beg. It hurts a little, and yet, it’s not enough. I want to feel branded, knowing that when this is over, neither of us will ever be the same. The thought of losing him should make me stop, beg insanity, and hope that everything goes back to the way it was before, but I can’t. Now that I’ve felt heaven, I’ll never be able to go back.
“Fuck, touch yourself, Red,” he grunts out.
I obey without hesitation, sliding my fingers down between my slick folds, feeling him disappear inside me. I coat my fingers with my wetness and drag them up over my clit, swirling around the swollen nub, speeding up my movements to mimic his.
“I’m not gonna last much longer, V, get yourself there,” he warns, but it’s not needed, I’ve been balanced on the edge, just waiting for him. When he dips his head and snags my earlobe between his teeth and bites, I scream, clenching around him as that tiny hint of pain shoves me over the edge, and I drag him right over with me.
We both stay still for a moment, our breaths rapid, our bodies slick with sweat before he rolls off me and pulls me against him.
“Wow. That was, wow. I can see why people like doing that,” I breathe out heavily.
He laughs, “Well, I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
“Oh, you should, you definitely should,” I agree.
“Let me just get rid of this condom,” he murmurs, pulling away from me, disappearing into the bathroom as my eyes close and I snuggle deeper into the pillow with a contented grin on my face as sleep pulls me under.
The sound of a gun cocking has me blinking my eyes open, suddenly wide awake.
“Well, I guess I thought you’d have better pillow talk than that, but then what did I expect?” I choke out, the light from the hall casting just enough of a glow through the cracked door to illuminate Kai’s naked body with his gun in his hand aimed at my head.
He might not have pulled the trigger yet, but my heart’s already bleeding out all over the floor.
“Sorry, V, it wasn’t really meant to go this far, but you make me lose my mind. Get up,” he orders.
I slide from the bed, wincing at the pain between my legs, but I don’t show any outward reaction. The dim room offers me just enough cover to shield my facial expressions.
I stand before him as naked as he is, feeling my cooling arousal and blood on my thighs and blink when he flicks the lamp on. He freezes when he catches sight of my blood on the sheets, making me realize that he’s not as okay with hurting me as he has convinced himself.
“What’s the plan now, Reid, you gonna shoot me? Is that why you insisted on a condom? So you didn’t leave all your DNA inside me, or was it because you were worried about fucking a dirty little street rat?”
“Shut up. You have no idea what you’ve done. What you’ve set in motion. I tried to get you to fly under the radar, but it was just impossible.”
“Save me your fucking speeches, Reid. If you’re going to kill me, do it now. I have better things to do, like dying, for instance, than listening to you justify your actions.”
“Shut up,” he snaps.
“Why? You’re going to kill me anyway, so what does it matter?”
He pulls the gun away and grips his hair with both hands. The gun still in his hand keeps me glued to my spot.
Trying a different tactic, I rein in my temper and try a different approach. “I trusted you. I gave you the only thing I had that was all mine, and you shit all over it. I thought we were more, but I guess I really am the naïve little girl you always painted me as.”
“I told you I was a bad man, the fucking worst, but you insisted on seeing something in me that just isn’t there.”
“Bullshit. I know you care for me, Reid, you’re just too chickenshit to admit it and too fucking under Zodiac’s thumb to ever be your own man. I guess my mistake was thinking you might one day be king when you’ll never be anything more than a foot soldier.”
He turns the gun back toward me, aims, and fires.
I fall to the unforgiving stone floor, my head smacking against the ground hard enough for me to see stars. I wait for the