Page 2 of Serpent King's Bride

But my focus never wavered from my goal. With each breathless moment, I edged closer to salvation—or doom.

Tyler’s gun.

“Stop!” he roared, his voice filling the room like thunder.

I didn’t bother responding, focusing on survival instead. My fingers reached out wildly, grabbing anything they could—a vase, a lamp, books—and I hurled them behind me in a frantic attempt to slow him down. It bought me precious seconds, enough to glance at Tyler’s lifeless form sprawled on the floor. The gun was just an arm’s length away from his cold hand.

“Give up, Abby! It’s over!” Nathan closed the gap with alarming speed.

But I wasn’t giving up—not yet. With a burst of energy fueled by pure instinct, I lunged for the gun. Almost there...

“Gotcha!” Nathan’s muscular forearm collided with my midsection with the force of a battering ram. Air whooshed from my lungs as I was sent hurtling backwards, my body crashing painfully against the hard floor.

The world spun momentarily, and I tasted copper. Pain flared through my skull where it had slammed into the polished wood. For a split second, everything went black, and then the pain sharpened my senses, pulling me back to reality.

Through a haze, I saw Nathan looming above me, his brown eyes—usually as calm as still water—now swirling with fury and something else...something dangerously close to excitement.

No time to read him.

The realization hit me then; I hadn’t dropped the knife. My fingers clenched around the handle of the butcher knife like a lifeline, its familiar weight grounding me amidst chaos. I somehow managed to stand up again, facing off with the man I loved and hated and feared all at once.

“Come on, Abby,” he said, his voice surprisingly quiet. “Don’t make me do this.”

Nathan lunged.

Instinct overrode fear as I twisted my body, the blade in my hand arcing through the air. It connected with his arm, slicing through his skin with a sickening sound. His reaction was immediate—a sharp intake of breath, a step back, dark eyes wide with shock and pain as crimson blood dripped to the floor.

“Fuck!” he roared, more in surprise than anger.

I didn’t wait for him to recover. Using the distraction, I tried to sidestep away, desperate for some distance between us. But Nathan was a force of nature—quick despite his size, and just as driven as I was.

He tackled me, body pressed to mine in a dark reflection of how we’d woken up this morning, entangled. We grappled with each other, my voice coming out more of a rage-filled shriek than a fearful scream–and I knew then that he was finding out very quickly who I really was. He wanted to kill me, he would kill me…

…but he didn’t.

He hesitated, just for a fraction of a second. That was all I needed. Adrenaline lent me strength as, with a twist and a shove, I managed to roll Nathan off me and reverse our positions. Now on top, I grabbed the fallen knife from the floor, my breath coming in sharp gasps as I pressed the sharp edge to his throat.

“Move, and I’ll do more than nick your arm,” I warned.

A bead of blood welled up where the blade met skin…and it hurt me just as much as it hurt him, I thought. I didn’t want to hurt him, didn’t want to kill him.

At this point, I was on his side, not the FBI’s.

Nathan’s muscles tensed beneath me—a coiled spring ready to unleash its power. But he was smart enough to know that any sudden movement would spell his end. His eyes, once filled with fury, now held a glint of begrudging respect.

“Go ahead then, Special Agent Harper,” he ground out. “Arrest me. Kill me. You’d be doing the world a favor.”

My grip on the knife tightened as I leaned closer, feeling his ragged breaths against my face. The words came out cold and hard. “I should. I really should. No one would blame me. Hell, they’d probably throw a damn parade in my honor.”

That’s when I saw it—the flicker in Nathan’s gaze, the subtle shift in his energy. It wasn’t fear. It wasn’t anger. It was…arousal, dark and primal.

A shock ran through me, and I couldn’t help but lean down even closer, close enough to feel the heat radiating from his body. We were still barely dressed–me in my robe and panties, Nathan in nothing but thin grey sweats. I moved my hips, just an inch, and I could feel his cock twitch to attention.

I couldn’t believe it.

Not even as I whispered, “Holy fuck…this is turning you on, isn’t it?”

Chapter Two: Abby

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