Page 94 of Twisted Cage

But if he thinks he can break me with a tone so freakishly benign it’s terror-inducing, he should sit his ass down and think again.

He didn’t teach me to cower. “You’re going to have to take it.”

A spine-tingling laugh breaks from his lips and I’m hit with the stark realization… I don’t know this man standing before me. I have no idea what he’ll do or how far he’ll go.

“Just the answer I expected.”

“I won’t make it easy for you.”

“Oh, I’m sure you won’t. I’m looking forward to the battle, Pcholka.” His hand shoots out so fast his watch is barely a flash streaking past my vision before his hands lock in my hair and he yanks my head back. Pain shoots through my scalp.

“I’m looking forward to it very much,” he says, marching me backward toward the bed, his other hand going to his belt.

The fingers in my hair flex, easing my pain, but solidifying his grip as he drags my head back impossibly far and looms over me.

“If you hit me with that fucking belt, Konstantin…” My voice dips almost as cold and deadly as his. My throat strains with every word from the angle of my neck as I glare up at him. “I swear on my mother’s grave I will cut your fucking heart straight out of your chest and shove it down your throat.”

“Invoking your mother, huh?” He sneers the question, a cruel tilt to his lips. “Just remember, you brought her into this, not me.”

The minute I open my mouth to reply, he swallows my response with a violent kiss. Sucking the air straight from my lungs, he snarls and bites, keeping my head tipped back so far I’m sure my neck will snap at any minute.

With a brutal yank, the belt flies from his belt loops, his arm rearing back with the force.

My hand is on the knife as the words fill my head once again.

Everyone falls into one of two categories…

I don’t think. I strike. My blade slices clean from his abdomen and up over his ribs.

A violent grunt tears from his mouth and he gives me one hard shake. “You think the slice of your blade can possibly do more damage than your betrayal?” He bites my lip and drags it away from my mouth before letting it snap back. “You have no idea what you’ve done. None!”

He throws me on the bed as though I weigh nothing, knocking the wind out of me. My teeth rattle and the knife rolls out of my hand, his blood smearing on the gray sheets.

Just as I push onto my elbows, he’s on me. “Oh no, you don’t.” He yanks my ankle, leaving me flailing on my back.

Leather hisses through the air and my eyes shoot open wide. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Barely winded, he straddles me. With lightning speed, he cages one wrist, then the other, his movements too fast for me to see much more than loops flipping through the air. Before I know what’s happening, he’s created snug makeshift cuffs. The leather bites into my skin, a painful promise I will not wiggle my way free.

“I earned every scar on this body protecting you… I guess it’s only fitting you leave a few of your own. But tonight, one slice is all you’re going to get.”

I can scream. I can let out one good fucking scream and someone will come.

But I don’t and I don’t dare examine why.

Yanking the belt a fraction tighter, he drags my hands over my head. I crane my neck and catch sight of a metal loop he’s dragged from behind the mattress.

The blood-soaked slash of his shirt hovers over my mouth. Crimson leaks from the cut, and a subtle metallic odor tickles my nose. The urge to taste him surges through me. Before I realize what I’m doing, I dive my tongue through the slit of his shirt, landing on the gash over his ribs.

The minute my tongue makes contact, he freezes. He thrusts a merciless hand into my hair and draws me in for more.

I trace my tongue over the damage, lapping over the blood, pain and revenge metallic and warm on my mouth.

When he decides I’ve had enough, or he has, he settles over me. He has to outweigh me by at least a hundred pounds of pure hard muscle, and although he has me pinned to the bed, he’s keeping the bulk of his crushing weight off me.

His eyes flash down to my breasts. The air crackles with curious energy as he dips his index finger into the valley between them.

“Your mother didn’t breastfeed either of you.”

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