Page 117 of Killer Kiss

I shut the refrigerator.

Riddick was on the other side.

I jumped a mile, the eggs crashing to the floor and cracking open. A tomato rolled beneath the kitchen table.

Riddick raised an eyebrow. “You’re cooking for two, I assume?”

We stared at each other.

My heart pounded.

We both lunged for the gun in the same instant.

He was taller and got there first, plucking it off the counter and holding it above his head liked some demented game of keep-away. He tutted under his breath. “Now, now, Ophelia. What would you need this for?”

I ground my teeth, fingers clenching into fists. “What are you doing here?”

He tucked the gun into his waistband, covering it with his jacket, and strolled around me in a circle, gaze creeping over every inch of my body. “See, it’s funny you should ask me that. Because I was wondering the same about you.”

I ignored the way this man sent terror through every inch of my body. For once, my mother’s warnings about never letting a man see your weaknesses seemed like good advice. “My place, Riddick. Not yours.”

He leaned on the fridge. “Now, that’s what I thought too. But you haven’t been here for days, have you, Little Ophelia?”

The ‘little’ taunt pissed me off. I was anything but, and talking to me like I was a child was a clear ploy at him attempting to take the upper hand. He was trying to get a rise out of me any way he knew how. I wouldn’t give it to him.

“Where you been, Little Ophelia?”

I refused to say a word.

He leaned in, hot breath misting across my ear. “You going to answer, or have you forgotten?” He laughed. “Silly. How about I remind you then?”

He stopped his circle of taunts, halting right in front of me, his dangerous eyes so deadly dark I was sure evil lived behind them.

“I know you’re sleeping with the target.”

Every muscle in my body locked up, fear filling my throat and cutting off the air. With the last of it, I forced out words. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Riddick moved dangerously fast.

In a second, he had my ponytail in his hand, a fierce yank on it twisting me into an awkward position that sent fire burning through my skull. I bit down on a cry, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of knowing it hurt.

“You know,” he hissed beneath his breath. “You’re making a fool out of me.”

I shook my head, hating that I winced when his grip on my hair tightened. “No, I’m not. I—”

“You think I care about your excuses? I don’t want to hear them. You know why? Because they don’t matter. You’re going to be my wife, Ophelia. That has already been arranged, and plans have been put in place.”

Bile tried to choke me at the very idea of marrying this man.

Of any man.

Any man who wasn’t Augie.

“No. I don’t want that.”

Riddick laughed in my face. “God, are you that stupid? Do you really think I care about whether you want this? Nobody fucking cares! You’ve been promised to me, and I intend to claim what’s mine.”

An anger rose in me so sharp and swift it almost knocked me on my ass. It was only the fact Riddick held me that kept me from falling. I glared at him, letting him see every ounce of hate in my heart. “I’ll never marry you. I don’t care what my family promised.”

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