Page 131 of Tempting Fate

It’s a miscalculation.

For some reason, my movements makes rage invade Alex’s eyes. He shifts, leaning back from me, and backhands me across the face. My cheek bursts with red-hot agony. My scalp screams when he grabs a handful of my hair and forces me to look at him.

“That’s for playing with my feelings for you so you could trick me.”

There’s no time to figure out my next move because Alex uses his grip on my hair to pull me to my feet. I’m struggling for balance when he punches me in the stomach. My abdomen blooms with pain. Bile rises in my throat when he hits me two more times. The third strike steals my breath, and I choke on vomit.

Alex’s voice is mechanical as he says, “One for each time you shot me, and an extra one for daring to make me bleed in the first place.”

Faced with the monstrous side of Alex, I try to scream. No sound comes out because I can’t breathe. My stomach hurts too much to drag in enough oxygen to fill my lungs. My face throbs. A bitter tang coats my tongue. It takes every ounce of strength I possess to remain on my feet.

If I fall, he’s going to kick me.

Stomp me.

I don’t think I’ll survive if he does that.

As the knowledge that I’m likely to die tonight settles over me, I dry heave. The stupid nausea is worse than ever. It’s matched only by the absolute agony that’s spreading through my midsection—pulsing waves of pain that make me shake and turn my vision dark at the edges.

Swaying, I drop to my knees.

Gagging hard, I wrap my arm around my stomach and attempt to push back to my feet with the other. Instead of standing, I end up face-planting on the floor. The carpet that absorbs some of the impact tickles my nose. I brace for Alex’s boot to strike my head or for him to stomp me. When he doesn’t, I make myself roll to my side, then I push myself onto my butt. My bedside drawer is at my back. I try to turn to pull open the drawer, only for another tsunami of sharp stabbing pains to pulse in waves through my stomach. Alex drops to his haunches in front of me and slaps my face.

“Stay with me, angel. I’m not finished yet.”

With the promise of more brutality colouring his tone, I lean against the drawers and do my best to prepare for his next attack. My eyes won’t stay open. I allow them to flutter shut, just for a few heartbeats. Alex pinches my chin with cruel fingers, and I force my eyelids upward, even though my eyesight has tunnelled into pinpricks.

“It’s time for your punishment for letting him take your purity. You let him steal the innocence that was meant for me… I waited for you to be ready. I treated you like a queen. I was willing to take you away from your pathetic family, yet you gave him my reward.”

When my vision clears, I cop an eyeful of Alex’s naked body. Turns out he didn’t kick me while I was face down because he was busy undressing. The bile rises again. I swallow it, reaching above my head. My movements are frantic as my pulse pounds in my ears. I need my gun. I need to kill him.

I won’t live through another rape.

I don’t want to.

He swats my arm out of the way and knocks the cup of tea over me. It’s cooled down enough that it doesn’t burn, although it still stings my eyes when it runs down my face. After Alex yanks me to my feet by my damp hair, I swing at him. My fists connect every now and then, never hard enough to hurt him though.

Dizziness gets the best of me.

Alex rips my tank top down the middle.

Before I can react, he picks me up and throws me on the bed.

Landing on my back, I kick out at him. He beats on me with both fists until I curl into a ball to escape him. While I’m fighting through the darkness that wants to steal my consciousness, Alex strips my unbuttoned jeans down my legs. Naked before him, I try to hug my knees to my chest to hide my body from his evil gaze.

It doesn’t work.

My monster digs his fingers into the flesh on either side of my windpipe. My eyes bulge when I can’t breathe. The moment the darkness wins, he lets go of my throat. I gasp, painfully surfacing from the cusp of death with one thought in my head.

Get the gun.

I launch my broken body at the nightstand. Hands flailing, heart pounding, throat burning, I wrench the drawer open. My fingers close around the butt, then they slip free as Alex pulls me away to wrestle me beneath him. I hit my head on something hard, the headboard perhaps, and stars dance in my vision.

Then Alex steals what’s left of my sanity.

The moment his cock pushes inside my body, I lose it.

Mind empty of anything but the need to kill him, I fight with every ounce of determination I can muster. His grip is bruising as I use my nails to rip his skin. I try to close my legs. Alex forces them open and thrusts inside of me with a higher level of savagery than he ’s previously unleashed on me.

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