Page 30 of Tempting Fate

Looks like I’m going to have another scar.

Another reminder of his impact on my life.

“Unrepentant Jezebel.” Alex’s insult barely registers, but the pile of material that hits me full in the face does. “Put these on. We’re leaving.”

Tossing the clothing onto the floor, I cup the throbbing side of my face, then push myself into a sitting position. After furiously dashing away the blood that runs down my cheek, I ignore the sting as I rearrange my lips into the kind of smile that once worked on him.

It’s sweet.

Beguiling.

Coated with invisible venom.

“I’ll submit to you if you promise me three things?—”

“Only three things?”

Alex’s expression is grim as he turns his attention away from the bag that he’s packing to focus on me, and I realise my plan has worked. I’ve distracted him. Bought myself a few more minutes in this location.

Will it be enough time for Zeke to rally the Shamrocks?

“I don’t need to compromise with you,” Alex chides. He drops the gun on top of the bag, takes hold of my shoulders, his fingertips bite into my flesh, and he shakes me. “I hold all the cards. You’ll commit because you’re smart enough to realise that I’m right.”

My temper flares in the face of his stupidity.

Without thinking, I laugh at him.

How come he never learns?

“You’re confusing commit with submit once again.” The glare I give him could strip paint, yet Alex remains impervious. “You can get me to submit to you with the cards you’re holding—maybe. I mean, it didn’t work all that well for you last time... but you’ll never be able to get me to commit to you. I’ll always be looking for a way to escape.”

“You’ve changed, Lily,” Alex mumbles as he turns back to the bag. If I didn’t know that he was a sociopath, I’d assume I’d offended him. Before he can recommence packing, I laugh, and the sound has him spinning back around to face me. “You’ve always challenged me like nobody else, but never to this extent. You’re starting to push it too far. What the hell happened to you?”

His disingenuous question is the straw that breaks my fragile hold on sanity.

What happened to me?

Alexander Kingsley is what happened to me.

Rather than Alex lashing out at me like I’d planned, I’m the one who sees red. I start screaming insults. I’m not sure what I say, my mind is past the point of filtering my words, but I am aware that I’ve slapped him three times before he can even begin to subdue me. As alarm bells ring in my head, I hear myself make the biggest mistake I can right now. I wave a hand down my body, and I admit to the evilest man I’ve ever met, the one thing I know will set him off. “You broke me. What you see now… is how I was rebuilt by…”

Zeke’s name dies on my lips when Alex knocks me onto my back and pins me to the mattress with his body. Immediately, my PTSD is triggered and my panic response flickers to life. I slap him across the face and push at his chest, determined to free myself. When I rake my nails down his cheek, he wraps both hands around my throat.

“Fuck. Stop it, you little whore.”

Ignoring his curse, I try to punch him. He grabs my arms and pins them with his legs. When his hands return to my throat, I buck beneath him and roll from side to side. Alex absorbs my rage with ease, but I’m too far gone in my head to heed the danger. Adrenaline fuels me. Fear controls me.

My body vibrates with the need to get away from him.

My brain screams at me that capitulation means death.

Alex is unstoppable.

I am uncontrollable.

He shoves me deeper into the mattress and punches me in the face as hard as he can.

I see stars.

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