinned against her skin at the idea of flaunting her bruise to the West Wind. That was if he didn’t give her a few more good ones before the dawn.
Or after the dawn.
Or after breakfast.
Or after lunch.
He moaned and pressed himself against her again. He had never been this turned on in his life.