Page 59 of Calico Descending

I can see it in his eyes--there’s no compromise there. No care, or concern for my feelings about Valdys. This is his revenge. Reparation for hours, months, years of torture he’s endured, because of me.

I lean forward and press my lips to his, letting my tongue glide past his teeth. With my arms still pinned, I use my mouth to fight him, to cap the words that seem to have stoked his anger, and when he kisses me back, sliding his hands to either side of my face, I know I’ve broken through. Forehead pressed to his, I sever the kiss for air, my face still caught in the palms of his hands. “I’m sorry for what they did to you. Because of me. I’m so sorry, Cadmus. If I could steal some of the pain from you, I would.”

“Would you?” At the calm in his voice, I lift my eyes to his, and catch the pinch of his brows, the agony in his eyes, where an unseen battle rages inside of him.

Held imprisoned by his arms once again, I study the trepidation creeping across his face. “You’re afraid.”

His jaw shifts, muscles hardening. “I fear nothing.”

“Then, I’m afraid. For you.”

He doesn’t say anything in response, but the angry snicker tells me he doesn’t believe me.

I need him to see me, and not the girl who had him sent off to be tortured. “If you die, they win. And I can’t bear to let them win again. At your expense.”

“Perhaps you’ve forgotten who you’re talking to. I’m not Valdys.” The poisonous hate still runs thick over his words, and when he shoves his hand down into the band of my pants, yanking them to my thighs, I feel my efforts waning with him. “You belong to all three of us. It’s our Alpha blood that runs through you, therefore you are as much mine as his.” Palm smoothing down over my hip, he drags his lips over mine, but doesn’t commit to a kiss. “Why else would you respond to my touch this way?”

“Is there any part of you that respects him, at all? More than me?”

“He fucking did this to me!” His roar of anger reverberates inside the room, and I turn my head away from it, flinching as though he’s slapped me across the face.

“He wears the same band at his throat. What was done to you, was done to him, too. He’s suffered the same.”

There’s a war inside of him. If there wasn’t, he’d have taken me by now.

Cool air hits my bare sex, reminding me I stand exposed in front of him. He seems to remember, too, tugging his pants down to spring free his obvious erection, one I felt pressed against me through the fabric. With a hand on my shoulder, thumb adding pressure to the sensitive part of my throat, he rests his forehead against mine. Cock in hand, he drags his tip over my belly and licks his lips. “I just need to be inside you once. I just need to feel you one time. Get it the fuck out of my system. Out of my head.”

Tears slip down my cheeks, as I stand here, waiting for him to shove himself inside of me. “Is that all it would take? And you’d let me go?”

“Yes. I’ll let you go. He can have you.” Hot breath blasts against my cheek, as he leaves a kiss there. “Just let me feel you.”

In the seconds that follow, while his resolve to have me is surely stirred by my silence, I think of Valdys. The disappointment in his eyes. But it won’t stop this game. Only Cadmus can bring these encounters to a screeching halt, the same way he did back in the observation room--by walking away from me. “Okay.” As much as it kills me to concede, I nod my head and sniff. “Do it, then.”

Thumb rubbing against my throat, he tips his head to kiss me, and if Cadmus is capable of love and gentleness, at all, then this is his way of showing it. He guides my hand to his cock, curling my fingers around it, and, with his hand over mine, glides my palm down his smooth shaft. His eyes are on mine, drilling into me, when his tip slides down my belly, and the moment he lines himself at my entrance, the door clicks.

Both of us swing our attention toward the light that slices through the room, where Legion soldiers stand outside the door, flanked by Doctor Ericsson.

“Change of plans.” The soldiers march forward, spears in hands, and Cadmus pushes away from me, backing himself into the room, as he draws up his pants.

“The fuck is this?”

I yank my pants up, too, watching the soldiers back him into the room, and when the first guard lurches toward him, I follow their steps. “Hey! Leave him alone!”

Cadmus bats away the spear and slams his fist into the guard’s chest, kicking him back a step. When his eyes fall on me, they hold a flicker of confusion, before he turns his attention toward Doctor Ericsson standing beside me. “You promised me! You dirty fucking pricks! You made a deal with me!”

“The deal isn’t off Cadmus. You can still have her. After you return with the samples.”

I snap my attention back toward Doctor Ericsson, the rage inside of me brimming to the surface. “You lying piece of shit!” I lunge toward him, stopped short by a guard who bands his arm around my waist, trapping my hands at either side of me. “You lying bastards! All of you!”

“Get your fucking hands off her!” I hear Cadmus roar behind me, and when I turn, all six guards have cornered him, jabbing their spears into his flesh.

“Stop! Stop it! You don’t have to do this!” Kicking and squirming, I try to break free of my captor. “Leave him!” I manage to slip one hand free, and reach down to the guard’s groin. With one tight squeeze, I grab his balls and yank upward. Hard.

“Ah! You fucking bitch!” From the corner of my eye, a flash of black rushes toward my face, and the cold smack hits my cheek, kicking me off balance.

The floor crashes into my hip, and I lie there, stunned, as pain throbs in my jaw.

Another roar echoes from behind, and I turn to see Cadmus bent forward, held back by all six guards, his face a murderous shade of red.

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