“Do you feel me inside you, baby?”
A rush of desire washes over me when he calls me baby.
“Yes.”
“Good... because I’m not lettin’ a day go by without remindin’ you how perfect we are for each other.” As the ultimatum he promised he wouldn’t make visibly builds within him, I scramble to find a way to stop him from destroying us before we’ve truly found a way to be together without recriminations. “I don’t give a fuck if God himself tries to get between us, I’m keepin’ you.”
“Carter.”
“Duchess.”
Infusing each syllable with every ounce of love I feel for him, I declare, “I love you.”
Gritting his teeth, Slash withdraws until the fat head of his cock is all that’s left, then rams himself back inside me. Ridge by ridge, his piercings add an edge of pain to my pleasure. It hurts, but not as much as the disenchantment in his frosty gaze.
The deliberate cruelty in his thrust matches the possession in his voice when he confesses, “I love you, too.”
“You’re not second best.”
My husband punishes me with another pump of his hips.
I absorb his savagery without a sound, brushing his hair back from his face so I can eyeball him as I vow, “Different but equal. That’s all I can give you. Promise me that’ll be enough?”
“We aren’t makin’ promises, only actions.”
When Slash reminds me of the pledge we made a week ago, he punctuates it with his pierced cock. Our skin slaps together, a staccato rhythm set as he imprints on me. Impales me. Claims me. Through it all, the lust, the pain, the love, I don’t have the heart to tell him that he’s trying to achieve the impossible.
I am as much Zeke’s as I am his.
When the pump of his hips turns brutal, I fight to keep him from snapping.
Wrapping my legs around his waist, I attempt to hamper his movements.
Exactly like I predicted, Slash ruins our marriage before it’s even began when he states, “Equal is second place, duchess. Anything less than first means war.”
Panting, I take one last shot at salvaging our union. “I’ll walk away before I destroy you two.”
He hears the agony in my threat, but it doesn’t move him.
My husband is too far gone, too captive to his trauma to properly heed me.
So, I give him the only thing I have left to give.
My submission.
I accept his hard kiss.
Lean into the hand that collars my throat.
Hiss through the pain of his fingers clutching at my hip to stop me from arching into his thrusts. The love he feels for me is hidden behind a mask of torment as he fucks me like he hates me. It’s too hard. Too mechanical. Devoid of affection. Filled with jealousy. He’s trying to use emotion to tame a situation that can only be solved logic.
Me and Slash work.
With Zeke.
One plus one equals heartache.
One plus two equals salvation.