Page 46 of The Casella King

“I gave you so many years of my life, I wasted so much of my youth, only for you to decide it wasn’t enough.” Tears roll down her cheeks as she speaks, and I grit my teeth, holding myself back.

“You never apologised, not once did you give me a reason, you simply decided it wasn’t something you wanted to do anymore. Someone you didn’t love anymore. I thought you brought out the best in me, the light in me, but you were just a stepping stone. You were something I needed, to show me how much I held myself back in fear of outshining you. How much I lived in the shadows because I feared your searing judgement on what I liked or didn’t.” My skin crawls with pins, itching to kick the teeth out of his head at her words.

“I’m sorry,” he utters, sobbing with his head bowed.

“I’m not,” she says, and I raise my eyebrows, her response taking me aback.

Ray looks up at her, and she stands tall.

“For too long I felt inferior, like I didn’t deserve to have someone like you, but the truth was you couldn’t handle someone like me.”

“Someone like you?” He scoffs.

“Someone who is different from all those preppy women who clung onto you like you held their trust fund in your hands.”She moves forward, her face an inch away from his, and my lips curl into a snarl. “Someone who wasn’t given the opportunities you had in life, and who had to make her own. Someone who is stronger than you’ll ever be, so you felt like you needed me to be a watered-down version of my true self becauseyouwanted all the credit for everythingIhad endured. Like some wounded puppy you had rescued off the streets.” Her hand lands on his cheek again, whipping his head in the opposite direction.

“You fucking disgust me,” she says, leaning back and watching him whimper. Her breathing accelerates as her chest rises and falls quicker than I’ve ever seen. Her hands clench at her sides, and I watch, my chest swelling with pride.

Her screams fill the basement as she claws at him, her nails digging into his face, blood seeping from the deep cuts.

She turns to walk away from him, heading to me. Leaning into me, she whispers, her head resting on my chest, “Take me upstairs.”

You don’t have to ask me again, sweetheart.

I scoop her up in my arms and take her to our bedroom, laying her on the crisp white sheets. I turn to head back down to the basement to finish what I started, but she grabs my wrist, tears pooling in her eyes again. “Don’t leave me right now, please,” she pleads, and I nod, slipping into the bed beside her, pushing the thirst for blood back down into my stomach.

She comes first.

“How do you feel?” I ask her, hoping she will share herself with me.

“Like a weight has been lifted off me.” She sighs, her body beginning to relax against mine. “Like I’m burning, and the only thing that can put me out is a river of Ray’s tears.” Her fingers weave into mine on her stomach. “Like something inside me has crawled out from the darkest depths and latched on to me, like a tumour, growing by the second, only I welcome it.”

“I never said it would be easy, sweetheart.” I kiss the back of her head. “But the more you learn to give in to the darkness, the easier it will be to see through it.”

Ihear the shower running as I roll over, Ezra’s side of the bed now empty. Walking into the en suite, steam bellows out as I open the door. Ezra’s hands are placed on the wall, his head bowed, facing the faucet. I stop as I watch beads of water flow down his muscular back, all the way over his bare, toned ass, down to his hamstrings, and to the floor.

I swallow—the sight of him enough to cause a whirlwind inside me.

“I think I want to see Giselle today,” I say, watching him turn, his chiselled chest coming into view, my eyes skimming down from his abs, down between his legs. He grins, watching me take him in.

The shower screams luxury, no glass, just completely open, the length of an entire wall.

“Are you still a flight risk?” He moves closer to me, my mouth going dry as the space closes between us.

“Am I a prisoner?” I ask, lifting my chin, my eyes meeting his swirls of black. His hand comes up and caresses my cheek, his eyes falling to my lips.

“The only prisoners between us are the things we leave unsaid.” He steps in closer to me, our bodies now pressed together, my arms itching to wrap around him.

I think back to last night, all the things I said to Ray and the things I wanted to do to him, the sick, twisted things that had crossed my mind, but I held back. I feel the darkness sizzling, wanting to rise to the surface the more I’m around Ezra, and it scares me, just how much of me is revealed through him.

“Is there something you wish to tell me?” I ask, licking my lips, leaning into him, feeling his cock growing between us, pressing into my stomach.

He chuckles, the low vibrations sending a tingle between my legs.

“I could.” He leans into me, his lips hovering over mine. “I think you might enjoy it more if Ishowedyou.” He places his lips lightly on mine. “But after what you pulled last night, I’m not sure how much you deserve it.”

My eyes go wide.

“Believe it or not, sweetheart, even the monster has a heart, and when you walked out willingly, it left a mark.” His eyes skim down my body, sending a shiver down my spine.

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