Page 31 of Cruel Dominion

“That’s yours,” she repeated, then shook her head with a scoff. “Of course it is. Look, Carter, I just came here to think. Whatever you want from me, I’m not in the mood.”

“Too bad,” I said, my voice dropping an octave all on its own. “You owe me answers, Anna.”

“I told you where I went,” she said immediately. “Malawi. I would have called, except you made it pretty clear that you didn’t want to speak to me again.”

I cringed inwardly. If I could wipe away everything I said when we broke up, I would do it. I would have given up my whole fortune, my home, every goddamn thing I owned to erase that day.

But I had bigger concerns. I wanted to confirm, once and for all, that it was Josh who left those bruises on her.

“I’m more interested in learning who hurt you.”

She scoffed again, folding her arms across her chest. “Why do you care?”

My eyes narrowed. Things between us ended badly, but how could she pretend like what we shared would ever be really gone? I was never going to stop wanting her. Never.

“You know why,” I said in a low voice.

She looked at me skeptically, her perfect pink lips pursed, brow raised.

I let her see it.

See me.

The truth.

She did know why. She just needed reminding.

The tension in her forehead went slack as she read something in my quiet stare, her lips parting in a way that made my cock thicken in my slacks.

“Carter, I?—”

I curled my hand around the back of her neck, pulling her to me roughly to crush my mouth against hers.

10

ANNA

Kissing Carter Cole, time stopped existing. The world outside of this patch of sand melted away.

The sweet, eager kisses from my memories melded with the expert, relentless way he kissed now. Every shift of his lips and flick of his tongue lit me on fire. Burning away the memories of any man who touched me in his absence. Carter was everywhere. And I was powerless to escape him.

He kissed me greedily, like he was touch-starved and had been waiting for this moment just as long as I had. It was a beautiful, dangerous lie, but one I wanted so badly to believe.

One of his hands tangled in my hair, tugging at the pins holding my updo in place. The other hand grabbed me by the waist and pulled me hard against him, making me arch into the hollows between our bodies until I was reminded of how fucking perfectly we fit together.

My nipples peaked, rubbing deliciously against his hard chest. Fuck, those shirtless pictures didn’t do the reality justice. He felt as strong and solid as the earth itself.

His teeth skimmed my bottom lip and I moaned, unconsciously encouraging him as he bit the soft flesh until I gasped and his grip on me tightened tenfold.

I ran my hands up his arms, feeling the divots of the muscles under the fabric of his shirt. My fingers mapped him, finding the soft parts that had hardened, the lines of his back, the softness of his hair. Every change to him felt right, like he had chiseled away until he became the truest version of himself.

No.

No.

I pulled away and met his icy blue eyes. Suddenly, I was pulled right back to my senior year. Looking into the same eyes on the same beach.

The cold reality crashed down on me and my stomach twisted.

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