I fucking remember. I remember everything.”
How amazing you felt.
How well we fit together.
How it felt like home when I was inside you.
“Then…are you okay? Can you breathe alright?”
My eyes locked onto her body.
Onto the handprints, the fingerprints, the cuts, the bruises, the bite marks.
Fuck.
Fuck!
Rage blended with disgust, and I laid every fiery ferocity at her feet. “You dare ask how I am?” I stalked around the bed until I reached her side, towering over her. “You dare sit there and be concerned when you’re the one in fucking ruin? Look at what you made me do to you. I warned you. I told you to fucking run, Eleanor.”
She glanced down at her chest, at the mottling of her skin, at the crimes I’d smeared her with. And all she did—this infuriating, dangerous goddess who had never learned her place—all she did was shrug. “I’m not nearly as sore as I usually am after Euphoria. I’ve had worse.”
She jumped as a feral snarl crawled up my throat.
“You’ve had worse.” Bending over her, I planted both fists onto the bed. I used the stability of the mattress to keep me standing but also as a reminder that violence on top of violence did not equal peace. “You’ve had worse. Please, remind me when such disaster occurred before I paid money for your life.”
The tinder spark of temper filled her gaze, switching grey for glowing ember. “You want to go there? Fine.” Inhaling hard, she muttered, “I’ve had worse, Sully Sinclair, when I was beaten and stolen from a backpackers’ kitchen. I’ve had worse when I was knocked out and transported to some hovel where other women huddled in the dark. I’ve had worse when men stripped me, touched me, tattooed me, and then sent me to you.”
“You’re forgetting all of that was because of me.”
Her teeth bared. “I agree you bought me, but you weren’t responsible for me being chosen. They picked me because I was na?ve and stupid. They saw an opportunity and—”
“Fuck!” I reared back, digging my hands into my hair. Seemed honesty burned a hole in my tongue because I snarled, “It wasn’t opportunistic. It was predetermined.”
Her temper flickered a little. “What…what do you mean?”
“I mean I asked for them to find you. I gave them your description months ago. I’ve bought other girls since then. I forgot that I’d asked. I forced myself to forget that I sent traffickers an intimate description of someone who isn’t real. But then they found you. You. Were. Real. You were real enough for them to deliver you to me, and I fucking bought you, even knowing it was the biggest mistake of my fucking life.”
“But—” She shook her head. “How…how could you ask for me when we hadn’t even met?”
I ignored her question, continuing my rampage. “And then you arrived, and the moment your feet touched my shores, I knew this would fucking happen.” I sliced my hand through the air, pointing at her wounds. Wounds I’d caused. Wounds that made my throbbing cock twitch to cause more.
My teeth had punctured her throat. My cock had been balls deep inside her. My so-called love had tainted her with blood instead of beauty.
She deserved that pain.
Because it didn’t come close to the depth of mine.
“You and that haughty elegance. You and that impenetrable grace.” My voice turned into a blade, dripping with poison. I wanted her to hate me as much as I hated her. I wanted this to be an end between us.
Over.
Done.
I fucking refused to allow the emotions in my shredded heart to manifest any more than they already had, because I did not do well with love. I did not trust it. I didn’t trust anything. And most of all, I didn’t trust her. “But I did right by you. I kept myself leashed. I didn’t take you the moment I saw you. I didn’t fuck you on the beach the second you arrived. I didn’t confuse a fantasy with reality because you might look like her, but you aren’t her. You can never be her.”
“Not who?”
“I even went out of my goddamn way to protect you from me. Roy Slater offered the best deal any guest has for a goddess. And what did you do?” My nostrils flared as yet more fury exploded through my blood. “You gave me elixir. You stood there taunting me, instead of running. You let me put my hands on you, my cock in you, and my heart—” I clamped a hand over