Page 29 of Black Heart

He doesn’t listen. Instead, he pulls me closer to him, his other hand wrapping around my waist. Despite the fear coursing through me, I can’t deny the way my body responds to him. Every inch of my skin is on fire even though every synapse in my brain screamsMONSTER.

“You think this is over just because I have the thumb drive?” he murmurs with almost casual amusement. “You’re wrong. I could end you with a flick of my wrist.”

I try to yank free, but he only tightens his hold when he holds a blade to my throat.

Despite the shriek building in my chest and demanding to be let out, I hold his cold, bottomless gaze. “Then why don’t you?”

“Because you’re the first thing in years I’ve wanted to keep alive.” His mask tickles the shell of my ear.“I won’t let you go.”

I open my mouth to scream, but he cuts me off, his hand sliding up my arm, a snake coiling around its mouse. “Don’t tryto deny it, Wraithling. I can smell the sweet scent of your arousal and feel the way your body trembles for me.”

“Out offear.”

I try to pull away again, but he makes it impossible for me to escape. He tilts the point of the knife until it presses under my jaw, forcing my head up.

“I could take you right here, right now,” he says offhand. “If I ever let you scream, it will be with my name on your tongue, begging me to touch you again.”

I gasp, but I’m not sure if it’s with apprehension or surprised delight that a man like this, so feral and beautiful, could be drawn to someone like me.

Pathetic, I know, but I’ve never discounted my flaws. I can feel the heat between my legs building, the ache becoming almost unbearable.

“But I won’t,” he continues, angling his head. “Not yet. First, you need to understand what you’re getting yourself into.”

I catch the hunger in his tone too late.

He clasps me by the throat and pushes me back against the railing until I’m dangling, the toes of my shoes scraping against the floor as I grip his arm and beg him not to let me fall.

My heart pummels against my rib cage as I stare down into the white foam of the sea below. The salty mist bites at my cheeks.

“What are youdoing?” I cry out, my words choked by his rough, calloused hand.

His hand slides under my shirt, the hem buffeting in the wind. His cold fingers tease the soft skin of my stomach before moving up to cup my breast over my bra. He squeezes gently, and I both cry out and gasp, arching my back involuntarily.

“Please—don’t let me go. Don’t let me fall!”

“But it’s not the fall that scares you, is it?” Scythe’s voice is as soft as a creeping shadow, the words like a gentle caress against my cheek. “It’s me.”

His free hand finds its way to the button of my jeans, flicks it open effortlessly, and reaches my soaked panties.

The railing could break underneath my weight at any moment. Scythe’s hand under my jaw is the only thing to keep me from tumbling into the waves below.

Scythe’s finger slips inside me, teasing the edges of my pleasure with a delicious torment that makes me whimper in spite of myself.

“No…it’s…” I can’t finish my sentence.

I grip the railing when his thumb finds the small bundle of nerves just above where his finger is buried inside me and rubs it gently. My hips jerk in response, and I release a gasp that drowns out the pounding sea.

“You like this, don’t you? You like being at my mercy, your life in my hands as I make you come.”

I want to say no and deny the truth in his words. But his fingers are relentless, and his control absolute.

My climax slams into me, my body responding to him in ways I find hard to comprehend. Despite the situation, I can’t help but moan when he releases my throat. The sudden lack of friction sends icy terror through me and twist away from the railing and to the safety of the wall, gasping.

I have enough energy left to raise my head, enough defiance to glare at him.

With an emotionless, metal-rimmed stare, he raises his fingers to the shape of his mouth, painting the ingot lips with my arousal.

My own lips thin. If it weren’t for the noticeable tent in his pants, I’d be convinced that his dangling me over the railing of the lighthouse and pushing his fingers inside me wasjust another evening to him. ThatIwas just another inconvenience to be dealt with before he moved on to cut another piece of skin off someone else.

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