Page 27 of Hearts Of Darkness

His voice is fear itself, and yet there’s an instant beat between my legs.

“Why are you acting like this? I stayed put like you told me to.”

“I said five minutes. It’s gone thirty. Hold out your hands.”

“But—”

“Hold out yourfuckinghands!”

“Dante, no!”

I said it again. It just slipped out this time, but there’s barely a flicker of a reaction.

That doesn’t bode well.

There’s no hope of a reprieve from whatever he has in mind for me.

“Are you going to make me repeat myself again,my angel?”

His words chill my blood and send another bolt of electricity straight to my core. This display of dominance is calling to something inside. Something I never knew existed.

“I don’t care what you do to me, but please don’t hurt my parents.”

He pulls my wrists together and binds them tightly. He yanks at the knot, making me wince as the coarse rope bites into my skin.

“I’m growing tired of your disobedience.”

“But—”

“Silence.”

He leads me over to a small clearing out of sight from the estate and the outhouses. I’m shaking so badly, and I keep tripping over my feet. Whatever he wants to do to me, he seems intent on carrying it out in private. No one will hear my screams, and even if they did, no one will come.

This is his fortress.

These are his rules.

“Stop.”

He turns swiftly and backs me up against a palm tree, pinching my chin between his forefinger and thumb and forcing my head upward. He rips his sunglasses away, and there’s no light in the dark. I’ve pushed him as far as he’s willing to go, and it’s time to accept the consequences.

I glance down at his erection straining against the front of his jeans. My breath is coming out in sharp, shallow gasps again.

“What are you going to do to me?”

His lips twist unpleasantly. “I’ve shown you how the Devil makes love, my angel… Now, it’s time to fuck a monster.”

11

DANTE

Iwatch her eyes widen in fear, but I’m beyond clemency. She could cry, beg, and scream, and it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference. The demons that I fight with everyday have taken over, and they’re calling all the shots. I can only see in colors of her pain and my power.

Something broke inside when she said my name. It was too much to hear her soft, husky voice delivering something so tainted. It crossed an invisible line, more so than her job, or her personal vendetta against my family.

Joseph didn’t hold back on the details earlier. He showed me a couple of her articles. Every sentence is laced with contempt and hostility for our world.And I forced her into my inner sanctum.The one woman who will do everything and anything to bring us down.

I’m not immune to it. I know exactly what the fuck wedo, but my past dictates my decisionsandmy future. I’m a Santiago: A wanted man with a voracious bloodlust, which means there is no neat diversion or easy way out for me.

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