Page 6 of Fool's Gold

“Seriously, I can go in the other room if you need alone time,” River says at the same time.

I glare at River in the middle of their protests; I don’t give a shit what either one of them has to say.

“Leave.” I’m not going to repeat myself again.

River jumps at my scratchy tone and hustles toward the purse she haphazardly cast across the counter. Flinging it over her shoulder, she glances back at Empire.

“Hey, call me again if you need me. I’ll head over as soon as I’m able. Anything you need, I’ll be here.” River glares at me, her agitation falling way short of the bubbling fucking eruption inside me, and she stalks toward the door, somehow managing to look haughty and aloof at the same time.

“You have no right to come after me and talk to my friends that way,” Empire mutters the moment we’re alone.

She heads toward the attached living room to put distance between us.

“You should apologize to River.”

To River, but not to her?

Red flares at the edges of my vision again. “Do you have any idea how fucking terrified I was with you taking off?”

I descend on her. Grabbing at her elbow to stall her motion. I cage her between my arms and the countertop jutting out from the wall. Crowding her and forcing her to look at me.

“I don’t care how you feel. Be terrified. You should have kept your distance,” she snarls at me.

She shakes her head, and I grab her chin between my thumb and forefinger to force her to look at me. “I’m done keeping my distance. We need to have a conversation.”

“I don’t want to hear anything. I don’t want to see you or listen to you. Your voice is giving me a headache.” Empire bares her teeth. “Why don’t you take off the way you usually do? If you stay, you’re only going to piss me off and give the press something new to chew on. Especially in this house.”

My stomach drops. It’s foolish to think she hasn’t seen the articles. No doubt she’s been going through every single one of them and allowing them to devastate her with their mentions of her parents. I know Empire. I know exactly what she does to hurt herself. Even when she tried to come here to get away from it all.

“You don’t have a choice,” I growled. “I’m not taking off, and neither are you.”

She sneers at me, her skin twisting where I’ve gripped her. Not hard enough to leave bruises but pretty damn close.

“Oh, trust me, I absolutely do have a choice. You made sure of it. I am now legally my own entity because you. Didn’t. Want. Me.”

She slaps at my wrist, but I refuse to let go.

“We need to have a conversation,” I repeat, “and it means keeping us both alive. So, you’re going to shut your mouth and listen. Because I’m not willing to let you die.”

THREE

It’s impossible for me to think with Marcus this close. He’s got me trapped, using his body as a prison.

Every inch of him is pressed against me, from the long lines of his legs to the strength of his chest and his furiously beating heart.

The way he holds me, and the look in his eyes… I’ve never been able to control myself when Marcus looks at me. Right now, it feels like my blood is boiling. Not in the same way his is, of course; desire pools between my legs.

It rises higher and higher and mingles with the red-hot rage at his rejection.

“Stop touching me.”

I need to sound a lot more forceful than I do to get him to listen to me.

If anything, his eyes darken, and his grip remains firm.

How can I want him? Even when I know it’s not safe? He’s a dangerous man, and for some reason, I want to say screw it and let him hold me tight while he feeds me those pretty lies.

I lap them up every time.

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