Page 261 of By His Rule

His eyes are blazing with a potent mixture of anger and desire. It’s impossible not to react to the sight as he looms even closer.

“You’ve no idea, have you?” he rasps, his voice low and terrifying.

I don’t respond. I can’t. I’m locked in his dark stare and completely at his mercy.

“It’s you, Lorelei. You have done this.”

“I-I haven’t…I haven’t done anything.”

My chin drops when he throws his head back and barks out a manic laugh. It’s like nothing I’ve ever heard from him before.

It’s as terrifying as it is thrilling.

I cause this reaction in him. Me.

I have never felt more powerful in my life. But I’m not entirely sure I like it.

He’s hurting, that much is obvious. I heard the pain in the middle of the phone call. That was hard enough to deal with. But this...hearing itandseeing it...

It’s too much.

Way too much.

“No,” he agrees, forcing me to remember what I said only a few seconds ago. “You haven’t done anything. You’re just here,” he says, tapping his temple with more force than necessary. “Always in fucking here. Driving me fucking insane.”

“I-I can’t help that,” I cry, at a total loss for what to do here.

“I don’t want you to help, Lorelei. I want you to…” His words fade to nothing and I frown, needing the end of that sentence almost as much as I need my next breath.

“You want me to what?” I beg, needing to know what I can do to make this better.

But he never responds. Instead, he spins on his heel and marches down the hallway to his office.

Now would be a really good time to run, a little voice screams in my head.

But I don’t run. Not from men. Not even Kian Callahan.

So instead, I stomp after him.

“You can’t just march off halfway through…through…that,” I shout, throwing my hand back toward where we were as I storm into his office.

I don’t see him right away, but I sure hear him as he growls, “Yes, I can. I can do whatever the hell I want.”

I jump forward when the door suddenly slams, and when I spin around, I find Kian right behind me.

He’s lost his jacket, and his tie is hanging loosely around his neck, his collar undone.

My heart rate races to dangerous levels, and it only gets worse when he steps closer.

His eyes bounce between mine and then down to my lips.

Oh my god. Why did you follow him?

You’re fucked. Totally fucked.

“I need you to admit that you feel this too. I need to know that I’m not the only one losing my goddamn mind.”

I shake my head, still refusing to accept that there is anything here. It’s too terrifying to consider that what we had last week was anything more than a naughty hookup.

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