Page 27 of Scars Run Deep

“You were off-kilter when they hit. In a state of shock, actually.”

I stared at him.

“After you mistook Olivia for your mother? Then the revelation about your mother and my father enjoying a twisted fling of some sort?”

I held up my hand, only just stopping myself from making a gagging noise. “I know what the revelations were.”

And I hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface of processing any of that yet.

“You’re making excuses for me. Why?”

“Because you obviously need me to. But you shouldn’t. You shouldn’t be afraid of what you are, especially not that part of you. You shouldn’t be ashamed of that delectable darkness, that thrill of the depravity of it all, that you like it when things get twisted, that you thirst for the power it brings with it.”

“Stop.”

“Hurt. Dominate. Punish. Get off on the violence and pain. Take pleasure in it. Own its power, little beast.”

I hissed through my teeth.

And then I was pouncing on the bed and straddling him over the covers, my hands slapping down either side of his head on the headboard.

He tipped his head back to meet my eyeline.

It was like he was stripping me naked as his gaze roamed over my body, and heat rolled through me. I longed to rub my thighs together to alleviate some of the hot need burning there.

“That merciless, untamed, and boundless part of you meshes so well with the monster in me,” he uttered on a hoarse rasp as he stared up at me, his eyes threatening to set me alight with the flames of hellfire dancing in them. “Don’t be ashamed of who you are. You’re a world apart when you let it all go and just be.” He reached out and tucked some stray strands of my hair behind my ear. “Just. Like. Me.”

“A world apart?” I breathed, turning into his touch, even the brush of his fingers in my hair sparking all my nerve endings to life.

The gentle went away in the next moment and he grasped my jaw. “There’s nothing quite like having you unleashed in all your fucking glory.”

I ran my fingers down his shoulder, over his sling. “You’re hurting for me.”

“I couldn’t exactly leave you to tumble to your death now, could I?”

“You went above and beyond.”

“I’d do nothing less when you’re mine.”

I sank my fingers into his hair and breathed him in. “Asher.”

He grasped my jaw harder, watching me with hooded eyes.

“Say it. Say you’re ours.”

“I am,” I breathed, my thighs tightening around him as the heat became too much. “I’m yours.”

In the next second, he released my jaw, then his hand was delving deep into my hair and he had me hissing as he used it as a handle to jerk me down to him.

Our mouths clashed violently.

Tongues swirling.

Teeth gnashing.

Lips biting.

It was so fucking wild and completely out of control.

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