Page 100 of Hearts Of Darkness

Dark and dirty.

Satisfying that need in both of us.

“Maybe we need to relearn a few things?” I gasp out. “Maybe we only fuck because the nothingness it creates makes it easier to forget how different we really are?”

At this, he withdraws completely. The sudden absence of his body heat leaves me cold and bereft. I turn to find him standing a meter away, staring at me in all his naked, erect glory. That ominous stillness has settled over his expression again.

“Is it such a crazy theory?” I offer up, tentatively.

He doesn’t answer. Instead, I watch in mounting disbelief as he picks up his jeans and pulls his T-shirt back over his head.

“Pass me my gun.”

“Dante—”

“I asked you to pass me my fucking gun.”

“No.”

I walk up to him and wrap my arms around his neck, breathing in his frustration and anger, placing myself between the cold-hearted killer and his weapon of choice. He doesn’t move away, but he doesn’t return my embrace, either. “Make love to me.”

I feel his body shudder. “I can’t… Straight-up fucking gives me an element of control. I can’t lose that around you.”

“You won’t. I trust you.”

“You shouldn’t.” He rips my arms away, breaking the delicate chain between us. “You think your imagination takes you to dark places? Trust me, my capabilities are much worse.” He runs his thumb across the seam of my lips before cupping my jaw. He stands at least a foot taller than me. I can sense the power emanating from his body.

Intimidating me.

Enthralling me.

His eyes are so dark and unflinching.The eyes of a murderer.

“You’re right about last night, Eve. I slaughtered three men yesterday. I tortured the last one for five hours.” I try and turn my head away, but his grip is unflinching. He’s giving me no choice but to accept his truth. “Is this what you wanted to hear?” His lips peel back into a snarl. “Because I have a whole roll call of depravity and sin I can share with you.”

“Why?” I ask, softly.

“Why do I take such pleasure in hurting people? Because I fucking enjoy it! It’s the only thing that gets me as hard as you do. Men like me don’t make love, Eve. We take what we want, and then we go.”

“Have you finished taking what you want from me?”

Why do I care?How can I still want him after everything he’s told me? This is a man who thrives on killing people.

“If I don’t leave now, I’ll only end up hurting you.” He drops his hand to refasten his jeans as I grab the red check throw from the back of my couch. I quickly wrap it around my naked body.

“I may not understand what it’s like to kill and enjoy it, but I know what it feels like to be broken inside.”

“I think we may have differing opinions on what constitutes ‘broken’.” He picks up his cell from the coffee table, and I watch in silence as he taps out a message.

“You don’t have a monopoly on this, Dante.”

“Oh, I think I do.” He pulls on his boots and heads for the door.

“Stop.” His hand is already on the handle. “Please, Dante,I don’t want you to go.” He’s opening it now…

“I love you.”

The three words slip from my mouth like an afterthought, but they’re eloquence wrapped up in the simplest of idioms—connecting my heat and my desire for him so flawlessly, I find myself questioning why I never said them before.

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